FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT ANTI-HERO

*NOTE: If you would like to submit a question for consideration, please email herrecords@hotmail.com*

1) Is your band name pronounced (Ant + tie) OR (Ant + tea) - hero?

Our preference is the first pronounciation, however, attempting to standardize how people say our name is actually more difficult than you would think. On a similar note, our band name is supposed to be spelled with all capital letters
(ie: ANTI-HERO), but as per the aforementioned rationale, this is rarely the case.


2) Do you guys think you are or sound like Nirvana?

NO, not at all. We highly respect Nirvana for being the groundbreaking act of the 90s that started a new musical movement, but in no way would we ever personally state that we are the next Nirvana. We just make music. If you like it, you do - that's cool, if you don't, you don't - and that's cool as well.

Our tagline, 'The 21st Century Answer to Nirvana' came from a critic's review of our album who bestoyed this title upon us because she felt that our raw energy, unique sound (inability to fit into just one genre classification because of our diverse influences + our refusal to write mainstream pop-rock b.s.), coupled with our attitude and lyrical content made us akin to Nirvana in regards to what they stood for NOT necessarily what they sounded like.

We consider this critic's review to be hugely complimentary, and our marketing team felt that it pinpointed exactly what we stood for, and that's just rocking out balls to the wall, no apologies, no sugarcoating, just DIY, doing what we love. 


3) Are you guys planning on playing any shows in the near future?

Possibly, but it would have to be the right offer. We toured our asses off since the release of Unpretty three years ago and we are now taking a much deserved break and pursuing other interests independent of the band.

For more info on the activities of ANTI-HERO's band members, check out the following links:

For Rose Cora Perry's Charity Work & Solo Endeavours:
www.myspace.com/rosecoraperry
www.youtube.com/rosecoraperry

For Nic VanH's New Metal Project, "Infernal Allegiance":
http://www.myspace.com/infernalallegiance


4) Can I have free swag? I've got lots of friends and I promise that I'll promote the hell out of your band?

Unless you are affiliated with a professional media/booking organization and/or a record label, we cannot accomodate requests for free merchandise. It costs us a lot of money to make cool gear for all of you to sport, and all of the money that we make in return goes to prolonging our ability to function as a band (ie: gets reinvested into our band so that we can record future albums, make more merch, go on tour etc.)

Because we understand that many of our fans are underage, and likely don't have large disposable incomes, you'll notice that NONE of our merchandise products are over $20, and if you ever make a special request to have a piece of purchased merchandise autographed, we are more than happy to oblige.
BUT, if we were to accommodate every request we've ever gotten for free merch, then literally, we would be out of business meaning NO MORE MUSIC, NO MORE MERCH, NO MORE ANTI-HERO. So if you truly support us as a band (or any other indie band for that matter), don't expect things for free. Merch is not free to make, and we would never dishonour any of our favourite bands by expecting things for free from them.

Merchandise is available for purchase at:
www.herrecords.ca 


5) Why are you so against illegal downloading?

If you can name us another profession in which it is perfectly reasonable to expect rendered services and/or products free of charge, then by all means, download our music illegally, but we'll save you the effort of research - there is NOT another profession where this could occur, without serious legal repercussions.

For some reason, people like to believe that musicians are not professionals, and don't deserve to be paid for their work. Well, if you want their work that means that it holds value to you, and therefore is worth something.  Again, as mentioned previously, we feel our album is more than priced fairly, and considering it cost us a substantial amount of money (well into the 10s of thousands of dollars), time, blood, sweat, and tears to create, we feel that the least you can do is buy it for a mere $10.


6) Speaking of your music, why haven't you guys released a followup album yet? It's been three years since Unpretty originally debuted.

Yes, indeed friends, it has been a long time, and trust us, we have more than enough new material to release another record, but that's not the issue at hand.

At this point in time because of the ridiculously high gas prices (which make touring near impossible seeing as you're lucky to break even at gigs), coupled with the fact that in Canada, downloading legislation is still being worked out, we do not feel that it would make economic sense to quite literally piss our money away.

We know that some of you, our devoted fans from the very beginning, would be more than happy to pay for the new album, and we agree, you guys deserve to hear how we've progressed as a band, but please understand that we are a SELF-FUNDED independent band, and it costs a lot of money to record, mix, master, and distribute a record. If we can't guarantee enough legitimate sales to even cover our costs, then what's the point?


7) So you're saying that you're doing it for the money then?

Fuck NO! Anyone who knows us as a band (as musicians) know that we started ANTI-HERO because we love music, and we wanted to spread important messages through our lyrics in hopes of helping our fans through the healing power of music and to address issues of societal concern.

BUT, try looking at it from our perspective (that of the indie musician): If you go out there and give the world a piece of your soul (a piece of your heart), something that means a lot to you, that you put yourself into, and then the world spits in your face by not wanting to pay for it - how the hell would you feel?

Probably not very motivated to release another album anytime soon.

Regardless, with all of that ranting regarding illegal downloading out of our systems, we'll let you in on something: we are currently contemplating recording just a few tracks exclusively for our fans that will only be available from us directly for purchase.

After a long search for the right producer, not to mention a great deal of contemplation in terms of our future direction, we're pleased to announce that we're booking it back to the studio this summer!!! More details in coming months.


Rock on