[Editor's note: This story is the second in a series of two from this year's 80/35 festival. Read the other installment here: M34N STR33T's Adam Robert Haug: From Iowa to Nebraska.]
words and photos by Michael Todd
As a child, Anna Gebhardt became "in tune with nature," she says. She'd spend time a lot of time outside on the farm where she grew up near the small town of Scotia, Neb.
It's this area in Central Nebraska, where the edge of the Sandhills meets the rest of the state, to which Gebhardt traces her roots as "a country girl." It's this area, where the flatness starts to take over, a landscape that she says helps to make Nebraska music distinct from the songs she hears now in Des Moines, Iowa.
Having moved from home to attend college at Drake, Gebhardt spent part of her collegiate career writing songs — about two albums' worth — that sat on the shelf as she was too busy with school to see them through to their full potential. After graduating with a music degree, she began playing her material as an acoustic act for about six months before forming the beginnings of her band, Annalibera.
And as Gebhardt eventually welcomed bassist Phil Young, Ryan Stier (also in The River Monks) and drummer Chris Marshall, the band began to form its sound around three genres, she says: folk/country, pop and an underlying experimental genre. Annalibera celebrated their opening set at last Friday's 80/35 festival in Des Moines with a three-song EP built to showcase those three sides.
Just a few hours after their performance on July 5 at the festival, Gebhardt and I met in the Temple for Performing Arts, only a block away from the stage she had played. In addition to defining Annalibera, we talked about Gebhardt's double life of "orchestra/opera/choir person" and "independent/local music connoisseur" during college, and we discussed the way musicians seem to do most of the work in Des Moines.
Read on for the full Q&A:
Hear Nebraska: I’d like to start with your roots in Nebraska. If I remember correctly, you grew up in St. Paul?
Anna Gebhardt: I actually grew up in Scotia, on a farm outside Scotia. It’s just another half-hour north of St. Paul, just on the border of the Sandhills, that same longitude. I spent a lot of time outside, reading and playing piano. I had a good childhood, really fun. I just felt very in tune with nature. I’m kind of a country girl.
HN: How long have you played piano?
AG: Probably since I was 6 or 7. I love that instrument, and then I got in to choir. I love harmony. I tried to write music at an early age, but I didn’t realize I could write music until about age 20. It was a mystery unveiled.
HN: And choir is what brought you to Des Moines?
AG: Yeah, I went to Drake here because I wanted to be in choir. I had an awesome time singing. I pretty much spent my whole time in college doing choir, studying voice. Now I teach piano and voice, and it’s pretty fun.
HN: Is that what you transitioned to right out of college?
AG: Yeah. I only graduated last year, so I’m still figuring everything out. I wrote probably two albums worth of songs in college, but I was very busy, so I had to wait until after I graduated to start a band. So I performed for about six months by myself as an acoustic act. Then I attracted some people and started recording. The people I was recording with just joined the band. Then we started performing everywhere.
HN: You’re off to a good start.
AG: Out of college, yeah. We did good, played a couple shows and got asked to do 80/35, which was amazing.
FRIDAY AT 80/35
HN: How does that happen? Do you know the folks who organize the festival?
AG: I did have a really hard time at Drake. I didn’t have the best time there. I did love my professors and what I studied, but life-wise, it wasn’t very easy for me being in college. So I reached out into the community because I didn’t connect with anyone at Drake really. I didn’t feel like it was where I belonged. But I also refused to quit there. So I was leading this double-life of orchestra/opera/choir person and then independent/local music connoisseur.
The best I’ve felt is now after a year of pursuing the independent music thing. I’m like, “Why didn’t I just do this instead?” I would’ve been happier for the past five years. But it all comes together very well.
HN: And you said you wrote about two albums’ worth of songs in college. How did you pick the three that are on your EP?
AG: I’m not sure. I really have no idea. Well, I talked with Phil a lot about singles. We felt that “Battle World” would be a good one because it’s catchy. All of our songs are so different it was hard to choose. They draw from three different genres.
HN: What would you call those genres?
AG: A folk/country genre, then Aphex Twin’s experimental genre — that one’s pretty underlying, but it’s there — then pop music. So we were trying to grab all those into one, little, “This is who we are. Hello world.”
HN: Are the two songs released on Bandcamp two of the three?
AG: Those are pretty much demos. “Vermillion” on Bandcamp is an acoustic thing we did, just me and Ryan. The “Battle World” demo was when we were working on our sound recording-wise and weren’t a band yet. They sound different on the EP.
We’re still getting to exactly where our sound is recording-wise. I hope we get out of the stage where if you see us live you get what we’re doing. But I think recordings don’t quite capture it. I’m hoping we get to that point. Maybe we’ll find a producer or something, I don’t know.
