They say trees that grow the tallest are usually those with the strongest roots. If that’s true up-and-coming Phoenix, AZ band Anarbor will likely see great heights. Guitarist Mike Kitlas and singer/bassist Slade Echeverria have been friends since kindergarten and drummer Greg Garrity since second grade, giving the band a foundation beyond just making music and playing shows (“We’ve known each other since before we even knew what a guitar or a band was,” Mike notes). Mike and Slade met Greg in middle school and spontaneously decided it would be fun to form a band one day in 7th grade on the way home from summer school. Guitarist Adam Juwig, whom they met through a friend, and Jess were added to the mix shortly thereafter. “From that moment on we were like ‘Okay you play the drums, you play the guitar, you sing,’” Mike explains. “We just kind of picked our roles and then two months later we all had our instruments and we were jamming.”
Although Slade says it “took a while” for the group to get good at their instruments, Anarbor was solidified in a real band with big plans. Once high school rolled around, the band wasn’t exactly the teachers’ pets, mostly because they often skipped school in favor of playing shows around the West Coast with bands like My American Heart, The Rocket Summer and The Higher and trekking to Austin for SXSW. “We would unfortunately have to sacrifice some time at school to get to those events, but in the end it was worth it,” Mike says cheekily. “It’s amazing some of us made it through school. We were absent a lot.”
But they made it through and instead of stressing over college applications, the members of Anarbor spent their senior year of high school showcasing for record labels and shopping for a record contract. The band began shows in LA, attracting the attention of numerous record companies, particularly Hopeless, who signed Anarbor shortly after the members received their high school diplomas. And now, as their former classmates pack boxes for college, Anarbor has packed the van and headed out on the road in support of The Natural Way, a four-song EP that, as Mike says is meant “to give everybody a taste of the direction we’re taking our music in.”
The songs were recorded during a week in June with producer Mike Green (Paramore, Good Charlotte, The Higher), when Anarbor spent a month in LA rehearsing for tour and preparing their band to take over the world. Although it’s only four songs the EP offers a tantalizing taste of what’s to come when Anarbor settles down to record their debut album in a few months, revealing a band that hopes to break the musical mold and come at rock songs from a new angle. First single “Love Instead” is propulsive and dynamic, combining a large range of musical tastes and influences to create something wholly unique that resonates with the band’s genuine nature, while “Right There With You” is an edgy, memorable track that doesn't exactly sound like the product of a bunch of recently graduated teenagers. It’s just enough to make you wonder what’s to come.
“We had influences and stuff but we wanted to do our thing,” Mike says of the group’s musical intentions. “We wanted our own sound. Too many things sounded alike so we wanted to make something that sounded different from everything else.”
“We want our music to stand out,” Slade adds. “We’re trying to do something that doesn’t sound the same and do it our way. And we want to show people that if we can do it, anybody, honestly, can do it.”
