Quarters of Change, a rock quartet from New York City’s Lower East Side, made their ACL debut Sunday on the T-Mobile stage, taking the sound the band members describe as “just us” from the Big Apple to the Live Music Capital of the World. The youthful yet determined band, consisting of Ben Roter, Ben Acker, Attila Anrather and Jasper Harris, chatted with The Daily Texan about hitting the big stage and their journey.
The Daily Texan: When your set first started, I posted on Twitter/X, and the fangirls flocked, excited for the rest of the world to hear your music. How did it feel to be up there?
Ben Roter: It was awesome. The songs that we had written six years ago finally got to be played on a festival stage. I was thinking a lot about that. I’m just trying to take it all in and be in the moment.
DT: You’re from New York, so how did you end up in Austin and at ACL?
Ben Acker: We were here in Austin two weeks ago. We played Antone’s. There were a lot more crickets the last time we were here, crawling into the venue. Today is a lot more beautiful and it’s our first festival. We’re super stoked. We’ve been waiting for this for a really long fucking time. We’re very thankful.
DT: You have an album, Portraits, coming out in January. What can people expect and how is it different from last year’s Into the Rift?
BA: It’s definitely different than the first, which I think we did with a little less intention. This one is the range of what we love about rock ‘n roll. It goes from everything from hard and stadium rock to more deeper cuts; more spacey and psychedelic shit that you will hear on the album. I will not reveal the names of the songs at this time, but it’s a good range and a lot of different emotions.
BR: It’s our Houdini house album — cabin in the woods, wrote the record. (We) did it in the live room, the way it’s supposed to be done.
DT: You have very passionate fans. What do you want to convey to them as well as to the people who heard you for the first time today?
BA: I hope we come across as authentic because this is this is what we do with our fucking lives.
BR: We made it to ACL, baby!
BA: And we couldn’t have done it without you.
DT: As younger artists, did you imagine even a year ago you’d be on the ACL stage?
BR: We’ve been asking for a while, but we’re ready to fight like tooth and nail.
BA: Every year is so much bigger. This time last year, we were on our first opening tour, just getting the ropes of what it means to play 30 shows in 40 days.
BR: To other younger artists that are like working at it, don’t measure your success within a month or week, measure within a year. Since we started putting out music, every single year, it’s grown.
DT: What do you like most about Austin?
BR: I love an Austin crowd.
BA: They jump!
BR: It’s pretty unbeatable.
BA: They really love music here.
BR: You can tell it’s a music city.
DT: What can people expect from you in the upcoming year?
BA: Some more tours, and ultimately the same shit, just hopefully bigger.
Jasper Harris: You can expect blood, sweat and tears. We’ll put our lives on the line for this.
