Alien Ant Farm

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Alien Ant Farm

Alternative rock band

Alien Ant Farm is a California-based alternative rock group. The band's style was described in Guitar Player as a mix of "classic rock influences with hip-hop, pop, folk, and punk elements."

The band was formed in 1996 in Riverside, California, with Tye Zamora, Terry Corso, Joe Hill, and Dryden Mitchell. They took their name from the humorous notion that humanity was planted on Earth by aliens, who watch us building our civilizations in the same way that a human would watch the tunneling of ants in an ant farm. For the first five years of their existence, they toured up and down California and into Colorado and Arizona and rehearsed every day. David John Farinella wrote in GIG that many music industry observers considered them "The Next Big Thing." However, those who believed in their potential and those who held the power to sign them were not one and the same.

"It Didn't Work"

The band decided to produce their debut album, Greatest Hits, independently and promote and distribute it themselves, hoping to take it national. The album won the award for Best Independent Album in the L.A. Music Awards, but the group was still unable to find a record label to take them on. The band's lead singer, Dryden Mitchell, told Farinella, "We showcased for every label and they all passed." He noted that when they performed for the labels, "We weren't concerned with giving them a show. We were just trying to make sure the music was coming across well, and it didn't work." He said they later realized that they had to show the labels they could provide a good show and that they would be "marketable-[a band] has to be a product-and I guess we didn't project that."

Disgusted with the lack of a good reception from the record companies, they went to one final performance for potential label signers. They had an attitude of "We don't care if we get signed," and paradoxically it gave the performance energy. An executive, Ron Handler, was there from DreamWorks, and a few hours later he called to offer them a deal. Mitchell later told Farinella that the five years without a label turned out to be a necessary period of growth and learning: "It's obvious we weren't ready to handle everything it takes to be signed to a major label until we were signed."

DreamWorks produced the band's first studio album, ANThology, which was released in 2001; most of the material on it was written by Zamora. Alien Ant Farm joined another band, Papa Roach, and the two bands toured together on their joint Raid the Nation tour, often opening for each other while performing for their overlapping fan bases: Papa Roach was better known in northern California, and Alien Ant Farm was based in the southern part of the state. In Interview, vocalist Dryden Mitchell told Dimitri Ehrlich, "The idea was to steal each other's fans and vice versa. We became friends, which bands don't seem to do much nowadays. Usually, it's more like rival football teams. So it's cool that we clicked with them."

Dryden also joked, "We didn't even notice that we had the insect thing [ants and roaches] in common until a couple months after we met." He recalled that the two bands made a pact that if one of them was successful, it would help the other band move into the big time, too.

In 2001 the band's cover of a Michael Jackson song, "Smooth Criminal," hit number one on the singles charts in Australia and New Zealand and number three on the singles charts in the UK. They followed this with another single, "Movies," which reached the Top 5 in the UK and the Top 20 in New Zealand.

"I Can't Feel Anything"

Tragedy struck the band in 2002 while the band was touring in Europe. On a 20-hour trip from Luxembourg to Lisbon, their double decker tour bus collided with a truck, killing their driver, 26-year-old Christopher Holland. Corso told Evan Serpick in Entertainment Weekly, "It was like someone tossed a grenade in my bunk. I accordioned into the bottom of my bunk. I looked at my leg and it had a bend to it. I knew it was broken." The members of the band began calling to each other to find out who was hurt and who was okay. Dryden Mitchell said, "I'm numb, I can't feel anything." He had fractured a vertebra in his neck. He was flown to London and then to California, where doctors told him that without surgery he would be paralyzed, and there was a chance he would become a paraplegic. He had the surgery and remained in a halo brace until he was healed; today he still has scars and some permanent nerve damage, but is not disabled.

After the experience, the members of the band stayed away from each other for a while, taking time to heal both physically and emotionally. The accident led the band to rethink their priorities and change some of their style. Zamora stopped being the main songwriter and Corso, Dryden, and Mitchell asserted their own musical tastes. The band returned to the studio in 2002 to record their next album, truANT. The production was described by Greg Olwell in Bass Player as offering "nods to Latin music, Motown, and rock of all stripes." Olwell added that truANT was "an ambitious and far-reaching disc." Zamora told Olwell, "I could never take 100 percent of the credit for the music on the first album, but now that the music is coming from four minds instead of one, it's getting better."

The album, which was produced by Robert and Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots, was released in 2003. In Entertainment Weekly, Jim Greer described it as a blend of influences from Gang of Four, Rush, and the Police. One track, "Glow," spent time in the New Zealand Top 20. DreamWorks, the band's record label, closed two months after the album was released.

In 2003 Terry Corso left the band to join Powerman 5000. He was replaced by Joe Hill, who had formerly played guitar with a band called Spiderworks. In the meantime, Universal Music bought DreamWorks and signed the band to its Geffen Records label in 2004. In that same year, the band recorded a song, "Dark in Here," for a video game called Punisher.

For the Record …

Members include Alex Barreto (joined in 2006); Terry Corso (left in 2003); Mike Cosgrove ; Joe Hill (joined in 2003); Dryden Mitchell ; and Tye Zamora (left in 2006).

Formed in Riverside, CA, in 1996; released Greatest Hits, 1999; ANThology, 2001; truANT, 2003; Up in the Attic, 2006.

The band recorded an album with producer Jim Wirt in 2005; they had worked with him before on their inde- pendent debut album Greatest Hits. However, because of contractual obligations they had to allow Geffen to release the album after Geffen refused to allow them to release it as an independent disc. In retaliation, the band toured on their own and sold bootleg copies of the album to fans, who called the bootleg release 3rd Draft.

In 2005 Geffen let Alien Ant Farm release the album on the Universal Music Enterprises label. The band announced a new album, Up in the Attic, in early 2006, and also released a DVD, BUSted: The Definitive DVD, in early 2006.

Tye Zamora left the band in April of 2006 and was replaced by Alex Barreto, who had formerly played in hardcore bands including Chains of Strength, Hard Stance, and Inside Out. In July of that year, Up in the Attic was released on iTunes.

In Entertainment Weekly, Mitchell told Evan Serpick that all the ups and downs of the band's career, particularly the bus accident, had left him philosophical about the band's success: "We're fortunate to be here, so it doesn't bother me. If all this went away, I would be bummed, but not devastated. Nothing's really tragic anymore."