Culture
Joe Anderl of The 1984 Draft ‘Makes Good Choices’
By: Emily Votaw
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There are some real tropes to be investigated when it comes to Midwestern post-punk alternative rock. Whether you’re listening to The Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Guided By Voices, The Weakerthans, Sugar, or even Dayton own’s The 1984 Draft, it’s hard to ignore the story-centric, often melancholic tone that music born in the Midwest often takes on.
“It’s this weird train of thought, tell-stories-of-your-life thing that is so midwestern to me,” said Joe Anderl, guitarist and vocalist for The 1984 Draft in an interview with WOUB only a few weeks before the official Poptek release of the band’s latest full-length, Makes Good Choices on August 24. “If you spend a lot of time in the Midwest touring and playing, I feel like you can always sniff it out. Like if you are listening to a band that is from L.A., you’ll just sense it; it’s something about the weird delivery or the way that he spits out his words — like wow, I can tell this guy is from Wisconsin. And sure enough, if you approach them after their set and ask ‘oh, I know you guys are from L.A., but is that originally where you’re from?’ and then you’ll learn, yeah, they’re from Wisconsin. Maybe there’s something in the Midwestern water or maybe it’s something about long, cold winters with nothing to do but write songs in a basement, but it is something so distinct.” 
Makes Good Choices is rife with that kind of delectably Midwestern tone, a sort of observant eye that takes the everyday and subverts it in such a way that its inherent beauty and mystery are suddenly apparent. The album’s first single, “Lutheran Heat,” is a playful minute-and-a-half of shaky reverb and tuneful, buried vocals and Anderl’s sincere, painfully real recollections of memories growing up with his brother. “Honest” works similarly. It’s an ‘honestly’ self-deprecating tune that aches with melancholy while also serving as a beautifully articulated statement of everlasting love.
“Like, let’s take John K. Samson (of The Weakerthans) for example, a songwriter writing about his cat (“Virtute the Cat Explains Her Departure” from 2007’s Reunion Tour,) and it turns out to be one of the most beautiful pieces of music — but at the end of the day, he just wrote about his cat. If you can take everyday things like that and make some kind of beautiful art… I don’t know. I’ve tried the whole ‘disguise your words and try to get into people’s head’ thing, and when I did it just came across fake,” said Anderl. “So I have to be who I am, I have to write about my own life and my own feelings and children and my interactions with my children. From a selfish point of view it also gives me a snapshot of a certain 10-15 year period of my life that I will always have, this piece of vinyl that sums up my life, my struggles, my successes. And that’s really cool.”
Hear WOUB’s interview with Joe Anderl in it’s entirety above, and check out their official “Makes Good Choices” release show on Saturday, August 25 at the South Park Tavern (1301 Wayne Ave, Dayton, Ohio 45410) starting at 8 p.m. Athens’ own Unmonumental will also perform, as well as Cincinnati’s Carriers.