This week’s FRZN Fest kicks off tonight at the High Noon Saloon with a “pre-party” featuring Geographer, ON AN ON, and Royal Canoe. Last week Geographer’s Mike Deni shared with us his review of Django Unchained, and this weekend Jonk Music’s Idil Gur had the privilege of asking ON AN ON’s Nate Eiesland a few questions.
The origins of ON AN ON go back less than a year, after brothers Baron and Jason Harper left Scattered Trees. Last spring, remaining bandmates Eiesland, Alissa Ricci, and Ryne Estwing regrouped to form a new band. The trio’s debut album Give In comes out next week via Roll Call.
The strong buzz surrounding Give In, including early samplers such as “Ghosts” (our No. 61 song of 2012) and “The Hunter,” means that Monday might be your best chance to get ON AN ON-related brag rights with your friends, because it’s a good bet their next visit to Madison will be as a headliner.
ON AN ON emerged after Scattered Trees’ sudden break up. How did you decide to start something new? What were the challenges?
“When Scattered Trees broke up the three of us were actually really energized by the idea of starting a brand new band. It was the perfect scenario for us to make the record we wanted to make. Being able to do whatever we wanted without a sense of loyalty to a certain sound or image was really freeing. The challenges were all logistic and not creative. How do we tell everyone? Do we transition into a new entity or start completely fresh, risking any fan base we had gathered with Scattered Trees? Ultimately though the decision was clear. We needed a clean break and a fresh start to do this right.”
Give In sounds a lot different and more experimental from your previous sounds. Can you say that ON AN ON was an experimental project, a way to start anew?
“Absolutely. The process of starting over was an incredible creative jolt for us. We had a lot of kinetic energy around the music we wanted to make. When we finally got to dig into it, we became much more instinctual and immediate than we had been in the past. What we want to do with ON AN ON goes farther than anything we could’ve done in bands we were playing in before.”
How was the recording process? All three of you have been playing together for quite some time, but was the recording process a lot more intense than playing live shows?
“It was intense in some ways and totally peaceful in others. The intense parts were where we had to wrap our minds around new ways to approach making records. One forms a lot of habits as a musician. Shaking those habits can be an intense thing sometimes, I guess. But more often than not, it was a total joy. We felt really free and adventurous making Give In.”
Where have you all been on tour so far? How are the listeners reacting to your new album?
“Touring has been amazing. It’s been a blast to see people singing along when the record isn’t even out yet. It’s wild. We’ve mostly toured in the midwest and on the west coast so far, but we are going to New York City for a handful of shows in a couple weeks. Then we go to Europe!”
What are your future plans as ON AN ON? Are we going to see you at SXSW this year? Are there bigger projects on the horizon?
“We are for sure going to be at SXSW this year. There are a lot of touring opportunities that we will be rolling with this year. The plan for 2013 is to tour our asses off. That’s it. As far as the projects on the horizon go, you’ll just have to wait and see!”