Photos / Cortney Armitage
Story / Erica Hawkins
The band *repeat repeat may call Nashville home now, but their sound mirrors where they’re from originally – both physically and sonically. The self-described “family business” is run by husband and wife Jared Corder (a former punk-rock kid who cut his teeth on Black Flag’s late ‘70s California punk sensibilities) and Kristyn Corder (would not be out of place at a bungalow in Laurel Canyon or singing back layered melodies at a Mamas and the Papas gig). From Austin and Arizona respectively, they met in Tenessee, where they began creating what TIME aptly described as “a little bit of grunge and a little bit of surf pop.” When asked about what impact, if any, their newfound home has on them as a band, Kristyn replies, “I think it plays into our professionalism, our vision and business sense, but I don’t think it has affected our sound. I think if anything, we try to pull our own very not Nashville sound to the mix from Arizona and California. Coming up as a band in Nashville is like baptism by fire, because you’re in music city. I don’t think it’s competitive, it’s typically loving and supportive for the most part. But you have peers and what everyone else is doing – you can’t be doing less. You learn to navigate the business side of it.” That tenacity and business grit grew with them in their new found home, but as Jared shares that it was there for him in Arizona as well amidst a lack of scene: “At the time there was no music scene and I don’t think there is now. I grew up in Gilbert, Arizona. It’s very suburban, it’s very safe, Anglo-Saxon, 2.5 kids, man-made lakes – that’s the best I can put it.”
Floral Canyon, *repeat repeat’s second album, was released last year, showing off their ability to tightrope between the sonics of two coasts with their unique mix of beach punk rock. However, they’ve still heard from audiences that they’ve got a “Nashville sound.” That can be easily dismissed though, because as Kristyn puts it, “I don’t think that’s what they’re hearing, I think it’s either because we’re based in Nashville or my Texas shows through.” Pointing to a southern accent as an easily identifiable genre signal may be a cheap way to box in *repeat repeat’s music, but the band does admit that their influences and their upbringing (twangs included) do seep into their songs from time to time. “My dad grew up in Long Beach in the ‘60s so he raised me on very big ‘60s pop songs,” Kristyn recalls. “I tend to hold our music to a standard, especially choruses and harmonies, building upon things; that’s always there.”
Jared’s first forays into music weren’t so promising. “I didn’t have a good musical upbringing. I was raised very religious – but not like Catholic. At least with Catholicism or Southern Baptist, you get some sort of gospel or you get a choir, but my parents went to a mega church so it was either Steven Curtis Chapman, Michael W. Smith, or they were listening to Sugar Ray.” Jared discovered his family’s inclination toward post-grunge-pop-rock (can we call it that?) as a force driving him to ultimately find his own sound. “That was good for me because, think of it– if your parents raise you on The Beatles, then how do you rebel when you become a teenager? You listen to shitty music!” And just when we thought we had delved into the darkest corners of ‘90s music, Jared admits that his dad is a fan of the popular 1998 hit, “Hooch” by the band Everything–a song to which everyone, unfortunately, knows the words. But Jared’s story takes a swift turn that can be heard during the band’s live sets. “When I got my first car I listened to a lot of West Coast punk. It wasn’t great but it was Rancid and Pennywise, then old stuff like Black Flag and Sex Pistols, because I was angsty and I was a punk teenager. That rolled over into loud, brash, three-chord-guitar rock songs. And then when we met…” Kristyn wittily interjects, “He hadn’t listened to music pre-‘90s or something.” Kristyn’s schooling on the classic rock and roll sounds that used to reverberate off of the Los Angeles hills became part of the band’s one of a kind blueprint. “She introduced me to a lot of these really harmonious, melodic music,” Jared continues, “and I think that really played a role in the music we create now.”
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