Crystal Clear Music

Interview - Afghan Raiders

Recently we got in touch with live electronic three-piece Afghan Raiders. If your wondering who these guy’s are, here it is…

(Q) Afghan Raiders, if you would like to start by telling us about the band and yourselves?

(A) Afghan Raiders started from a mutual interest in both electronic dance music and punk rock between all of us.  Mikey and Vince started the project after a punk rock band that they were both in broke up.  They began writing releasing and performing original material and creating remixes as a duo. After about a year and a half the two began playing bigger and bigger shows and decided that they needed to add another person into fold to both step up their live performances and to help create the new batch of songs to come.  About a year ago I joined the band, playing drums live and writing material for their upcoming releases and remixes.  My background had been in the punk/hardcore genre as far as bands that i was in, but I loved creating and performing electronic music as well and Afghan Raiders has been the best opportunity so far for me to do that.

(Q) What’s it like to be an unsigned band?

(A) Being an unsigned band has really worked well for us so far.  that being said we do have our management company (velvet hammer) working really hard for us and we’ve been able to accomplish so much so far with only a small team.  Being unsigned really leaves a lot of doors open for us, and lets us craft the kind of future that we all want for this band without there being to many cooks in the kitchen.  It’s hard to say what the future holds in terms of being signed or not, but the team we Have now is solid and we are going to keep moving forward regardless.

(Q) For people who don’t know what music you play, tell us a bit about the music?

(A) At heart we create and perform dance music.   its an amalgam of various stlyes and genres like electronic dance music, punk, hiphop but all in all we just want people dancing and having fun at our shows.  

(Q) If you could sum the group up in one sentence what would it be?

(A) ha! um I don’t know.. “our band is rad” hahaha!

(Q) Who/What are your influences?

(A)  All three of us have our own influences that we draw from to create the music of Afghan Raiders but it’s probably safe to say that bands like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, Q and not U, !!!, Death From Above 1979, Soulwax, and Crystal Castles are all bands that we draw inspiration from in terms of this band.  I know though that different styles like punk/garage, soul/boogie, house/disco, and electronic music in general all come into play when we write music.

(Q) In terms of tours, what’s planned?

(A) Right now we are home finishing up some material for future releases and we plan on going back on the road this fall for a main support slot. Hopefully internationally as well. 

(Q) Any plans on coming back to the UK?

(A) Coming back to the UK is a huge priority for us.  We had such a blast playing in London and Scotland and absolutely want to come back as soon as possible.  Right now we are planning to be back in the UK this fall.

(Q) Where do you see the group in the future?

(A) Personally, I would like to see the group touring a lot more and creating a live show that is undeniable. 

(Q) What does this year hold for Afghan Raiders?

(A) We are going to be releasing material consistently for the remaining months of 2011.  Also we are going to be touring consistently this fall into next year, and we couldn’t be happier with that.

For more on Afghan Raiders,

http://www.facebook.com/afghanraiders?sk=info

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