Greg Guevara of Anti-Social Club on DC, Type A, and Fugazi
Greg Guevara is the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for Anti-Social Club, whose song Six Feet Under was featured in the Holy Crap Records Podcast How to Get the Fans to Sing. The Anti-Social Club formed around 2001, and after completing their first album (Otherwise Bleak eXistence) in 2008, took an extended hiatus during which they pursued day jobs, family life, and other musical projects. But realizing that A-SC had a lot left in the tank, in summer 2017 they reunited to write and record their second album, Dark Before the Light, released in November 2018. More info at facebook.com/antisocialclubdc.)
My favorite thing to wear onstage:
Visually interesting and dark-colored long-sleeve t-shirts. I like for the shirt to blend in artistically with the music, and what I play usually has dark (and hopefully interesting!) elements to it. T-shirts are comfortable and the long sleeves are versatile — you can roll ’em up or keep em down depending on what works best for the environment you’re in.
Dark! Interesting! Long-sleeved!
The last musical instrument or musical-performance-related item that I bought and loved was:
Boss VE-5 Vocal Performer. It gives me powers on stage that I never had before! Being able to readily program and control specific voice effects from my mic stand is a wonderful thing, allowing me to deliver a performance that’s more closely in line with what I’d like to do artistically for each song. That said, I’ve made it a point to not use the pitch correct feature (I want to remain authentic in my crooning!), and to limit the effects to only what I think is needed and avoid overuse.
Boss VE-5 Vocal Performer: a mobile personal effects processor and phrase looper for vocalists, rappers, DJs, and the rest of us
The musical instrument or musical-performance-related item that I really really really want is
My own self-sufficient studio and rehearsal/jam space. Okay, that’s technically more than one item, but really I see the whole collection of instruments, recording/mixing equipment, and amplifiers as a single interdependent ecosystem, and I really really really want such an ecosystem in my house! I own several elements already (e.g. a few guitars, bass guitars, amps, effects processors, etc.), but I’m trying to build a space that would allow me to play and record any “major” rock instrument (i.e. guitar, bass, drums, keys, and mic’d vox) — or have band mates and fellow musicians over to rehearse or just jam — at any time and on a quality setup. And why? Because a) it would enable me to write, play, and record music much more readily, and b) having all that firepower on hand would just f***ing rock!
Anti-Social Club in their current rehearsal space
Something I wish I’d known before joining/starting a band:
It’s really hard to find the right people to play music with, and to keep everyone working collaboratively and productively toward the same goal over the long term. If/when you do, magic happens. If/when you don’t, things eventually fall apart. I wish I had realized earlier that being in a band is about so much more than the music. It’s like being in a family, with all the joy, drama, success, stress, teamwork, dysfunction, pride, frustration, and achievement that comes with it. To succeed in the long run (and “success” may be as simple as continuing to play nicely together), you need to pay attention to and nurture the relationships at least as much as the music itself.
I live in Washington, DC. I was born and raised here. I actually live in the Northern Virginia suburbs in a town called Springfield, but we area locals all pretty much call it DC for simplicity (or the DMV if you’re slightly more hip). I moved away for a time when I was younger (two years at West Virginia University and five years in the Army, first stationed in Alabama and then Germany), but after my tour was up I came back to DC because a) I had a lot of family and friends in the area, b) the job market here was good, and c) it was still “home” to me. I may or may not stick around here forever, but overall I still like it. Oh, and the music scene is actually quite good!
The general vibe of Washington DC is:
Uptight/stressed, filled with “Type A” personalities, and overly political. Some examples of that vibe include The Beltway, The Marine Corps Marathon (which yes, I have completed!), and Donald Trump
The capital beltway. Has a lot of traffic.
The best place I’ve played music in DC is:
Jammin Java. It is a relatively small venue (capacity ~200) but has a great vibe (plus decent food/drink selection) as well as a nice stage and really good sound setup, which is perfect for a lesser-known “indie” band like mine. The staff and owners are friendly and approachable, and are very supportive of both local and touring/national acts. As a local musician, I always feel like they go out of their way to provide a quality setup and experience for both performers and audience, and as a result it’s also relatively easy to get a decent crowd to come out there and enjoy some good live music.
