Via Community News Service, a University of Vermont journalism internship, on assignment for the Winooski News
Antara Gatch blends folk and rock elements in her self-titled band.
The Burlington-area guitarist, whose band recently did a show at the Winooski Farmers Market, plays original songs with longtime friend and bassist Chris Cheney. Despite often being labeled folk, the group’s sound is heavily influenced by alternative rock — which often surprises venue owners who had booked for a folk show.
Often the band fluctuates between the two styles, but they try to avoid sticking to any one genre.
Both bandmates have day jobs: Cheney is a pharmacy tech, Gatch a special educator. They met in Keene, New Hampshire, some 25 years ago while at Keene State College. The two were in a jazz class together, and one day Gatch asked Cheney to jam afterward. They have been playing together ever since. Almost right away, the two were performing live shows.
The two started coming up to the Burlington area in 2003. They would play at Radio Bean, as well as the well-known and now closed club 135 Pearl. The duo had a friend in town already who they were working on music with. When Gatch met a partner in the area, she decided to move up here.
Cheney would define their sound as eclectic; when Gatch started playing, she “came from the folk world.” But as the years go on, the two have added rock elements, taking inspiration from Adrien Belew, singer of King Crimson, along with Blondie. Cheney said their sound has moved from folk to rock, but it is tough for the pair to categorize themselves.
When Chris hears a song from any genre, he may add it to his own art. Gatch believes the pair’s mutual love of music allows them to not be tethered by one specific genre. They are sometimes paid in money, sometimes paid in magic, Gatch said — as in, the event is for a good charitable cause.
One folk rock influence cited by Gatch is the duo the Indigo Girls, though she thinks her music is too loud to be comfortably grouped with that act. She pointed to Brian Eno and David Bowie as her biggest influences, the latter in particular.
When she got her acoustic guitar, folk was the sound Gatch was going for. But a certain glam rock point in Eno’s career, particularly in the early ‘70s, really stuck with her, and that sound carries over into her band. She remembers a guitar teacher handing her a cassette tape of Eno music and songs from Talking Heads — something like being handed “a bible,” she said.
After almost 30 years of playing, the band has matured. Antara used to pursue recording and traveling for shows heavily, but the ego trip of touring is over. Now, the bandmates said, it is all about the love of playing music and getting it into people’s ears. When the two record, they do it for themselves; if you want to buy it and support it, they think that’s great, but at the end of the day, it is for them. When you can give up on the business end of music, and focus on playing for the love of music, it is pure bliss, Gatch said.
When Gatch played music full time, she found it soul sucking. A lot of her peers had financial backing from their families, she said.
Gatch teaches special education at Eagle Bay Academy, part of the Burlington School District. She said she is going to be running an after-school program centered on teaching guitar. She has enlisted the help of Guitars in the Classroom, an organization out of San Diego, to get the instruments to her students.
Cheney on the other hand has worked in health care for the last five years. For almost two decades prior he worked in design and printing — which helps now in designing cover art for Antara and the posters for the gigs. He loved drawing as a kid, and when he finally went to college, he “came back to square one” and focused on graphics, he said.
Success for Gatch has multiple meanings. Sometimes it comes in sticking a great landing in a song and sharing that moment with Cheney. Other moments came from playing gigs at big clubs in the past. But Gatch said she does not care if she is playing for the disgruntled sound guy or a large crowd — she is exhilarated and humbled by both experiences and takes in stride “the roller coaster of feelings” that comes with the music industry.
She was involved, along with Cheney, in a local production of the Broadway show “Hedgwig and the Angry Inch” by John Cameron Mitchell. The two were in the band for that production, playing other people’s music, and the score was heavily influenced by the likes of role models Eno and Bowie. The theater production expanded their expertise musically.
Cheney is 50, Gatch is 54, and the two are nearly lifelong friends that see themselves almost as siblings. They recently finished a round of shows, including one at the Milton Artists’ Guild on Nov. 9. Over the summer, Antara played at the Winooski Farmers Market, Switchback Brewery and at Charlie O’s music bar in Montpelier. They will return to Charlie O’s on Dec. 5 for one more show between 8 and 10 p.m.