Biography

Builder plays rock music. With so many sub-genres out there it’s hard to know where a band fits these days. Builder comes out of Kansas City with a sound that not only rocks hard, but also encapsulates beauty, melody and lyricism. They burnish their songs through a live show rendered as if their lives depend on it.

Builder is Isaac Anderson (guitars, vocals, motivational speaking), Mike Crawford (vocals, guitar, poetry), Eric Kautzi (drums, film-making) and Vince Lavergne (bass, mathematics).

Combining influences as wide ranging as Pavement, The Pixies, The Beatles, Calexico, Wilco, The Velvet Underground, New Order, early-REM, The Smiths, Elliot Smith, Neil Young, The Clash, and Broken Social Scene - Builder has crafted their own voice of yearning, lyrical songs paired with a melodic/angular twin-guitar + fluid rhythm-section sound. Their new songs are densely melodic and joyfully rocking...

A Brief History

Builder started as a band around 10 years ago in Dallas, Texas. Mike Crawford, former singer/guitarist in the Dallas band The Spin joined with Pete Coatney. Jim Cocke and Kyle Compton to form the short-lived Dallas incarnation of Builder. After about 6 months of playing the Deep Ellum clubs, Mike moved up to Kansas City, Missouri to be near his wife's family.

Seven years passed with no playing live, just Mike recording little 4-trak demos in his basement. Then, Flat Earth records got wind of some of the demos and asked Mike to put out a record. Two years later, the first Builder record - spring, sprang, sprung, came out. The music was folkrock at it's finest. Loud guitars mixed with acoustic guitars, piano, Hammond B3, Wurlitzer, crashing drums, earthy vocals. All the music was recorded with the original Dallas lineup. Still no band in Kansas City... Then in 2000, at a show of Mike and his wife Laura, Mike and drummer Isaac Anderson met up, talked about music, talked about life, talked about starting a band in Kansas City, talked about calling it Builder. Vince Lavergne was talked into playing bass with the duo and Donovan White joined on guitar within the next few months.

Builder played in this incarnation for a couple of years, playing mostly Kansas City and a few jaunts around the Midwest. They developed a nice little following around Kansas City and had some great shows. Flat Earth again wanted to document what was going on with the band, so Builder traveled to Indianapolis and into the marvelous Queensize Twin-Air Studios to record their second record. The band had progressed into a harder, more indie sounding band than it had ever been and the recording was done in a fairly quick, cheap and lo-fi style. The resulting cd, The Impossible Box, is now available at an online retailer near you. It is a nice blend of indie rock, early punk rock, alt-country and classic rock.

In 2003 Donovan White moved on to other projects. Isaac Anderson moved over to guitar and vocals. Builder was joined by drummer extraordinaire Chris Nickols and the rock just kept rolling. Builder's songwriting shifted directions again with the influence of Isaac on guitar.

Now in 2005, Chris moving to California has forced another chapter to close and a new one to open with the addition of Eric Kautzi on drums. Eric comes from a jazz background, but the kid can definately rock. Our sound is shifting yet again. Perhaps more creative, more post-something. A bit less alt-c, more post-emo, post-punk, post-toasties.