Mako Radio interviews Arts Fishing Club

By Alex Hernández and Daja Long •

Members of Arts Fishing Club sit down for a chat with Mako Radio. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARTS FISHING CLUB.

Arts Fishing Club is an indie-folk band founded in 2016 by Christopher Kessenich, Peter Eddins, Jimi Greene, Matthew Stiffert and Brian Kempson. Originating from Wisconsin, the band traveled toward the south region, flourishing in Tennessee. The band has a versatile sound with a discography of four EPs, one live album and a new debut album, “Rothko Sky.” Lead singer Kessenich sat down with Mako Radio Station Manager Alex Hernández to talk about music, his inspirations behind AFC, his creative process and the mesmerizing journey that brought him to the forefront of the music scene.

Alex Hernández:
How would you describe your music?

Chris Kessenich:
Oh, it’s pretty tough. I just always struggle to answer. I think the way that I would like to describe the music is its indie rock overall, but there’s a lot of folk influences and then since I’ve been down in Nashville and just playing with other players that some of them are southern, there’s like some, you know, just some of that southern. Very singer-songwriter based but built out into a full band.

Hernández:
You have a pretty neat name origin story. Can you please share it with us?

Kessenich:
So the first time I started playing music, I was playing with my cousin and both of us share a grandfather named Arthur, and my cousin was like, “Hey, we should call ourselves Arts Fishing Club,” because the year before that, we had gone on this fishing trip with a bunch of my cousins and my grandfather. And we made these Arts Fishing Club T-shirts. I hated the name though, it was so dumb that no one would ever take us seriously. But I just loved the fact that it’s a play on words to some degree. Music is so much like fishing where you’re constantly just casting out into nothingness. Every time you write a song, you’re just essentially casting another line, and sometimes most of the time it doesn’t really land a fish or anything, but every now and again you do. And the more and more that you do it, the more and more fish you land and the better that you get at fishing if you kind of focus on it. You think, “Hey, I have to land a big fish today or I have to write a hit song.” You’re just not going to always be super happy with your day of fishing or your career in music.

Hernández:
Where did the album’s name come from, and what is your favorite song from it?

Kessenich:
My favorite song is actually where the album name comes from, so that kind of works nicely. “Arizona” is the song, I love this song lyrically. The whole record is essentially a breakup album or it’s a record kind of detailing my thought process through a very up-and-down relationship. That song specifically is kind of the moment of letting go to some degree and kind of acknowledging that this was my fault and pretty well messed it up and I genuinely wish you the best.My ex’s favorite painter is Mark Rothko, an incredible, incredible painter. She loved him, and there’s a line in that song that says, “I hope you lay yourself down between a lover and a Rothko sky.” So essentially, it’s like I really want you to find yourself in between someone that you absolutely love and who adores you. And underneath, like nature, you know your favorite painter as the kind of the image and the landscape. I really love that song because I think it’s just a long, slow build, and I’m a sucker for long slow builds.

Hernández:
How do you deal with the fatigue of the tour?

Kessenich:
Coming off this tour was the most tired I’ve ever been. I’ve started to learn now that if we’re out for a while, I go through an almost clinical type of depression where I’m not sad, but my body is just tired. I have to essentially stay in bed or be up. Every single time, it messes with my head because then I get all nervous that I don’t want to play guitar. I don’t want to do anything and, it messes with my head that I’ve lost my passion for music.

But then I remembered that this year was the year when we did a full-on national tour. We played Bonnaroo, we just played a couple of other festivals, and we released a full-length record. And people are coming out and enjoying it, that’s all that we can control.

Hernández: :
What advice do you have for young creatives who are itching to play or create something?

Kessenich: :
Start doing it. Put out as much stuff as you can, like just keep putting stuff out because you get better every single time. I think what holds back people most often is that they want their first song to blow up, but the reality is it might not! But keep creating.