▼ Music fans and listeners. I could have put this down a long time ago and just not done it, and kind of gone on with my life. But there’s a demand for the band and I am extremely blessed and lucky that I can do this. So yeah, I wouldn’t take it back, for sure.” ’80s Pop Inspiration Love & Drugs is another example of that perseverance. Although it’s only Echeverria and Stravers now, the freedom to experiment with new compositions and Anarbor album cover image Danny Stravers (left) and Slade Echeverria of Anarbor. Alterna-Pop Masters Love & Drugs: The new album by Anarbor sounds different than the others. BY TIMOTHY RAWLES I n 2003, a group of young men from Chandler were driving back from summer school. On the spot, they decided to start a band. Seven years later, Anarbor scored their first mainstream hit, “Let the Games Begin,” from their first studio album, The Words You Don’t Swallow, released in 2010. This song was used daily on ESPN’s SportsCenter and on the MTV reality series The Hills. Just a year before that, they contributed a track for the movie Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins called “You and I.” Although the latter song was a needle drop on the soundtrack, it solidified the group’s appeal to young rock fans of the time. Now, the band are celebrating nearly two decades in the music business with a new album that was released last week. It’s their fourth in-studio effort. Titled Love & Drugs, this 11-track collec- tion is a transformation of sorts from the soft punk band that started out playing to become the alternative pop masters they are today. One of the songs from the album, called “Letter in a Suitcase,” best exemplifies this transition. With a smooth intro and almost ballad-like landscape, the hook broadsides the listener with an unexpected hard-edge dance beat and distorted vocals, perfectly counterbalancing the melancholy nature the lyrics convey. This duality honors their earlier fan base while giving new listeners an intro- duction to their adopted mainstream sound. From Troop 101 to Ann Arbor Today, the band is composed of lead vocalist and bassist Slade Echeverria, 32, with guitarist Danny Stravers, 30. Echeverria says the change in sound is intentional, but he still doesn’t want to forget those who have been there since the beginning. “We wanted to kind of give a shout to some of our older fans,” Echeverria tells Phoenix New Times about the song’s composition. “Of course, we get the ‘You guys don’t sound the same anymore — we like your old stuff better,’ and it’s like, we gotta grow in some way — we can’t just stay the same.” And they haven’t stayed the same. Not by a long shot. Originally the band consisted of five members, then four, including Adam Juwig and William Wilson. Past band members were Jess Myers, Dave Melillo, Mike Kitlas, Greg Garrity, and Tyler Hedstrom. Sadly, Hedstrom died in 2017. Their original band says. “And we were eating Girl Scout Cookies. And, on the box, there is this troop blah blah blah. And we were like, ‘Oh well, let’s name our band Troop 101.’ We just needed a number and Troop 101 was it.” That moniker lasted for about three years until the band members started to get serious about what they were doing, and labels were becoming interested in signing them. The band got together over AIM Messenger (the social media of the time, for you youngsters) and threw out some new names. “We wanted something that wasn’t a word, that kind of stuck with you with one word,” recalls the singer. “Anarbor was one of them.” It’s a styliza- tion of the name Ann Arbor, the city in Michigan, but they have no ties there. Nevertheless, the band have a following, and whether their name is Troop 101 or Anarbor, they have a strong presence in Phoenix. Echeverria admits the group could have seen more success by releasing record after record over the years, but he’s happy with the casual path that was taken. “We still have plenty of success and I wouldn’t take it back for anything,” he says. “The road itself is a struggle, but I think the reason why it all happens is because of the name was Troop 101, a title stolen from a box of cookies. “We were all just little kids,” Echeverria Yellowbox Films musical styles is a natural progression from their initial sound. The singer thanks his parents for some of it because part of this album is inspired by their love of ’80s radio. That influence and his own alternative tastes are what make this new album a personal breakthrough. “I have ’80s pop on my playlist, and when I’m in my car listening to the radio, I listen to ’80s,” says the singer. “I literally love to dissect those songs because back then they didn’t have anything that we had. It was all just such a more organic process, which I just love. And that’s almost all of my inspiration is from the ’80s and ’90s and a little bit of early 2000s.” As for the title of the album, Love & Drugs, it has nothing to do with the band’s constitution. It’s more of a metaphor. “We kind of just based it off of growing up,” Echeverria says. “The struggles of going through relationships and getting through life. And when it comes to the drug part, we’re not really talking about doing any type of drugs,” he says, explaining that the word could mean anything: whatever one’s vice is, including love. “It’s just the daily struggle, daily battle and it doesn’t have to be … ’cause love is amazing.” Anarbor is keeping a low profile for now, leaving it to the album release and party to do most of the footwork. Echeverria says Anarbor also have a gig on October 21 in Las Vegas at the When We Were Hungry festival, and a guest spot with a band called The Higher in November. Beyond that, a full-scale album tour isn’t in the cards. “I’ll be honest,” the singer admits. “I don’t think I can do it anymore, dude. Unless it’s like a tour with some big band, and it’s worth it. I just don’t know if I can sit in a bus or a van anymore for 30 days. I’m too old. I got kids and stuff now.” 29 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 15TH–SEPT 21ST, 2022
