Crimson Moon: How did the band get started?
Anthony: It started off as a solo project in 2011 and gathered members over the next few years.
Crimson Moon: What kind of music do you play?
Anthony: Ambient Industrial Rock with elements of Metal.
Crimson Moon: How has the band response been?
Anthony: Both locally and digitally our responses have been great! We’re very fortunate to have supportive people in our lives.
Crimson Moon: Where did the band name come from?
Anthony: Programmable Animal is more than a statement than anything, it comes from the idea that we as individuals are programmed due to our surroundings.
Crimson Moon: Introduce the band members
Anthony Wonaitis – Guitar, Bass, Keys, Vocals
Ty Shattuck – Drums
Eric Lazarski – Guitar
Kristen Hodges – Bass
Matt Morgan – Guitar
Joe Collins – Keys
Crimson Moon: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Anthony: A lot of the compositions are by me (Anthony) however, we do write songs as a full unit. The lyrics are written by me (lead singer Anthony).
Crimson Moon: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Anthony: The lyrics come from personal philosophy and personal experience. In terms of Drepsea, our recently released album, the lyrics are about overcoming depression.
Crimson Moon: How many albums/cd’s have you released?
Anthony: We released our first full-length album Drepsea this year in April. We have had a few demos before.
Crimson Moon: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Anthony: Drepsea our latest album is a concept album so all of the songs are relevant to one another. Drepsea is a character that personifies depression and how it puts a hold on someone. The album resolves with the main character understanding they themselves are the only one to rid Drepsea from their lives. The album starts with Please which is when Drepsea invades the character. The last song Drown in Elation is a constant battle between the main character and their inner demon. The composition musically goes back and forth between a series of notes, a stylistic component of romanticism to help convey the inner struggle we wanted to portray. We wanted the songs to have an industrial feel but surrounded by an atmosphere. All of this to create an entirely new different world when listening.
Crimson Moon: Do you have any side projects?
Anthony: Musically no, we put a lot of time into this project.
Crimson Moon: Who are some of your musical influences?
Anthony: The band has a wide range of musical influences including, Nine Inch Nails, Korn,Tool, Bonobo, Pink Floyd, The Birthday Massacre and even composers like Debussy.
Crimson Moon: Which current bands?
Anthony: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Korn, The Birthday Massacre, and Bonobo.
Crimson Moon: What is the band like when you play live?
Anthony: We try to be as energetic as possible but we also play according to the mood of the music. It all depends on the atmosphere created on stage.
Crimson Moon: What was the best band you played with?
Anthony: We played with a lot of awesome local groups, one in particular is Etlin Zylin from Joliet, IL. We also opened for bigger acts such as Powerman5000 and Green Jellÿ.
Crimson Moon: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Anthony: Unfortunately we have not but it’s a goal of ours.
Crimson Moon: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Anthony: For our bigger shows the room will be packed but it’s usually a decent amount.
Crimson Moon: How is the crowd response when you play?
Anthony: The response is varied, a lot of people are intrigued by the sounds we use. There are sometimes people that mosh or dance. We are always happy when people come up to us after the show telling us what they liked about the music.
Crimson Moon: What is the scene like over in your country?
Anthony: There are multiple scenes in the country but we are apart of one called Electric Wednesdays out of Joliet, IL. It’s an awesome scene that is developing and growing day by day.
Crimson Moon: What made you want to be in this band? And if you weren’t in this band what would you being doing now?
Anthony: It is something that we constantly think about, we love to create music and convey our creativity through it. If we weren’t in this band, the group would still be pursuing some sort of musical or creative endeavor since this is a huge outlet for us. For example, our bassist Kristen does art and actually did our artwork for Drepsea.
Crimson Moon: What does the future hold for the band??
Anthony: The future is bright for us, we will playing a lot of shows, writing new music, helping grow our local music scene, and doing what we love for our fans and friends.
Contact them at:
http://www.programmableanimal.com
https://www.facebook.com/ProgrammableAnimal
https://soundcloud.com/programmableanimal
http://programmableanimal.tumblr.com
http://instagram.com/programmableanimal