HN: Now, I’m curious, as I find out more about the Des Moines scene I’m often hearing of musicians who take on booking, promoting. I know Chris Ford (of Christopher the Conquered) works for the Des Moines nonprofit that puts 80/35 together, too.
In Nebraska, those tasks of booking and such are done by some musicians, but also people whose main job is booking for example. Is there a trend of musicians in Des Moines doing most of the work?
AG: Yes, totally. We’re all booking the shows. My job is booking the shows at this place called Mars Cafe. Chris books shows, and Nate Logsdon, the singer of Mumford’s: If you can catch them, I definitely recommend it. He books shows at an important venue in Ames. Our day jobs are booking music (laughs).
I’ve always wanted to be a part of the Nebraska scene, too, because I’m proud of being a Nebraskan, so hopefully, I can make connections. We’re only two hours away, and Des Moines and Iowa City are very close. We should hang out with the Omaha and Lincoln bands.
"Let Us Not Confuse Our Thoughts With Our Beliefs" by Christopher the Conquered from Hear Nebraska on Vimeo.
HN: Why would you say you’re proud of being a Nebraskan?
AG: It’s different. It’s really different. The people from Nebraska are different from Iowa. There’s a border there. It’s a very important border. I love both, but what makes me proud, it’s hard to say, dude. I feel very proud of it.
I always make a distinction: I’m based in Des Moines, but I’m from Nebraska. I don’t know. People in Iowa are almost, I don’t want to say naive. But there’s a dark side to Nebraska that Iowa doesn’t have. I think the whole state.
There’s not a punk scene here, not really. I’m not saying the punk scene in Omaha is mainstream, but it’s more of a scene there. I’ve never been able to say.
HN: And is there a metal scene?
AG: There is a metal scene here. The scenes aren’t as connected here maybe? I really don’t know. Slipknot came from Des Moines. I really couldn’t say.
I keep wanting to say how open it is, how big it is, there’s a lot of room for creativity because it’s just so fucking flat. Here, it’s a little more hilly. In one of my songs, I talk about the big sky. The thing wrong about Minnesota, that song’s about Minnesota actually, but they have a bunch of trees there, and hills. I’ve just been living in Des Moines and Iowa. It’s a city so you can’t see the sky. So I miss that about Nebraska.
HN: I remember you gesturing toward the sky in a song today.
AG: I did [point toward the buildings] (laughs).
But it’s really hard. I’m working on figuring it out. How I write songs is just years of thinking about an idea, just trying to figure shit out about something that confuses me. That will be a song eventually, the song of why Nebraska isn’t important.
P.J. Harvey has a song about England I love. I want to use it as inspiration and talk about Nebraska. She talks about it’s just where you’re from, things you love about it, things you hate about it.
HN: Do you have other songs that take a long time to dissect ideas before you can finish them?
AG: Yeah, all of my songs come from years of contemplation. So it takes a long time. “Love in a Recession” came to me in a minute, and I just wrote it down. I wrote that for Ryan, the guitarist. I think it cheered him up maybe. It’s so stressful not to have a job. The economy’s so bad. That was a joke but also a critique song.
HN: And has he found a job?
AG: He has. He’s much better now.
HN: What other bands have you seen or do you hope to see at 80/35?
AG: Yeasayer was so good. I had a great summer with them. Looking forward to Wavves. There are a bunch of Des Moines bands. Trouble Lights is a good friend of mine, Mumford’s, The River Monks, Tires: Two of those bands are the members of my band.
Dustin Smith was great. That makes me feel happy. Their music always does. David Byrne hasn’t been a huge part of my life, but I’m very pumped to watch that set. Wu-Tang has been a staple of all my friends whose music taste I respect, so I’m excited to watch them but not part of my past music history.
This year, I feel like we got some headliners. Wu-Tang is only playing three shows, and one is in Des Moines. David Byrne has just been chilling here for like a week. He’s been hanging out. All of my friends have seen him. Then again, I don’t feel like I deserve to meet him.
SATURDAY AT 80/35
HN: I’m most looking forward to seeing St. Vincent, I’d say.
AG: St. Vincent has been through Nebraska a lot. She skips here.
HN: I wonder what it is that makes an artist decide between Des Moines and Omaha if they’re touring between, say, Chicago and Denver.
AG: They usually pick Omaha, I think. One of my favorite shows I’ve ever seen was Beach House in Omaha actually. Victoria (Legrand) is a hero of mind. I always think, “Should I cite Beach House as one of my influences?” But I think they’re one of the iconic bands of our time.
HN: I can appreciate their music, but I have a hard time getting past their sort of unfriendly attitude.
AG: They’re not friendly to people. That helps their image.
I need to do that. Everyone thinks I’m so nice, and I’m, like, “No.” I try so hard.