Meet Lachlan Tankersley | Lead Guitar/Vocalist and Band Manager for Room 213

We had the good fortune of connecting with Lachlan Tankersley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Lachlan, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Between the three of us, we each spend a lot of time doing our day jobs. It would be great if we were at the point where we could live off of our music alone but we have yet to get there. Two of us, myself and my brother and drummer, Matthew, recently got new jobs. He started working at Guitar Center not too long ago, while attending school at GSU and I began work at an Audio/Visual distribution warehouse called On Services. Our bassist, Isaac has been working as a civil engineer and also attending school at GSU.

We manage to work around our busy hours, albeit stressful and we’re often tired, but we work at our own pace. I think as we continue to make music we’ll keep evolving around our schedules regardless of where we work. Luckily for us, Isaac and I work till the mid afternoon every week day, leaving ourselves open after 5.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We fall under the banner of “neo-garage rock” and associate ourselves with the even larger group of artist in the underground scene in Atlanta. I love local artists so much. Punk, garage, rap, jewelry makers, tattoo artists, whoever really. To be around this scene is part of what drives this band. We’re still small in the grand scheme of things but we’ve come a long way from where we started. That being said, it’s been an uphill challenge. I’ve made dozens of mistakes trying to get bigger.

I’ve fallen for tricks from platforms trying to make a buck scamming immature artists. Enough times to know better. (Don’t pay for playlisting.) Sometimes we get under each others skin and fight but that’s part of it. We have a tight bond, I would do anything for these guys. We find time to step back from the stressors that come with this business and just hang out. It’s easy for me to forget to enjoy music. When I feel overwhelmed I’ll find time to write, and that tends to center me.

We want to give fans of music an opportunity to see the kind of energy we bring. We love performing and everything that comes with it. When we do these gigs it’s like an escape from our day-to-day monotony, and it’s a huge payoff. Watching the myriad of reactions from concert-goers when we try something we wrote the day before, play one of our go-to songs, kill it or slip up makes this the favorite thing in my life. I’m happy with where we are, and I see this passion project going for a long while. Even if life takes us in opposite directions, we’d be okay just knowing we had this thing we all poured our hearts into and gave people something we love.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Pig n’ Chick BBQ, Outrun Brewery, Star Bar, and the Grist Mill at Stone Mountain Park.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We definitely owe a huge shoutout to Van Thompson and the other members of his band The Hax for giving us our start in live music. They were willing to let us come up on stage as naive teenagers and open for them in front of their dedicated fans. Without them and their roots in our hometown we would’ve had a much tougher time navigating the mind-boggling business of booking shows and music performance.

Also it would be foolish to not mention our friends and family who have supported us by coming to our shows and being part of the band. David Pettibone, Hanna Mercy, Anderson Parrott, to name a few have worked along side us for years now. They’re a huge part of our team doing the things we can’t, and some of our closest friends. We wouldn’t be where we are without them.

Website: https://www.room213atl.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/room213atl/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/avantguardian213

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Lachlan520

Other: https://room213.bandcamp.com/album/cave-bump

Image Credits
David Pettibone, Hanna Mercy, Olivia Bowman