Alternative Pop Band the Afters: The Spiritual Side of Rock

What do you get when you cross four friends with infectious harmonies and melodies, an honest approach to song writing and Starbucks coffee? You get the unique pop infested rock sound that belongs to The Afters. The Afters (Josh Haven guitars and vocals, Matt Fuqua guitars and vocals, Brad Wigg bass and vocals, Marc Dodd drums) are four friends from Dallas Texas who worked together at Starbucks and performed semi-regularly for their customers.

They realized that their love of songwriting and performing outmatched their love of lattes and the band quickly started playing shows in around Dallas. On their debut disc, "I Wish We All Could Win", the band displays a knack for writing serious hooks and melodies. Songs such as Beautiful Love, Until The World and Someday combine pop elements with soaring guitars and harmonies.

The band is also not shy about sharing elements of their faith and being very transparent about their spirituality. Before taking the stage at the Vault 350 tonight I had the chance to sit down with Josh Haven to talk about the bands steady climb, their days at Starbucks and the future of the Afters.

Q: Josh is it true that you all met while all four of you were working at Starbucks back in Dallas?
A: It's true! We all worked the morning shift and became good friends while at Starbucks. While we would work we would pull out our acoustic guitars and play songs for the customers. We would sing drinks orders….the customers seemed to like it. People started asking if we played shows and where they could see us. By the time we played our first show together as a band we had over 300 people at our very first gig. That was when we realized we may have something here.

Q: You all seem to take pride in coming up with great melodies and harmonies in your songs. Where does the inspiration for your pop/rock sound come from?
A: All four of us are fans of melody. I love British bands like Muse and Radiohead and of course The Beatles wrote the book on writing melodies. When we set out to write this record we knew we wanted to make a pop album with sprinklings of "art rock". Musically we wanted to go deep with a lot of sounds capes and big guitars but we also wanted to concentrate on the melodies.

Q: You have a few songs on the disc that deal with your faith in Christianity. How important is that to the band?
A: When we started the group we wanted to be accessible to everyone. We played everywhere and that included clubs, bars, high schools and churches. We don't want to limit ourselves in terms of the writing. We write about things that are important to us and our faith is important to us. In the last few years my faith has helped me with the loss of my father. He was a very big supporter of the band and he loved our song "All That I Am" which talks about faith. We don't want to alienate anyone with our lyrics. We just want to be honest in the writing of our music

Q: What has the response been with your fans with regards to this type of honesty?
A: Every band/writer hopes to connect with people who hear their music. We have fans who are atheists who like our songs and at the very least respect where we are coming from even if they don't agree with it. We have also had fans tell us that our music has helped them through some very tough, very harsh periods in their lives….one fan talked about how she was so depressed she had even contemplated suicide but that our music got her to seek the help she needed. We never set out to have an agenda or to force a certain message. We just want to be able to connect with our fans by being up front and honest.

Q: That is amazing. Speaking of making connections, it seems that the band has connected with MTV. How have you gotten involved with the music channel?
A: MTV-U is the college/university version of MTV. They started playing our video and we eventually won an MTV-U award! After that, MTV approached us and asked if they could use the song "Beautiful Love" as the theme song for their reality show 8th and Ocean. We agreed because we knew it would be another way to reach a wide audience.

Q: Many young bands nowadays us the internet to reach folks with their music. Has this been part of the plan with the Afters?
A: Yes it has!! My Space has been a huge asset to the band and it has helped us stay in touch with our fans and really strengthen our connection with our fans. It has been a great tool in terms of getting to interact with our fans.

Q: What's next for the band as you complete this tour?
A: We are already writing and rehearsing for our next disc. We will start recording later this summer and then hopefully hit the road again early in the Fall.