Area band endulges muses with new EP
With the release of its latest EP, “Altered States,” Anthrophobia keeps climbing.
On a Monday morning in early August, in a year like no other, Frank Fields found himself busily packaging LPs and CDs of “Altered States,” the latest recording by his hard-rock band, Anthrophobia, to send out to eager fans who ordered it before they could buy it.
“It feels like 25 years ago,” he told the reporter who interrupted his task with a phone call. “It’s an odd manual labor thing that I’m enjoying very much.”
For Fields, who knows all about rolling up his sleeves from years spent running the Berks County-based doit-yourself label DRP Records, part of that joy stemmed from the gratification of knowing Anthrophobia had already tripled its previous bandcamp.com sales with just the pre-orders for this one. And part of it was simply having any work at all to do in these pandemic-stricken times.
You see, since March, Fields has had his livelihood placed on hold. He’s gone from working six concurrent music industry jobs — ranging from marketing for Live Nation to promoting concerts — to zero.
Yet, for as frustrating as that’s been, the upside has been that it’s given him time to focus his attention on marketing “Altered States,” which Anthrophobia recorded in Baltimore over the first weekend of March — days before the quarantine kicked in — with one of his hardcore heroes, J. Robbins.
Fields couldn’t be happier with how the six songs turned out, from the singles “Ghosts,” “Cliff Notes” and “Technical Difficulties” to the album closer, “Running Out of Time,” which is a bit of a departure for the band into the classic-rock realm. He said it occupies that space where Thin Lizzy meets MC5, and, in fact, it had become Anthrophobia’s show closer — back in the days when there were shows, that is.
“Where were you going to go after that song?” Fields asked, laughing, in reference to ending both the album and gigs with it. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Miraculously, 12 years after retiring, and five years after unretiring, Anthrophobia seems to be clicking like never before, even though — or maybe because — their motivation these days is simply to indulge their muses and create music for music’s sake. Gone are the dreams of conquering the world, not that they didn’t have their fair share of success in their first go-round.
“Altered States” follows up “Grind,” their well-received 2017 EP, and finds Fields backed by the same lineup: Brent Black on guitar, Dickie Delp on drums and Rob DiJoseph on bass.
The continuity definitely helped. They felt prepared, confident and energized going into the studio, and that comes across on first listen.
“I don’t want to say (we have) a swagger, but it kind of is,” Fields said. “We all felt like we were doing something special.”
The band takes a collaborative approach to songwriting, often exchanging ideas and riffs online before making the real magic happen either in rehearsals or in the studio.
“The songs are still written in a room,” Fields said. “Oddly, I think you hear that.”
Lyrically, the new songs are deeply personal, he said, stopping short of sharing the details.
He did confide that the band, for all its raw, driving force, serves as his therapy.
“This has been my healthy, aggressive release,” he said. “I’m not a violent person. Usually people meet me and they think, ‘Wait, you do that?’”
And by that, he means transforming into his onstage alter-ego, Frank Phobia, whose flailing hair and guttural vocals stand in stark contrast to the soft-spoken, affable offstage version of him.
Fields is the first to admit he wouldn’t classify Phobia as a singer, per se. In fact, the album liner notes say he plays “throat.”
“But that being said,” said Fields (or was it Phobia?), “I am more critical of my vocals on a record than I am of anybody in the band, and I have to feel that they’re 100 percent. That’s come easier. I don’t think I understood what to do with my voice — how to present what I do — until 2000. Everything prior, there was no confidence, and I had no idea how to approach certain things.”
In a moment of unrestrained candor, he revealed the secret weapon he deploys to keep up these antics at age 53.
“When I’m in a vocal booth, I have a pack of Gummy Bears with me,” he said, laughing.
While you can buy “Altered States” as a CD on bandcamp, fans of the band will want to invest in the 12-inch vinyl release, which has “Grind” on one side and “Altered States” on the other, plus a download card for four bonus tracks that include a re-recorded version of their popular ‘90s song “Cracks in the Ceiling.”
Fields said confidently that none of the 15 tracks is filler.
“We just keep trying to push ourselves,” he said. “At some point, you’re going to top out, right? We’ve just been on this upward trajectory since 2015 when we got back together.
“I’m excited. We’re giving birth to another Phobia baby.”