Words: Ryan Patrick Hooper

Photo: Dan Monick

Crystal Antlers’ Jonny Bell is driving through the state of New Mexico. A Michael McDonald CD rests on the dashboard - Greatest Hits, mind you - while the damn-near-ghost town of Rodeo and the old Desert West Motel zips past his window. Rolling hills, brown thorn bushes, slanted telephone poles and a roadside fireworks stand articulate the scenery while a locomotive with blazing red railcars races by. A potent blend of dust and Chinese food populates the air, a product of the band’s van being converted to run on vegetable oil and a Chinese buffet being kind enough to fork over its unlikely fuel. And, while a portion of the band wrestles with the idea of sleep amongst stacks of Crystal Antlers merch while others read obscure sci-fi novels or aimlessly stare out of the window, Bell matter-of-factly runs through his own musical destiny and the origins of the organ-drenched, primal prog-punk tornado that is Crystal Antlers.

“I always knew I was meant to play music,” explains Bell, “but my parents wouldn’t let me play it for a long time. Every year, I would ask for a guitar at Christmas - forever and ever - and when I was twelve, my dad finally got me a bass in February … because it was cheaper than a guitar.” When Bell was old enough to stalk the hallways of his high school as a self-proclaimed “outcast punk rocker,” his music teacher offered the young Bell an opportunity to wet his musical chops (and meet various members of his soon-to-be band) courtesy of a possible inability to keep his hands to himself. “Kevin Stuart, drums, Errol Davis, guitar and I met in … music class. Our teacher was out for most of the year being investigated for child molestation. Substitutes were far and few between, so we were just kind of experimenting in class and playing music together.” The trio would move through the suburbs of Long Beach, California, making money as chimneysweepers (yes, those still exist) before driving to San Francisco to record their first single at the same studio where the group eventually recorded by their EP and full-length. Shortly after, Victor Rodriguez (who, oddly enough, happened to share the same name as their touchy music teacher) joined the band, adding pounds and pounds of soaring organ flesh to Crystal Antlers’ musical body, along with the texturing of Damian Edwards’ percussion and the additional psych-guitar sensibilities of Andrew King.

While catching up with Bell as the band made its way through the barely breathing desert, REAX quickly learned that the blogosphere doesn’t mean much to its members, and that psychedelic communication is the only way to go.

REAX: I’m going to gush here a little bit. Your first full-length, Tentacles, is pretty sweet. It’s a great record that I like a lot. It’s grown on me. It didn’t beg me to like it, but I gave it a few spins and I really enjoyed it. Musically, I wouldn’t say the sound is schizophrenic, but I would say that it sounds like a gathering of psychedelic bees trapped in a rusty cage. How would you go about describing the sound of Crystal Antlers?
Jonny Bell: I’ve never really been able to properly explain myself, or really articulate how I feel. Making music is the only way I can do it. It’s the way I feel most comfortable communicating, and I really like meeting new people and traveling. I like trying to create something new. I mean, it’s what we do and it’s how we communicate.

REAX: What would be the message you are attempting to get across?
JB: There is no specific message. People are able to interpret and take whatever they want from it. I think something different every time I play, you know? It’s not that definitive. I mean, there is certainly more energy when you can see it being played live. There is a little bit more of a feeling that everything might just fall apart at any second, so there is a little more tension in whatever message is being communicated to the audience.

REAX: There seems to always be a fear within the blogosphere of rising quickly and also quickly disappearing. Are there concerns of longevity within the band given the fickle climate of American music culture today?
JB: I guess if you buy into that far. None of us even have a working computer. I don’t give a shit about the blogosphere. The blogosphere didn’t create us. We created ourselves, and the blogosphere just created its own swarm of bullshit around us. It just doesn’t make a difference to us. We’re going to be making the same music and touring. We already have three European tours booked this year, and it’s not like the bloggers are going to change that or take that away from us.

We’ve always been concerned about longevity. We want to stick around for a long time … and we’ve invested a lot, like getting a van that runs on vegetable oil so we can afford to do tours that are not big, money-making tours. We try to take care of ourselves so we can keep this as long as bodies can take it, you know? We still have a lot left creatively to give.

Crystal Antlers are on tour in the U.S. in April and May, before heading overseas for a U.K. tour. Tentacles came out April 7 on Quarterstick Records.

myspace.com/crystalantlers