The Anchorage quartet’s year has been pretty, pretty good. They marked their 20th year with a special anniversary show earlier this month in their hometown and recently signed with Spinefarm, who’ll release their new album in 2015. Vocalist Brock Lindow tells TeamRock about his personal highlights of the year and explains why New Year’s Eve will go off with a bang…
**Looking back, what are your memories going into the start of 2014? **
“We came to the UK in November of 2013 for nothing more than a moral booster, and it was – it was incredible. We hadn’t been here in three years, and coming off that right into the holidays set the tone for 2014. On New Year’s Day, I had a full vision of getting the record done. I had my ticket booked for February 1, to come and start recording the vocals, and I was done by April. I was totally focused on getting it done, because the music was actually finished a year before and it took me that long to get round to the vocals, not for any other reason than I really wanted to take my time on it. I wasn’t pressured at all – we didn’t have a label, we didn’t have management anymore, all those things were totally up in the air. So by the time it came to signing with Spinefarm, we had the record completely done. The artwork was completely done. We had a photo shoot done. And the video, which comes out very soon, was also done. So we were like, what are you going to do for us, because we’ve got all this stuff already finished? It was a good place to be.”
Aside from Unearth, do you have any other friends in bands taking names right now?
“There’s a band that I really fly the flag for - they’re from where I live and they’re called Thera. We brought them over to the UK when we were here last November, and they have a new record out now called For Someone Somewhere. It’s an incredible album. And the singer Stephanie Plate sang on the last song on our new record, on a track called Marrow. I love them. They’re super hungry young people. They’re great at their craft, and I’m super excited for people to hear them.”
What was your favourite gig of 2014?
“We played our 20th anniversary show in our home town [Anchorage] on December 6. It was incredible, so I’m going to have to go with that one. It was an emotional night, and it’s kind of weird of reflect on a career in that so much has happened and passed, and we’re still standing upright. So that show will probably resonate inside of me for many years because of the outpouring of support from friends and the local community – we’re still their guys, you know. We’re still the band that they’re always rooting for, and we’ve done things that a lot of people up there haven’t got to do, so we don’t take that lightly. We always try to be the guys flying that flag: ‘Eight stars of gold on the fields of blue. Alaska’s flag. May it mean to you’…”
**Outside of the band, do any other significant moments from this year spring to mind? **
“I’m just gonna keep it sappy - my little girl turned five and she started kindergarten. That first day when I took her to school tugged on the heart strings a little bit. It was very cool, and sending her off to school for the first time was a big significant piece of time in my life.”
So what’s on the cards for New Year’s Eve?
“I do the same thing every year. We have a little ski cabin in a town called Girdwood, Alaska, and we go skiing during the day and we watch the fireworks in the evening. Then we have some good adult beverages later in the night, and that’s how we do it every year. I love it!”
