ANCHR Magazine is celebrating it’s third anniversary this Saturday at with their annual party/showcase at Schubas! After three years supporting the local indie scene we thought it was time someone interviewed the interviewer so we sat down with Rachel Zyzda, the brains behind ANCHR, to see what prompted her to start the underground mag, how she got into booking showcases, and why she felt the need to write about music. Make sure to pick up a ticket to the ANCHR Magazine third anniversary showcase featuring Engine Summer, Burr Oak, Jungle Green, Sick Day, and a ROOKIE DJ set! It’s gonna be a blast!

RZ: Rachel Zyzda

What prompted you to start ANCHR?

RZ: It all fell into place kind of randomly. I was always super into music, and I went to Columbia for music business. I wanted to be a tour manager, manage a band, or work for a record label. After college I moved to London for a year and fell out of what I was doing here, working for Lincoln Hall and a couple other random gigs. When I came back I got a non-music related day job, and was just going to shows. I won this contest through the radio to go cooking with Vance Joy. I took a friend and they happened to mention that I did a joke gossip column every week at work. The publicist for the restaurant group was there and she asked me to write about that experience on their music blog. And so I started writing for them, doing interviews and show reviews, and I realized I liked this whole music journalism thing. Was going to a bunch of shows and then after a year they shut down the blog. All of a sudden something I had never been interested in, I didn’t want to go away. So in mid-December 2016 I decided to do it and launched January 2nd. Didn’t really even put that much thought into it, but I thought of the name and bought the domain and started it. Then eventually I fell into doing the photography with it as well. So I stumbled into writing and wanted to do my own thing and didn’t want to pave my way into someone else's thing. I didn’t even have a portfolio because they took their website down, it was Rabbit Hole Magazine, so I thought I’ll just do my own thing, build it up from there. 

But you did get back into a relationship with Lincoln Hall correct?

RZ: I used to do coat check there but part of my partnership with Lincoln Hall and doing shows at Schubas is going there and photographing a bunch of shows and writing them up. I have a relationship with their talent buyers, they always send me shows, or we’ve done giveaways. I support them because they really support local bands, Schubas has the 100% off nights, and both venues are always booking local for support for tours. They have will call only tickets. They really care about the music. They’re not trying to sell their tickets on ticket master and rip fans off. That’s why I like working with them. And this isn’t a paid advertisement. (laughs) 

So you started in January 2017. How long did it take for the magazine to start to take off?

RZ: I started by wanting to interview local bands, and touring bands coming through of course. I had been so out of the music scene here, now it’s become so ingrained that it’s one of the main reasons I do ANCHR is to support the scene here. At that time I was completely ignorant of any local bands besides Twin Peaks and Whitney, and right before I launched ANCHR I went to a show at The Empty Bottle. It was Jude Shuma, Post Animal and Lucille Furs, and I decided I wanted to interview all of them. And I started local and was running an article a week, I wasn’t even doing it that frequently. From there, after a few months it really started picking up. The first year I got approved for Pitchfork and Hangout Festival, which was huge for me. I dropped so much money to be able to travel to Hangout last minute. I couldn’t say no, I had to prove myself. By mid-2017 I was doing daily content. Sometimes multiple posts a day. 

So that first year you interviewed quite a few bands.

RZ: Yeah, like over a hundred or so. I did a tally and then thought I’ll never be that ambitious again. It was two a week sometimes. The transcribing is what killed me.

After you started, you began to get some contributors?

RZ: I would have some people say, “I would love to write,” they would do one article and I’d never hear from them again. Then there was a handful of people who were somewhat consistently doing it, but because I love to cover shows so much myself sometimes I had to be “oh, well I’m doing that one.” That made certain people fizzle out sometimes. It’s been kind of inconsistent, but I’ve always had people reach out. I’m really excited about a new contributor I have who is doing an Artist of the Day section. He reached out just last week, and said he was looking to volunteer his time to do some music discover features. It’s something we’re going to do every week day next year. It gets a bit daunting doing song and album reviews, so this is a nice way to say I dig this song without criticizing it or giving it a rating. 

ANCHR Magazine has really grown into covering just the indie scene. Did that happen naturally or was it a developed direction?

RZ: I set out with the intention of really only covering what I like. Not giving it a rating or criticizing something. Why would you spend the time to say this sucks and put it out there. It makes the artist feel bad, and it takes up your time writing about something you’re not passionate about. I would rather feature something I like, and promote it, than something that isn’t my cup of tea. It was a little bit of both: I set out in the Chicago scene to promote indie artists and small names, which is my personal taste; and if I have a contributor that wants to do something that I don’t feel is in line with our style, I might not approve the pitch. For the most part though it’s all been on par with what I’m into. 

When did you turn the corner into doing showcases?

RZ: Well, the Trump election was a really negative time in media and in our community. I was at a concert the night of the election, Laplsy, she’s a British electronic musician and the next night I was interviewing Bear Hands, they were opening up for Foals and The Riv, and one of my questions was what do you think about the election, because I was so sure Trump wouldn’t win. Because everyone I knew hated him, but we’re in such a sheltered bubble from a: being in Chicago and b: being the type of people we are, in music, I don’t really know anyone who supports Trump. But the whole community kind of came together in 2017 when he took office. He started doing the immigration ban, he did the Muslim band the first month he took office. So I decided I wanted to do a benefit for ACLU, I had no idea what I was doing, and reached out to Subterranean and they got back immediately asking what I had in mind. I had just finished interviewing Post Animal in January and so I wanted them to headline it, but they had to cancel, so we moved the date to July. It was a benefit show that all the bands played for free. It sold out, and while it was a lot of work I realized it wasn’t really that hard to do. So after that I didn’t know how regularly I would do it, but I decided to do an anniversary showcase and then just started picking up where I was doing one once a month. I have bands reaching out wanting to do a showcase all the time. I’m not a venue or a booking agent but I personally enjoy that the most. Maybe I should just turn ANCHR into a booking agency. 

You have your third anniversary showcase at Schubas coming up with Engine Summer releasing an album?

RZ: Yeah, I started the anniversary show to be a way to feature the bands I’ve covered that year. That have new material, and are the next to pop, so to say. The first year was Post Animal, I think they were the first band I interviewed for ANCHR, and last year I had Slow Pulp, and they’re doing great now. Love it, happy for them, they deserve it. So this year I have Engine Summer, who are so underrated and put on a great show. They have the new EP coming out. When I think about who I want on the anniversary lineup, I think of people that I’m close with, who are friends. People who I’ve worked with and want to lift up and promote. It’s literally ANCHR’s birthday party so I want to have fun and not be stressed out. I never want it to be a clout thing, just want people to play that I want to see.