Amish Electric Chair is a DIY punk band from Athens, Ohio. They’re currently signed to Geykido Comet Records and have been touring the East Coast almost constantly since they solidified as a band five years ago. AEC is a powerful trio, made up of brothers Neil Tuuri (guitar/lead vocals) and Eric “Scotty” Tuuri (drums) and John Sava (bass/back-up vocals). They recorded, mixed, and mastered their first full-length, Keep the Lights On, in 2008, and one year later in November of 2009 they released a five-song EP, Straight. No Chaser. The band plans on spending some of 2010 on the road, and following that up with another record in 2011. Neil Tuuri took a few minutes to answer some questions — here’s what he had to say.

What made you guys decide that playing music was your thing? Any particular songs or bands that inspired you?
It’s really hard to cite one source of inspiration. The influence of society and hierarchical dictatorships (i.e., high school) left what seemed like no option but to gravitate toward punk rock and “anti-establishment” type music.

What kind of setup did you guys use to record, mix, produce, and sell 1,000 copies of your first full-length Leave the Lights On? I heard that you guys have a little something set up in the kitchen.
I went to school for music production, but have a history of fooling around with sound and recording that goes back to as early as six years old. I would get two cassette tape recorders and record a drum track (pots and pans being struck with pencils or wooden spoons) to one recorder. Next I would play back the first tape while recording an acoustic guitar to the second cassette recorder. If I messed up on the guitar the drum track could just be rewound and I could try again.

The current setup is temporarily in the kitchen and living room of our house — we live together. There is a four-room, 1,000-square-foot building on our property that we just built to house my studio that should be done by late 2010. We record with ProTools LE with a few nice outboard preamps, compressors, and mics. The acoustics of the rooms are by far the weak link. Fighting the seven-foot ceilings is not easy. As far as Keep the Lights On [is concerned], we did that in an old house on the campus of Ohio University. The same setup and acoustic issues applied there.

Regarding the studio that you’re currently building in your backyard, how is the progress on that? What are you going to fill it with, and what kind of soundproofing techniques are you going to use — if any?
The studio is being built right outside of the house. The design took almost a year of reading acoustics books and web forums. This could be the basis of an entire interview — which I’d love to do — but I won’t go too far into detail here.

DIY tactics — like recording your own music, fixing your car, and modifying your clothes — have a history of being spread through books, zines, and on the web. Any books, magazines, or websites other DIYers should check out?
The internet is a wealth of knowledge. In building the recording studio I had to learn trades that take years of schooling for people to excel at. I had to be an engineer, draftsman, soil expert, bricklayer, roofer, heating and air conditioning guy, and so on, without the time and money to take classes. I got a quote of 5,000 dollars just for the labor in laying the bricks for the building. I couldn’t put that into my budget, so I watched YouTube videos about five hours a day for a week and I had enough [knowledge] to do some damage on my own.

I had so much fun that I couldn’t imagine paying someone else to do the work for me. It doesn’t mean I could go onto a job site and put up any building that is designed. I just gained the knowledge that I needed to do one project.

When you recorded your EP, Straight. No Chaser., did you guys go into a studio with a producer?
Straight. No Chaser. was recorded, mixed, and mastered by me in the kitchen studio. It was originally just being recorded for our own personal demo purposes to aid in the writing and composure of those songs, but when we signed with GC Records they wanted material to release, so we just used that.

What has it been like being signed to GC?
Shahab at GC is what punk rock is all about. He’s a super nice guy devoted to helping his bands get to the next level, whatever that may be. He’s a very busy person with a pretty big roster. We came to this label being a band that has done almost everything itself. Not much has changed about that mentality. The label has been an awesome help with distribution, as well as just the fact that our name shows up with GC attached to it. We hope that GC feels our name helps them as well.

It seems like you guys will be touring for a chunk of 2010, and following that up with another full-length in 2011, correct? What can we expect from the new album?
We plan to tour as much as possible. We have this East Coast thing booked right now, but we’re hoping to be out for three months of this year.

The new record will contain the five songs from the recent EP, as well as some new stuff. All the songs will be recorded over in the new studio. Since the recordings on the EP were intended to be our own private demos, the record should offer enough variance to make it marketable to those whom already own Straight. No Chaser.

Can we expect you on the West Coast any time?
We have been in talks about touring the west. It might go down in late fall of 2010 — if not, very shortly after. We have done a lot on the east and southeast coasts, so going back gets a little easier every time, but out west is something we’ve never done — it’s always hard to pioneer new lands.

What’s the coolest place you’ve played on tour?
Amish Electric Chair loves Florida! There are some really great people down there — Greg in Tallahassee and Brett in Gainesville — that always make it a treat to tour down south. The Wayward Council in Gainesville is a really cool spot with a great history, always a must-stop for us.

Any embarrassing road stories?
Last winter we made our first stop in northern Georgia and got the skateboards out to go shred for a bit. We got two blocks from the van and John goes to gap a small patch of grass, just to get to the other side, and bites it. All kinds of ankle fractures and such. Skating was done for the rest of that tour.

I read a story about an incident you guys had in Jellico, Tennessee. You ran out of gas, and ended up calling a shady tow-truck driver that turned out to be the owner of a local chop-shop. Your van was stolen. Later, you found another tow-truck driver who helped you steal back the van. It worked! The mission was a complete success. Are you ever going to go back to Jellico?
We have driven through Jellico twice since the “incident.” We made sure to fill up long before Jellico so there would be no chance of needing to stop. We have joked about playing a show there — if we’re ever well-known enough to pull a crowd into that shit hole!

You guys have a song called “NIMBY (Not in My Backyard).” I’ve done some reading into that and it seems like that phrase has been used and interpreted a couple ways, but is well recognized as a pejorative term. What is your application of the phrase; who are you calling out?
This song was written [during] a transition period between our old and new bass players, as well as a former guitarist [Jese Wilkes]. The song was really written around the bass line. I was experimenting with some ideas of overlapping chords with the bass and guitar, similar to how the words in “Row Row Row Your Boat” overlap. The idea of “NIMBY” was Jese’s idea. The chorus came first. I really just liked the way the words sounded together. I then interpreted that into making the verses match. It really is one of the least poetic/thought-out songs I’ve done, but it’s one of my favorites. The song is about friendships and how sometimes, no matter how hard you try to hang onto them, they can fade. This particular friendship is a conflict of taste and moral values. It was not written about anyone in particular.

I read on a blog that you guys played a show with the band Five Foot Forward in which you played a song that lacked lyrics so you sang about chocolate milk. Any comments?
(laughter) Yeah that was quite some time ago, but it’s true. The song ended up being “NIMBY.” The lyrics were free-styled, and mostly just about how much ass Yoo-hoo kicks even though it gets a bad rap from people who call it chocolate flavored water. There was a crowd of about four people at that show. That song may not have made the set list had it been a busier night.

What advice would you give to a band in terms of recording, setting up their own tours, and creating their own merch revenue?
The first thing is to mean what you are doing. If you are into music for the wrong reasons, you’ll most likely expect someone to do the hard work for you. Do it for yourself and for your band mates. Also, play with your friends. If there are internal conflicts, doing things together as a group can become fatiguing.

Does it ever hit you that you’re living the dream, or is it too early to ask that?
We have recognized the fact that we are living the dream. Regardless of how it ends or how “big” our name ever becomes, we are doing something that not very many people ever have the chance to do. We are forever grateful and will never take for granted that fact.

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download “Not in My Backyard” by Amish Electric Chair