Ian Anderson grabs me by the hair and spins me around the floor of the Triple Rock Social Club. Or at least that's what happens in a dream I have the morning before I meet the 21-year-old record label owner/musician/journalist/entrepreneur/student at Muddy Waters cafe.
It's no surprise this is the mental image my subconscious stirs regarding Anderson, considering the whirlwind surrounding him. He spins from frequent gigs and recording sessions with his three bands: One for the Team, Aneuretical and Girls Not Boys; he manages more than a dozen local acts on Afternoon Records, the label he co-founded at 19; co-edits a start-up Internet publication, Sliver magazine, the Minnesotan Pitchfork rip-off; edits three small newspapers (two of which he began); and studies English at St. Olaf College during the school year.
In person, the wunderkind is perfectly professional. Leaning across a table, stubbly chin propped up in one hand, Anderson is both attentive and at ease, an attribute reflected in his attire: Casual jeans with the cuffs rolled up, a baby blue "Built to Spill" T-shirt and the obligatory hipster glasses topped by a swath of brown hair sweeping casually over his forehead.
Anderson recites the laundry list of tasks he's completed in recent days: Hammering out discs at One Stop, a distributor under the Electric Fetus; booking shows for the upcoming Squareshooters, One for the Team and the Plagiarists tours; ironing out T-shirts for Superdanger at Anderson's own T-shirt company; dropping off artwork for the recently mastered Squareshooters record; and keeping Look Down – the first Afternoon Records band to tour – alive.
"I just called those guys to make sure they're eating enough and not dying," Anderson said. "I'm a little nervous. It's my responsibility to get things going."
Luckily for Anderson, getting things going is his expertise. Even in high school, he was always on the run. Anderson's been in a band since his freshman year, edited the school paper, started yet another magazine and began a lacrosse team.
"I guess down time makes me a little uncomfortable," he admitted.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to learn he recently started Girls Not Boys with Battle Royale's bassist and vocalist, Grace Fiddler and One for the Team's drummer, Elliot Manthey.
"It's called Girls Not Boys because I sound like a girl. And so does Grace," Anderson explained.
Then there's Afternoon Studios, the recording studio Anderson and One for the Team's bassist, John Krueger, plan on opening August 22, 2006 – three days after they return from a nine city tour.
"I thought it would be simple," Anderson said with the nonchalance of someone who's been there, done that and is looking forward to the future.
One for the Team's tour will span 11 days in mid-August, as long as their ride, a big brown van that "looks like poop and is terrible – and awesome – at the same time" doesn't die.
These "prep school cowboys" will stop in New York City and cross the Rockies for the first time, but it's Indianapolis that causes Anderson's voice to animate like a comic strip brought to life.
"There's an awkward in-between space of kids that can't really drive to Indianapolis or Columbus or Cincinnati. So there's just a big pocket of a hundred kids hanging out and bands just don't come there."
Playing for crowds with limited access to shows is one of Afternoon Record's main goals, and Anderson is careful to book all-ages shows as often as possible, even when it means playing twice in one night.
"We never really do just ID stuff. We usually have an all-ages show and an ID show," Anderson explained. "That was infuriating growing up – not being able to go to a show."
Local music followers not of drinking age will especially appreciate Anderson's dedication to youth-oriented concerts when Afternoon Records joins forces with California-based Grape Juice Records to launch a six-day indie music festival in September 2006. Although the lineup's not confirmed, he hopes to see Atmosphere, P.O.S., Brother Ali, Kill the Vultures, Dillinger Four, the Cardinal Sin, Whisper in the Noise, the Plastic Constellations, Belles of Skin City, the God Damn Doo Wop Band, the Gossip, Aneuretical and One for the Team on the bill.
"It's gonna be nuts," he enthused. "We're hoping to start a South by Southwest kind of thing, where we just have a killer show every night."
Anderson hopes to make the festival an annual event – if he sticks around after graduating next spring.
"I have a handful of options," he said. "Going and writing, staying here and running the label full time. Or else I might just, ya know, say bullocks to it all and go to New York, so it's kind of up in the air."
With two "really big" bands on the verge of signing with Afternoon Records, Anderson might find it the most lucrative to stay in Minneapolis.
"Things are going better than I ever thought they would," Anderson said with a smile of bewildered pride. "We're actually hoping to open a venue at some point, but the studio's the next big step for us. It's gonna be really awesome and way better than anything we've ever done before."
It's been an hour since Anderson first slid into his seat and he's still leaning forward as alert as when he arrived. After exchanging good-byes, he slings a black and white checkered bag across his back, high-fives a member of the God Damn Doo Wop Band and the clatter of keys clipped to his back pocket announces his exit.
www.afternoonrecords.com |
