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Robert received his bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1991, then immediately returned for graduate school. In 1995, he began to put together a business on the side-Tourdates.Com, that provides online listings of concert dates for local and national bands, along with information on music-related services.
Robert left Tech in late 1996 to devote his energy to the business and the band, which he founded with his twin brother Alan, a graduate of Florida International University in Miami. Alan came to Tourdates.Com from Elektra Records, prompted by the positive feedback the venture received at the 1996 South by Southwest Music and Media Conference.
The group began to come together five years ago after Alan, the lead singer, graduated. "When I finished college down in Miami, I called up Robert and said, 'All right, Rob, do you want to do the rock-and-roll thing or the academic thing?' He said, 'I want to rock.' So I said, 'Okay, I'm moving to Atlanta and we'll put together a band,'" he explained.
After working with a succession of other players, the brothers settled on drummer Dan Fishman in late 1994 and lead guitarist Mike Turner in 1995. A year later, the final adjustment was made-the band's name changed from Groundscore to Another Man Down.
Smothered, their first major recording project, drew the attention of local music journalists; their recent EP Half and Half has been doing the same thing on a wider scale. (They were recently written up in Billboard magazine.) The disc features a mixture of electric- and acoustic-based songs and shows off the group's versatility quite well.
The three electric tracks were recorded for the purpose of "shopping" the group to record companies. "We got really good response, and we realized that there was no telling how long it was going to take for it to happen in terms of getting a major-label deal. So in terms of staying on the scene, we started feeling like there was enough of a demand for a new CD," Alan said. The foursome also saw sufficient demand for acoustic music to justify adding some to the album.
He added that because acoustic songs are generally easier and less expensive to record, "[w]e were able to go in and do three songs in a day on the acoustic stuff. And [the title] Half and Half just seemed to come with it-half electric, half acoustic."
Which half do they prefer? Both Schaefers see the merits of acoustic and electric music, but their tastes definitely run to the former. Robert stated, "One thing about acoustic is that it's really the pure essence of what the song is. When you strip down and you don't have a big drum set or your Marshall amps turned all the way up, it either sounds good or it doesn't. But from the performance side, if you want to play in an arena in front of 20,000 people, you can't sit down on a bar stool. You have to put on a show, and the electric stuff lends itself more to that."
Alan added, "The electric is definitely what we do; it just so happens that from playing the acoustic stuff, we've gotten better at it than we thought we would. For me as a singer, I really like doing the acoustic stuff just because it allows me to get much more dynamic and it allows people to be able to hear the words."
The fact that two of the four members are twin brothers lends a new dimension to the way they all work together. Alan explained what goes through his and Robert's minds when they set to it.
"I know how he thinks, and he knows how I think. We can be sitting around the apartment, and I can start playing something and say, 'Hey, man, pick up your bass and put something to this.' And he'll play exactly what I hear in my head or something even betterThen we can take a song to the band and it's halfway there; we've got the groove down and the melody-the skeleton of the song."
He added that Turner and Fishman have tuned into that same wavelength pretty well, saying, "Now we bring a tune to the band, and they play with me exactly what I want or something better." (Two of their new songs were practically ready to go after one rehearsal.)
Not all of Another Man Down's songs have come together as nicely, though; there have been some that have gone through multiple fix-ups before being ready to go. "It's a constant work in progress," noted Alan.
This idea manifests itself in the group's live shows and practice sessions. "With music, sometimes you have to change the stuff around just so you don't go nuts," said Robert. "For every time someone comes to one of our shows and says, 'Play 'Spinach' [from Half and Half], that's my favorite song'-for every one time they hear it, we've heard it a thousand times in rehearsal, in its various shapes and forms. If you don't change up a little bit, it starts to lose its pizzazz. And people can tell when you're up there and just going through the motions."
Cruising on autopilot was something the group clearly didn't do at this year's Music Midtown Festival, an experience none of them will soon forget. Alan recollected, "We were on right before the Violent Femmes were going on the 99X stage and right after Semisonic got finished playingWe were on the Locals Only stage. The way it was set up, Semisonic played, and while they were setting up for the next band there, we played-so everybody basically turned around-"
"And there was this other band playing!" Robert finished.
Alan continued, "The energy is just amazing. It makes you feel like a rock star. You look out and you see that many people, and it's just awesome. It's a little tough in a situation like that because you don't really get a sound check, and sometimes the festival sound isn't very good. It took us a few songs to get the mix right on stage, but then I was really able to throw myself into itI can't wait until we can draw a crowd like that and they're all there to see us."
"You wish you could play to that type of crowd every day," mused Robert. "We've gone from playing in front of that many people to a gig where we literally played in front of nobody. The sound man went to get a beer; then we looked out and the place was empty."
Alan said, "I was laughing uncontrollably-I couldn't even sing, I was laughing so hard."
Life behind the microphone is certainly not all fun and games, as Robert was quick to point out: "People see the 45 minutes that you're playing and they think that your whole day is like that. But there's a lot of driving, sitting around doing nothing, moving heavy equipment-nobody ever sees the smelly van with four sweaty band guys locked in it for four hours."
The payoff, though, is when everything comes together on stage. "It's like an energy fix for everybodyTo look out in a crowd and see people singing the words to our songs, that's a great feeling," said Alan.
Will they get the chance to have that same feeling in an arena? More than likely-Alan stated that major labels have been showing interest in Another Man Down. But they didn't grab for the first brass ring they saw. "We definitely want to wait for the right situation. Getting signed can be the best thing or the worst thing that ever happens to a band, depending on whether they're ready and what things are going on at the record company."
"It's a nice problem to have: having to wait because you have people interested in you and you want to be sure you go with the right one," added Robert.
The band may have company soon enough. Alan noted, "There's an unbelievable amount of talent; there are bands in Atlanta that are going to be major-label recording artists. There are great places to play-Smith's Olde Bar, the Cotton Club, the Point. The only problem is that it's very competitive just in terms of so much going on, musically and in the city."
"At the local level, it doesn't matter what they say about you, as long as they mention your name," Robert explained. "There are just so many bands. Half the time, especially in the last couple of months, I'll meet somebody in a bar and say, 'Yeah, I play in a band,' and mention the name, and they've heard of us. But for five years-'No, sorry, haven't heard of you.'"
Alan reflected on their attitude toward other acts: "Whatever band gets signed, it's all positive. As we keep going like this, we try to help all our friends in bands. We've had people like the Verve Pipe and Tonic help us out. If and when Another Man Down actually means a big name, then we're going to try and help out everybody we can."
In my opinion it's probably more a question of when rather than if the group will be a huge success. Judging from the high caliber of the musical content of the albums and live shows I can safely sat that this rock group definitely has its act together and is on its way up the rungs of the music industry's ladder.
By Deborah Celecia