By Keith Walsh
Self-described as ‘post-apocalyptic rock,’ the music of Antler Family, from Oakland, California, positively soars with inspired guitars, powerful beats, and the classically trained voice of Mia Dean. Narratively, the tunes bristle with survivor’s energy in tales that celebrate the art of song making. I spoke with vocalist/guitarist Mia Dean and guitarist Tom Flynn to find out more. (My review of the excellent debut album by Antler Family is at PopularCultureBeat.com).

Punk Rock Beat: The band self describes as post-apocalyptic rock. Please explain the actual inspirations behind your melancholy sound and the importance of art and beauty in the vision of a post-apocalyptic world.
Mia Dean: Art and beauty are important to humans existing in any civilization. It’s a way to connect, offer hope, work out fears and traumas, escape horrors, express love and compassion for each other, or just have a laugh. It’s also a bridge to shared experience. It’s fascinating how one person can write a song and it can have a different, yet no less valid, significance or meaning to another person.  Have you seen the show ‘Station Eleven’? I think about it a lot, I also read the book, it’s brilliant, dystopian fiction. But full of so much hope. In it there is a post-apocalyptic Shakespearean acting troupe. They travel around in wagons and put on plays for the survivors. They are their own community. They have a route they travel for safety and continuity, and the people in the towns expect them, look forward to their arrival, and production of a new show. This act, and preservation of an ancient artform gives meaning to all of their lives. It highlights the enduring nature of art, and its ability to survive crisis. 

Punk Rock Beat: How did you come up with the unique band name?
Mia Dean:  Naming the band was like trying to name a baby with three husbands. So many suggestions were thrown around, but someone was always saying no. It took a long time to name the band, but Antler Family was something everyone signed off on, so we took it and ran. It’s fun and friendly, and kind of dark. The name has allowed a lot of subtle, and not so subtle, things we could do with esthetics and branding. We use a lot of antler images in art, flyers, posts, and, of course, our Antler colored vinyl record.

Tom Flynn: We’re just following in the footsteps of giants; The Partridge Family, The DeFranco Family, The Manson Family, etc. etc.

Punk Rock Beat: How did you all meet?
Mia Dean:  Tom Dean and Tom Flynn have known each other for decades. They were both playing in bands and were in the same East Bay punk scene. Tom Flynn played in another band with Stark Raving Brad, which was kind of a Fang off-shoot. I met Tom Flynn through Tom Dean at work one night, at the Oakland Metro Operahouse, when he was playing with Fang again. There was quite a buzz in the room that night that he was there and I was blown away by his guitar playing. We would see each other around at the Oakland Music Complex, where we were both practicing. When our bands fizzled out, we started playing together, and it all formed from there. 

Punk Rock Beat: Please tell me about the Oakland music scene? Certainly the proximity to the Bay Area plays a role.
Mia Dean:  Oakland and the Bay Area, obviously, have a rich musical history, which still endures. There are a lot of artists living here and playing in bands. Punk, metal, goth, and noise have a lot of crossover here.  There are still some great underground venues, though not as many since the pandemic, it is starting to rebound from that. Oakland has a real DIY vibe, and for a city it’s actually pretty small, so we all know each other, we see each other out places, everyone is chill and nice. It’s a loud, friendly scene, and we are all wearing black. 

Punk Rock Beat: The production and sounds are so perfect. The guitar sounds are especially beautiful. I’m sure you’re using tube amps. Please tell me any other secrets of the Antler Family sound.
Mia Dean: We have a few tricks up our sleeve, but we like to keep our gear simple. Humbuckers, we do both use tube amps. Tom is such a guitar god, he plays with the distortion in his vintage 2×12 Peavey amp, he can tell you more about that. I have a Music Man 112RD, and a very versatile distortion pedal that I use for everything; it’s an original Gene F*cking Hackman by Dynox of Colorado, which is built by Chuck French from Wovenhand. I bought it from Chuck off the Wovenhand merch table, at Bottom of the Hill in SF, a week before we recorded the album, and since then it has been the only tone modifier on my board. 

Tom Flynn: It’s a combination of transistor amps, tube amps, fuzz pedals, coffee, and alcohol.

Punk Rock Beat: You have a definite sound that draws on punk and grunge but it’s your own formula. Starting with songwriting, how do you go about defining the sound to ensure it’s your own thing?
Mia Dean:  It’s really the combination of all of us together. I write in a standard song format. I believe in melody, verses, choruses, the occasional bridge. But I want to hear something more from it. I want to take something simple and bend it into something more unexpected. That’s where Tom Flynn comes in. We write songs in a few different ways. Tom will write a song and the guitar parts will be composed all the way through, for instance, in Captive and Black Hole Love. Then I come in and try to write something interesting to go with it. When we get together, we will rewrite until it works. When I start a song, it will usually be written lyrically and vocally all the way through with a few simple chords supporting it. Tom and I will get together and he will look for alternative notes we can use to make it more surprising. Then as a band we will figure out our parts and orchestrate the song.

Tom Flynn: I just like the idea of sneaking some weird guitar sh*t into a deceptively simple song.

Punk Rock Beat: How long has Mia been inspired by operatic music and what is her favorite operatic repertoire? 
Mia Dean:  Forever really. I would watch opera on public access TV when I was really young. I saw Carmen when I was a punk rock teenager, with my brother, which had a big impact on me at the time. I was already doing musical theater. At seventeen I decided to sing opera and spent the better part of a decade studying it, and singing in Europe and the States. Eventually I got tired of people telling me what and how to sing all the time, and started playing guitar and found my voice as a writer. That took some time. But opera has always been a big part of my life. I produced operas with my husband for at least ten years in Oakland. We mostly did contemporary opera. My favorite composer is Benjamin Britten, so a highlight for me was producing Turn of the Screw. I am inspired by opera as an art form, I like to think of music as a way to tell a tale. That can be in short or long form, but both can be very interesting. 

(Featured Antler Family band photo by Kristin Cofer).

Antler Family On Facebook
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Antler Family On Spotify
‘Antler Family’ Album Review At Popular Culture Beat

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