MidWest Friends Fest: The One With Alex Kasznel & The Board Of Directors

Pick up some Skyline Chili, make a few friendship bracelets and grab your buds as Midwest Friends Fest is returning to the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area for its sophomore year. Midwest Friends Fest is once again taking over the Southgate House Revival in Newport, KY. 

The 2-day festival with multiple stages and amazing national and local acts like Signals Midwest, Cinema Stare, The 1984 Draft and Tooth Lures A Fang will take place from 30 & 31 May with tickets available here. 

Alex from Alex Kasznel & The Board Of Directors has joined TGEFM to discuss this year’s festival for this installment of our MWFF interview series. Check it out below and we’ll see you at the bonfire in the woods!

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Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! What should our readers know about Alex Kasznel and the Board Of Directors; your history, your mission, your sound?

Some people describe us as “surprisingly un-whiny”. That’s sort of where the slogan ‘Pop Punk for Grownups’ came from. People who hear our songs can identify that there’s some early 2000s Warped Tour stuff in there, but the songs aren’t about having a pizza party with my dudes because I’d take them over my ex. I’ve actively avoided using the expression “this town” in any of my lyrics. Plus, my voice can’t go that high anyway, and my hair’s too curly to do one of those swoopy things – are they still doing that anymore?

You are gearing up for Midwest Friends Fest in the coming months, what does the festival circuit mean to artists like yourselves?

There’s value in slugging it out in bar shows and DIY spots. We cut our teeth doing gigs at our local Legion Hall, loading in the whole PA, flyering the show around town, selling tickets at the door. But getting on stage at a fest with a great lineup and an attentive audience just opens so many more doors for the bands, especially when it’s as well executed as MWFF. 

What do you have planned for us beyond MWFF?

We just put out a new 7″ called Board Music for Bored People. It’s 5 songs in 5 minutes, and we’ve been dropping music videos for each of the songs online. We’re gonna be touring on that for a few weeks in March, and we might have hypothetically just finished recording a full length that will be out this summer (but you didn’t hear that from me).  

What have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences with the band so far? What’s been the most unexpected? The weirdest?

We did a gig at Legion Hall in Acworth, GA and Joe Queer showed up. I mean, to be fair, he wasn’t there to see us, but still, we’re sitting at our merch table like “…wait, is that fucking Joe Queer?!” He was super nice! 

Regarding live sets, what are you most excited to bring to the Midwest Friends Fest audience? What do you want the attendees to say about your set when they tell their friends about you?

For me the live show is about engagement. We all have infinite access to music now. You can stream our stuff for free on the internet ad infinitum. When you come to our show, I want you to have a singular experience, something you couldn’t get unless you were at that specific gig. I do my best to avoid saying the same BS between the songs every night, and we never play the same set twice. I just want us all to have that moment together. 

We’ve all got a few, what is your biggest regret? A gig you turned down, advice you didn’t take, what one thing do you wish you handled differently as a musician?

I just would have started this band sooner. It’s tricky to say that though, because the perspective that came with a little more age really informed the sound, the lyrics in particular. I think in some ways I had to go live some more life before I could get on stage feeling like I had something worth saying.

The punk, ska and indie scenes have almost always been at the forefront of inclusion and diversity within the music scenes.   The flipside of course is that the gatekeeping in the scene is also very prevalent. Why do you think the genre brings in such a welcoming community and is so happy to let everyone in and also seems to shut the doors so quickly behind themselves?

With few exceptions, the ethics and ideologies within punk have been historically egalitarian. Everyone’s invited to the party. Musically, however, there does tend to be a level of protective reverence for what it means to be a punk rock band. Instrumentation, lyrical subject matter, the way you dress – there are some implicit rules, which is admittedly weird in a genre that’s mostly based around a rigorous devotion to individual thought and an opposition of authority. I guess that’s the trick: How do you put parameters on a style that’s based around defiance? It’s a moving target by definition. But honestly, you could say the same of country, metal, blues – the challenge of maintaining your collective roots while still innovating within your scene is not specific to punk in my opinion.

