Alien Ant Farm lands on Roach’s label

  Dreamworks/New Noise Alien Ant Farm, the first group to
be signed to Papa Roach’s New Noise label on Dreamworks, releases
its album "ANThology" today.

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Contributor

Getting signed to a major label is not an easy thing to do and
many up-and-coming bands are kept from mainstream success as a
result.

Alien Ant Farm, however, is circling the nation in a series of
major tours; its single, “Movies,” is receiving
national airplay and its album, “ANThology,” will be
released today.

Not bad for a band that was originally told by many labels that
it wasn’t marketable.

“They would always say “˜Your music is good. This
song is going to be a hit, but you guys don’t have an image.
There’s nothing to you.’ And we were kind of like,
“˜Oh, we thought we were in the business of selling records,
not posters, but whatever,'” said Alien Ant Farm
bassist Tye Zamora, in a phone interview from Indianapolis,
Ind.

“We’re like, “˜Oh, that’s fine.
We’re just going to sit here and create our music and be
depressed for a little while,'” he continued.

Then came a chance to perform for Dreamworks Records, who told
the band that Papa Roach, old friends of Alien Ant Farm, wanted the
group to be the first signed to its new imprint label, New Noise,
in conjunction with Dreamworks.

For years before either of the bands became well-known outside
of their local cities, they used to swap shows. Alien Ant Farm
opened for Papa Roach in the Bay Area and vice versa in Southern
California.

“It’s cute. It’s a big family thing. We all
love each other, hugs and kisses all the way around,” said
Zamora of the relationship between the two bands.

Now that they have been signed, the group looks forward to
sharing its brand of rock, filled with metaphors and plays on words
and backed by hard-hitting guitars, with fans from a variety of
musical backgrounds.

“I think it might expand the minds of certain people that
happen to be more into one kind of music, whether it be hard music
or soft music, because we do a variety of both,” Zamora
said.

Alien Ant Farm consists of singer Dryden Mitchell, guitarist
Terry Corso, drummer Mike Cosgrove and Zamora. The foursome joined
and began producing what they call rock for nerds, which goes a
little deeper than most modern rock.

“We tend to say that we’re smarties, that our music
is for smarty people that really like to get into music and pick it
apart,” Zamora said.

Instead of writing rage-filled songs about vengeance and bad
childhoods, like many rock bands today, Alien Ant Farm’s
subject of choice is relationships ““ especially bad ones.

“We call ourselves ex-girlfriend rock, because most of our
music is about failed relationships. Really, where we come from,
all we have is music and relationships,” Zamora said.

One of these ex-girlfriend songs is “Movies,” the
single from “ANThology” that has been gaining
popularity for the band after almost five years of hard work.

On the strength of this single and its album release, the band
has toured nonstop, first with Linkin Park and Taproot, now with
Orgy and Spineshank and later with Papa Roach, followed by the Vans
Warped Tour.

Seeing the band’s appeal nationwide has been an incredible
experience, Zamora said, including the use of its music in radio
station commercials, where clips of songs are used to show the type
of music the station plays.

“They’ll play At the Drive-In, and then
they’ll play Papa Roach, and then they’ll play us, and
then Linkin Park. And we’re like, “˜Oh my gosh!
We’re in commercials for this radio station,'” he
said. “That is so awesome for them to want to put our song to
represent what people are going to be listening to on their
station.”

Zamora said the entire experience of making an album was
incredible, including his newfound fame.

“Now we have so many more friends. This is really
cool,” he said jokingly. “It’s like “˜Oh
I’m going to buy your album,’ and you’ve got your
parents calling, “˜(I heard) you on the radio. Your song is
the best song in the world,’ and stuff like that.

“It’s really cool to be getting all that kind of
love either from the radio station or from fans or from family, and
really it’s like you’re allowed to be proud of yourself
at that moment because everyone else is,” he continued.

For the rest of the year the band will be working hard to make
its major label debut a success and to play as much as possible,
except in California. The group won’t be appearing here until
the end of the Papa Roach tour and again with the Vans Warped
Tour.

“We’ve played California too much. We love all of
our fans except our California fans,” Zamora said
jokingly.

For the rest of 2001, Alien Ant Farm hopes to sell
“ANThology,” tour nonstop and to grow as a band and as
sex symbols.

“I predict us all getting really cute, getting really cute
haircuts and picking a great wardrobe,” Zamora said,
laughing.

MUSIC: “ANThology” will be released
today through Dreamworks/New Noise.