Jammin Java in Vienna, VA (DC area)
The best place to SEE music in DC is:
To me, 9:30 Club is the holy grail of local venues. It’s a large but not overwhelming size (can fit about 1,200 people) with good sound quality, plus good food and a few bars for easy drink access. But what sets it apart for me is that it often hosts many of my favorite bands within my most favored genre (i.e. generally ’80s- and ’90s-influenced alternative rock). Bands I’ve seen there include The Church, Love & Rockets, Peter Murphy, The Dandy Warhols, Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven, and several others, and the shows have always been memorable. (And I’ve missed way more cool bands there than I’ve been able to see!) The venue also has a certain rock-and-roll attitude and local lore about it that seems to have carried over from its previous, much smaller location (which it moved from in the mid ’90s). There are some newer and apparently more hip venues popping up around DC (for example, the oft-praised Anthem on the sparkly new DC Waterfront), and I appreciate those places too. But for me, nothing quite tops 9:30 in terms of witnessing some of the best live rock music in a straight-up rock-and-roll setting.
In 2018 DC’s 9:30 Club was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone Magazine
My favorite local band (aside from my own)
Fugazi is one of the DC punk/alternative rock music scene’s biggest success stories. That may not make them “local” in the intended sense of the word, but they are still local to me! I love the energy and vibe and creativity of their music, which would be enough on its own to make them one of my favorite bands (even though they unfortunately haven’t recorded any new music or played any shows in many years). But probably the most impressive thing about them is that even though they gained widespread notoriety and a fair amount of commercial success, they always managed to maintain the feel of a “local” band, and achieved success very much on their own terms. They never sold out to anyone, even though they had ample opportunity to do so, and were very much about maintaining artistic integrity and remaining accessible to the fans first and foremost. That’s an approach I very much admire and hope to emulate in my own music.
Fugazi, the originators of contempt for the music industry
In my fridge you’ll always find:
Rotting vegetables. The best intentions are often eclipsed by even better temptations.
A winter indulgence that I would never forgo is:
Extra comforters and blankets on the bed. The best antidote to bitter cold is to wrap oneself up like a burrito and wait for spring.
The last music I downloaded was:
Spectrums II. Spectrums (available on Bandcamp!) offers some really nice instrumental music with a cool Church-y vibe to it (as in legendary Australian psychedelic rock band “The Church”, not as in church/religious music). Their guitarist David is a good friend of mine (in fact they opened for us at our recent album release party) and I was happy to support a fellow local musician.
A beauty staple that I’m never without is:
Hair styling gel. Without it, I inevitably look like a young Albert Einstein who just got up on the wrong side of the bed.
The best place to eat breakfast in DC is:
Silver Diner. They’re open 24/7, they have a wide variety of tasty breakfast options (including lunch or dinner if you don’t feel like eggs and bacon), and they have a mini functioning juke box at every table. What’s not to love?
The Silver Diner
My favorite websites or apps are:
Spotify (premium version) because I simply love having the ability to call up almost any song I want to hear at any time and hearing it right then and there in all its glory. Pandora (free version) because when I don’t know what I want to hear or I want to discover good new music, this site is great at presenting me with songs that I really like and otherwise would have never heard in a “radio with very few commercials” type of format. Bandcamp because, as I’m only recently discovering (and thanks in no small part to the Holy Crap podcast!), it’s a broad and deep treasure trove of independent and lesser known artists who put out some great and pure and powerful music — it’s like the ultimate digital underground. And Soundhound because when I hear something I like and don’t know what it is, 9 times out of 10 I can get the hound to sniff it out for me and then add it to my collection. The music listening world has changed, and in many ways much for the better!
(Although one important caveat: As an artist it’s really pitiful that Spotify can’t find a way to pay bands a royalty of more than about $0.003 — yes that’s a third of a penny — per song stream. Perspective: one would have to play an Anti-Social Club song on Spotify about 333 times before we’d get a dollar for it — to split between the band members, of course. At that rate, it’s a real rip-off for the musicians while Spotify execs undoubtedly line their pockets pretty well. None of the streaming services pay all that great, but Spotify is one of the worst offenders. Still, it’s a double-edged sword — stay off the platform and miss out on the capability to reach a much wider audience. Sigh…)
The last meal that truly impressed me was:
Thanksgiving dinner at my in-laws. My family does Thanksgiving right.
.
