Matt Knutson and Ben Wills know the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll cliche well \u2014 so well it makes them laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah, \u2018Spinal Tap\u2019 is what we are,\u201d Knutson said, referring to the 1984 mock documentary. \u201cI mean, we’ve had five drummers in three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The founding duo for The Empties, a rock band with pop twinges and multi-part harmonies, Knutson and Wills moved to Athens from Denver in 2005 to partake in the town\u2019s thriving music scene. But months into their adventure they hit a roadblock \u2014 drummer Dan Buttars wanted out.<\/p>\n
The subsequent journey for the right drummer proved longer than the road to Colorado.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe moved out here with Dan, and he quit,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cThen John Swint with the [Modern] Skirts filled in for a while, off and on. That\u2019s when Joe Rowe [The Glands] got mixed in, and his departure led to Jake Hicks. Then Jake leaving the band led to John again.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now?<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have the mayor,\u201d Wills said. \u201cWe need to make him a sash.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cmayor\u201d is Peter Alvanos, an Athens mainstay who\u2019s played with countless Classic City bands, including Casper & the Cookies and Fabulous Bird. For a group that once advertised it didn\u2019t want any older guys, its choice of Alvanos goes to the essence of what The Empties have become.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, we had an ad that sounded something like that, but that was years ago,\u201d Wills said. \u201cWe make an exception for the best drummer around. There are cool guys who can play, and Peter is one of them. Plus Peter is the coolest-looking guy in our band. When you match up musically like we have, that\u2019s what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
With their self-titled debut album on Slush Fund Records released on Halloween, The Empties are looking to define themselves. A band kicking around Athens for several years is ready to break out.<\/p>\n
Recorded in Atlanta over a six month period, the album is defined neither as \u201crock\u201d nor \u201cpop\u201d. Boasting sitars, mellotrons, spoken word and vibra-slaps, Knutson likes to describe the 12-song offering as the definitive \u201cEmpties\u201d record.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been around for a while but people here aren\u2019t familiar with our stuff,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cWe wanted this album to be an example of what we are, what we sound like. We made it sound very live, most of it we recorded in the same room at the same time with various overdubs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joining Knutson, Wills and Alvanos is guitarist Chris Giddens, who took up his duties in January following the departure of Joshua Lewis. Giddens, a University of Georgia graduate from Savannah, found his way to the band through his connections with Alvanos.<\/p>\n
The \u201cmayor\u201d knows everyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been around for a while and knew about these guys through Peter, so I weaseled my way in,\u201d Giddens said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe day after Josh left, we were wondering who to get,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cShould we steal someone from another band? Then Peter said \u2018My friend Chris mentioned before if we need anything call him.\u2019 So we did. When he came to practice, it was impressive. We\u2019ve had people show up who didn\u2019t know any of our songs. But Chris knew it all. We pretty much blew through the set in our first practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s been pretty natural and everyone in the band is really fucking good,\u201d Giddens said. \u201cI get to play like a cool George Harrison role playing a lick here and there, sing some harmonies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without the perseverance of Wills and Knutson, The Empties might not be here. But four drummers, three years and one guitarist later, the band\u2019s original duo looks ahead with excitement.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and [Ben] have gone through every stage together,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cThere\u2019s no particular thing right now that we’re trying to latch on to, but we\u2019re on the right path. We\u2019re just ready to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and Matt have known each other since elementary school, this is the only band we\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Wills said. \u201cSome kind of evolution of this band has been playing for the last 10 years, and will continue to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matt Knutson and Ben Wills know the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll cliche well \u2014 so well it makes them laugh. \u201cOh yeah, \u2018Spinal Tap\u2019 is what we are,\u201d Knutson said, referring to the 1984 mock documentary. \u201cI mean, we’ve had five drummers in three years.\u201d The founding duo for The Empties, a rock band with pop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[225],"class_list":["post-1104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature","tag-the-empties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1107,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104\/revisions\/1107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}