Actiioneer | Photo by Peter English
As seasons change so does the soundtrack, and Auctioneer’s low-lit guitar riffs, cavernous vocals and daze-dream drums are a blistering replacement for the surf rock sounds of summer. Today we’re in the studio with frontman Craig Hendrix (who has played with Aderbat, Mammals of Paradise, Birdie Busch, John Francis and more), and we’re talking about the birth of his four-piece art-rock outfit, its October Shaking Through episode and the sophomore album we’ll be wrapping our mittens around come winter.
The Key: First, can you give me some background on Auctioneer?
Craig Hendrix: Auctioneer started performing a little over a year ago, but I’ve been playing with Todd Erk [bass] since high school. Our high school band was called Tub, it was a pretty bad jam band. Todd Schied [drums] and I played in Aderbat together, which turned into Mammal of Paradise. I think it’s mostly because of Doylestown that we all knew each other and saw each other play. Jesse Moore [keys/ vocals] I met in 2008. He used to work at Rocket Cat Cafe and one day he was playing some music from his high school band and I heard his voice, it was amazing.
TK: What made you decide to move to Philly from Doylestown?
CH: I went to school in Boston and I lived in New York for a while. I moved back to Doylestown kind of waiting for a place like this where I could have a studio in my house and be able to play music where I lived and also to be more involved in a music scene and an arts culture. Doylestown is great but it’s limited.
TK: What was your first thought when you were approached to do this month’s Shaking Through episode?
CH: I was pumped because Miner Street is an amazing studio and we had carte blanche pretty much for this tune. The song (called “Future Faces”) is a larger scale piece, kind of like a production number, so I was excited that we had the facility to do it. Continue reading →