This festival is all about friendships and music. What do you value most in friendships amongst yourself and your stagemates?

Oh, we hate each other. We travel to all of our gigs in separate private helicopters. 

You recently appeared as the opening track on Punkerton Records’ Rock Against Trump comp.  The world has undoubtedly been going through some shit over the last few days, weeks, hell, decade. What affect, if any, have the cultural and political landscapes of the last few years had on your music or the live scene in general?

You know it’s funny, the song I wrote for that comp isn’t even an anti-Trump song. It’s not about any politician actually. It’s an indictment of those who pay lip service to social causes and never actually do anything to help. Protest music is only valuable insofar as it provokes thought and motivates action. The songs, in and of themselves, do nothing. I wrote what I wrote as a reminder that listening to How to Clean Everything for the 750th time does not count as a legitimate work of activism. My highest hope is that perhaps our song does motivate people to put some actual sweat equity into the causes that matter to them.

The band is based out of Cincinnati. I thought the city was only known for amazing chili, a dog-obsessed racist baseball owner and the greatest rollerblading movie of the 90s featuring Jack Black and Seth Green (Airborne), but MWFF is proving the city is home to some amazing artists. What’s going on in Cincinnati that led to so much of an overabundance of great music In the scene lately? How does the area feed into the music you are writing, if at all?

I think Cincy is unique in how hospitable it is to songwriters. The open mic scene here is really strong, and that feeds into the music scene in general. People are fond of saying that Cincy is the biggest small town in America, and I think that’s true of the music scene too. It’s never felt competitive or cliquey to me here. The bands are fans of one another, and we want each other to succeed. It’s a great place to have your start.

What album or band or significant singles made you go “Yeah, this is what I want to do”  Not just an influence but who or what was the catalyst?  On the flipside to that one… Who are some non-MWFF bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should?

It was actually School of Rock, the Jack Black movie. I’m the same age as the kids in the film, and I had just started playing the guitar when that movie came out. Seeing kids my age who could legitimately shred was dumbfounding. Plus, all the bands on that soundtrack, the listening homework that Jack Black’s character hands out to the students, it was like a 101 class in rock and roll: Metallica, AC/DC, Motörhead – these are the fundamentals, kid. 
Non-MWFF bands? My money’s on Get Wrecked. I can’t think of another band that’s simultaneously so heavy and so funny. It’s tough to make hardcore accessible and fun without taking the teeth out of it, but they managed to do it. For my money, they’re the best band in the city right now.

I don’t know if you’ve heard about this newcomer by the name of Taylor Swift. Her growing fanbase trades friendship bracelets. If you made a bracelet for MWFF, what word or phrase word you put on it?

“He went to Jared.” Then just put Jared Bowers’ face on the other side.  <ed. note – Jared Bowers is the devilishly handsome fellow behind MidWest Friends Fest>

Post show jam session in a large, empty field. What song are you singing around the bonfire? (Pardon my playful biases, but everything I know about the Midwest comes from shitty movies and songs by the Kinsella Bros. so I assume everyone playing here has spent some time at bonfire parties in the fields off some lonely county road)?

I do have a friend in Alexandria that does an annual ‘burn party’. I think they did an upright piano one year. There may have been multiple pianos actually. Anyway, if you’re burning things, might as well go with something off De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, right? Hold on, I’ll get my corpse paint and torches…

Midwest Friends Fest is a smorgasbord of fantastic acts. Which bands are you most excited to see?

Signals Midwest is a really exciting one for me. I was a fan of theirs before I started the Board of Directors, so it’s kind of surreal to be on the same bill.

Was there anything I missed that you’d like to share or dive deeper into with our readers?

Our bassist Heather really likes doing stage banter. It’s her favorite. If you’re reading this, make sure to shout direct questions at her during our set. I mean, like between every single song. I’ll open it up to just straight Q&A with Heather. It’ll make her day.