Driven to succeed in the business of music Local act wins battle of the high-tech bands contest

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February 21, 2008

By Brian Messenger

It's been a long road for McAlister Drive, a band with Andover ties that hope to follow in the musical footsteps of town musical success stories Apollo Sunshine, Piebald and Boys Like Girls.

To make it in such a competitive industry, both Christoph Krey, McAlister Drive's front man, and Brock Bouchard, the group's lead guitarist, understand that they must often think like entrepreneurs as well as musicians.

Since their early days as a basement act and through the formation of their own limited liability partnership, the two members of the Andover High School Class of 2001, both 25, have sought a balance between the creative and business sides of the music industry.

The pair, along with bassist Adam Richter and drummer Bill Melanson, opted for LLP status several years ago to save money and in turn help promote their debut album, "Something to Sleep With," released in 2007.

"Sometimes you have to look at it from two sets of lenses," said Bouchard. "It helps if you know the money you're putting in can be tax deductible. On the flip side, you can't look at it as a business all the time. You have to think like a band."

At the root of any successful business is a good idea, said Bouchard, a software engineer.

The challenge, he said, is in finding and acting on an opportunity people will notice.

"The challenge with the band is that there are millions of other bands out there," said Bouchard. "You've got to create a piece of music that is unique. That can certainly be challenging. You've got to create songs and sometimes throw yourself out on a limb."

Both Krey and Bouchard describe McAlister Drive's sound as an energetic and accessible blend of indie and pop.

When they're not in the studio, playing live or rehearsing, the two musicians hold down full-time jobs.

"Our guitar player is a techie — he's pretty analytical," said Krey of Bouchard. "I'm an accountant; I'm the same way."

The worlds of music and business collided on Jan. 22 when McAlister Drive won first place for most innovative live performance at the Xconomy Battle of the Tech Bands at the Middle East Rock Club in Cambridge.

A requirement of the event was that each of the six performing bands had to have at least one member who was also an employee of a local technology company. Bouchard works for Linedata Services of Boston.

"It was definitely tons of fun," said Bouchard. "In a weird way, I think a lot of technology work is very creative. To me it's not unexpected that a lot of techies and geeky people are also very talented musicians."

McAlister Drive performed for 15 minutes in front of more than 300 people, playing a mix of original compositions and cover songs. The band's victory earned them seven free hours of recording time in a Boston studio.

In addition to the live music, the battle of the bands was promoted as a night to seek out high-tech job opportunities, as corporate sponsors announced their openings on stage and a raffle was conducted using business cards.

"It was definitely a networking event," said Bouchard. "But first and foremost, it felt like a rock show."

As the landscape of the recording industry evolves, Bouchard said networking and self-promotion have become vital to a band's success. McAlister Drive uses networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Reverb Nation to get themselves heard.

"It's certainly changed now," said Bouchard. "It's a really do-it-yourself environment."

Krey and Bouchard started playing music together in high school, eventually forming the band Crown.

Some of the material from "Something to Sleep With" was actually written during their senior year at Andover High.

"Essentially, the album was kind of pieced together over the last four or five years," said Bouchard, noting that recording was done during winter and summer breaks from college, since Krey attended Tulane University in New Orleans.

The band's name was changed to McAlister Drive in 2005, after the main street on Tulane's campus.

Krey, who also plays piano and guitar and is learning the harmonica, said the band expects to play its first show at Tulane this spring after spending the winter honing its live show and concentrating on promotion.

"We've been working as much as we can, practicing two or three times a week and playing shows every weekend all around Boston and New York, and we're going down to New Orleans this spring," said Krey.

The band also played Old Town Hall recently for an Andover Youth Services-sponsored concert.

"It's just fun because we all still know a lot of people," said Krey. "We're really trying to get our name out there in whatever avenue we can to sort of make this the real deal."