“We just want people to feel something, and we’re not trying to make them. There’s no indoctrination, there’s no message per se. We’re very much ‘You interpret it the way you want to interpret it’ — and that’s the best part.”
— Ben Acker, Quarters of Change guitarist
What started as a teenage high school band has become a career for four New York natives. Recently signed to 300 Entertainment alongside artists such as Megan Thee Stallion and Young Thug, Ben Acker, Attila Anrather, Jasper Harris and Ben Roter are taking Quarters of Change to the forefront of new alternative rock. Just four months after the release of their latest EP, “New Hour,” the four have not only signed their aforementioned record deal, but they have also just completed a mini tour throughout Atlanta, Georgia, and Nashville, Tennessee, and performed their final show at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City.
Music has been an influential part of all of the band members’ lives: Each of their dads are musicians and each has passed down wisdom to their sons. Although Acker and Harris both loved music, it wasn’t until they formed a rock band in elementary school that their fathers got them to commit to their passions, and it was in those elementary school halls that their passion for music first began.
Concrete Jungle, as they were known in their elementary school years, was Acker and Harris’s first experience in a band. Several years later, by eighth grade, Harris and Acker met Anrather and Roter, and an inseparable quarter was formed.
Fast forward to high school, the four began to explore the possibility of starting a serious band instead of an elementary school pastime.
“We got placed in the school band together, and had access to rehearsal space,” Roter said. “It was just a very natural thing. We were together all the time and we all loved music.”
It was during the 2017 school year that the four created Quarters of Change. But with college causing extended periods of time that the band would not see each other, it was hard for the group to create music. When the COVID-19 pandemic sent New York City into lockdown in early 2020, Acker, Anrather, Harris and Roter took lockdown as an opportunity to focus on Quarters of Change. Not having to deal with the crunch on creativity that college was creating, the four were able to explore their musical ability and poured all of their energy into making music. Having this newfound love for their passion for music, the quarter dropped out of their respective colleges and decided to pursue Quarters of Change as full-time careers.
“We realized that life is fake outside what we have here, and we just wanted to fully send it. Quarantine gave us the confidence to do that,” Roter said.
Setting up shop in Anrather’s Greenpoint, located in Brooklyn, the band started to break away from copying the styles of their musical influences, and began to explore their own sound.
“We really look up to musicians that serve the song,” Anrather said. “[We’re] just trying to write really good songs as opposed to writing cool words or cool instrumentation.”
For the entirety of quarantine, the band continuously wrote music, and also tried to rework some of their old pieces to fit a new direction.
“We’re a lot more focused on the overall song than we were when we started,” Anrather said.
Feeling that their old music didn’t meet their new standards, the group tossed most of their early work and chose to start from scratch. Having a newfound freedom from the collegiate calendar allowed the band to spend more than just two to three weeks at a time working on a project.
“This is the first time that we’ve been able to devote the time and attention that we felt was necessary to writing a good album,” Roter said. “That’s not to say that we didn’t put any effort or didn’t try on previous projects, but now we could devote the amount of time that the songs deserved.”
From those studio days came the band’s latest EP, “New Hour.” Inspired by The Strokes’s first EP, “The Modern Age,” the band wanted to create something that would “blow them [Quarters of Change] the fuck up.” Honing in on the alternative-rock, slight pop sound of The Strokes, Acker and Harris started experimenting with dm guitar riffs and beats. In this project, Harris began testing a new style of minimalistic producing, which works to enhance the live instruments and add backing elements to create a soundscape, rather than a backing track, or a track that plays behind the lyrics.
“I always try to leave room for the essential elements like Ben’s vocals, or an important drum fill or a guitar riff,” Harris said. “It’s all about highlighting us and what we play live and then adding some shit that the listener doesn’t even really hear. They just subconsciously feel it when listening.”
When writing, all members pitch in their own ideas, but Roter and Acker tend to take the lead. For “New Hour,” the band took a lyrical approach that much resembles British alternative pop band The 1975. Reminiscent of a teenaged-crazed and young romance, the EP takes listeners from those long lost nights that they can, now, only yearn for, like in “Asphalt.” The band captures the throes of ultimatums and downfalls of teenaged romance with “Georgia. ”
“End of the Night” is next, and makes listeners live through the hardships of jealousy in relationships. Finally, the EP ends with “Look Alive,” an electronic-driven song that explores the lust that comes with yearning for a person you can’t have and the confusion and uncertainty that comes with those emotions.
“I remember we had just finished tracking one of the songs [for “New Hour”], and just had a moment where I was thinking this shit’s gonna be crazy. It’s gonna blow up, and we’re gonna put the EP out and get signed,” Roter said.
Roter couldn’t have known when he felt the power of “New Hour” that his prediction was going to become reality. As they navigate their way through their new careers, Quarters of Change are looking forward to developing their sound and travelling to new places to share their music with not only their fans, but anyone who’s willing to listen.
As of now, Quarters of Change are finishing their debut album and hoping that their rise in the industry continues. Having confidence that their recent tour attracts a new manager and opens the door to more shows, the four are excited to embark on the journey ahead.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Ben Acker as a guitarist and lyricist. He is only a guitarist.