Music Station

By: Ben Johnson

Brothers Andres and Camilo Tobacia came to Tyler, Texas from Bogota, Colombia more than two years ago. Apart from their linguistic limitations, the brothers share a passion for listening to and writing alternative rock music. The pair quickly overcame their English deficit and began writing music with Brian Graue, a senior mechanical engineering major.

The group started playing songs in their respective basements and slowly put together a list of songs, both originals and covers of their favorite artists like Nirvana, Weezer and The Doors. The band performed one open mic after another, finding that more people had an interest in their brand of music than they expected.

"Mostly it's country music-type of acts in this area, but a lot of people here really like alternative rock," Andres Tobacia said. The guys found drummer Jake Ragle on Facebook, and after completing the lineup, they officially dubbed themselves Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Affairs derives their name from the band members' geographic differences. While the Tobacia brothers are from Colombia, Graue and Ragle are from small Texas towns. But that's about where the dissimilarity between the band members ends. All share influences and a predilection toward alternative rock. The band calls upon influences like Pixies, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse and Weezer to create their sound. Among their other influences are Spanish rock bands Enanitos Verdes, Soda Stereo and Aterciopelados. The band is a signature act of the local indie/alternative rock scene - a scene that is surprisingly large and includes bands like The Hangouts, The Kansas City Faggots, Bantam Seed and The Guns of Detroit.

The band is on the brink of releasing their first full-length album, Light Years on Sept. 21.

"I have always had an interest in space and things like deep space and alternate dimensions and stuff like that," Andrés Tobacia said. "Light Years has that kind of feel to it, but I also wanted to capture the idea of a guy being in love somehow with someone light years away. That's kind of what the song 'Wrong Place, Wrong Time' is about."

Camilo Tobacia said the band is ready for their album to make its debut.

"We're just really excited about it," he said. "This album is kind of a collection of some of the best songs we've written over the years, and we're really proud to finally release them. We're really a part of the online generation, so we're eager to finally release these songs on an actual disc."

The CD release party will be held at The Door in Dallas on Sept. 21. The album and its contents will be available on iTunes, as well. If you're interested in finding out more about the band, check out their myspace at www.myspace.com/foreignaffairs.

from the Batt.com [http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2007/09/13/Aggielife/Music.Station-2965474.shtml]