The German Art Students

The quartet of Randy Ballwahn, Annelies Howell, Andy Larson and Kirk Wall has been together as the German Art Students for 12 years. How in the heck does a band stay together that long? "We've always kept what we're doing fun," says Larson, "and I know that none of us would be involved if that wasn't the case." A decade is a long time in life (and in rock and roll) and that kind of commitment means taking time to strike a balance in your life. Somehow the GAS have outlasted all of their contemporaries and are still going strong.



The band has its roots in Larson and Wall, who played together in the mid-90's in Danger Prone Daphne. A few years after that band split, the pair decided to jam in Wall's basement. "We were really comfortable with just hanging out and putting silly songs together," says Larson, “and never felt the urge or pressure to play out." Howell auditioned for the band in early 1998 by playing one of her 4 track recordings of a capella music. Having never been in a rock band before, she "thought for sure that these guys wouldn't be interested in my 'campfire music.'"



"These guys" apparently liked what they heard and when Ballwahn took over the drum duties a few months later the group knew they had found a perfect match. The GAS played their debut at a friend's apartment in May of 1998.



At early shows the quartet dressed in black turtlenecks and talked with German accents. "We were doing it as a joke, to separate ourselves from other bands," says Larson. But the gimmick worked (and fooled plenty of audience members) and the band kept the shtick as part of their act for "at least the first couple of years" says Wall. They played out in Madison and throughout southern Wisconsin, gaining notoriety for their high energy shows.



Their first two releases "What Did You Expect? Heartland Rock?" and "Kissing by the Superconductor" established the band's smart style. "Civil War Re-enactor" is perhaps their finest hour. With such refrains as "You bring the whiskey/I'll cut your leg off/Civil War Re-enactor" and "All of the violence/and none of the death/Civil War Re-enactor," the song points out the ridiculousness of this strange (but very real) obsession.



You can hear the band take aim at the sheer silliness of other things, especially in "Disgruntled Figure Skating Judge" and "Eighteenth Century Love Song" ("We wanted to have a song that had the words 'fortnight' and 'opera gloves' in it," laughs Larson, "and somehow it worked!") And "Steve Vai Boyfriend" is a hilarious tale, where Howell immortalizes a dude she dated in high school whose claim to fame was resembling the famous shredder. While they became much tighter as a band, they never lost sight of the parody of life in their lyrics. The song "Dick Clark" from their third release "Name-Droppers" (featuring a vocal turn by drummer Ballwahn) is the story of the band submitting a song to Dick Clark Productions and being turned down for being "too quirky." The GAS also contributed a track to "Gigantic- a Tribute to Kim Deal" and in 2008 put out their first vinyl single, which they recorded at Smart Studios with Mike Zirkel.



While lyrically more akin to acts like Devo or Johnathan Richman, the German Art Students' sound has always been more reminiscent of the pure power pop of the Buzzcocks and the heavy drive of X and the Undertones. Their live shows have always packed a wallop which helps them rise above the "novelty band" that their lyrics suggest. And the intensity of Larson's onstage glare is a perfect foil to Howell's big smile and high kicks. While many bands have a "leader", the GAS pride themselves on taking a group approach to everything, which includes recording, booking shows and songwriting. "Many of our best songs started as an idea that someone brought to practice," says Wall, "and we would all pitch in on lyrics and chord changes." And this approach has worked and has kept the group close not just as bandmates but as friends as well.



So what's next for the German Art Students? Sadly after 12 years, Larson has decided that it's time to hang up his bass and move on. His departure is a sad one for the band but the remaining members have decided to carry on as a trio. "It won't be the same band with (Larson) gone but we're hoping to keep on in the same vein as GAS" says Wall. Regardless of the changes that happen to any band, the German Art Students are survivors and a testament to how you can make your art and eat it too.



You can find all of the German Art Students music at your local independent record stores and also at their itunes page.



--Aaron Scholz, Dane101.com, February, 2010