After-Death Plan is the Columbus duo of Lesley Ann Fogle and Constantine Hondroulis. Their songs cross genres and share a cinematic quality with female vocals that dart through territories of early 4AD, PJ Harvey, and Laurie Anderson but with an undeniably original style.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Lesley Ann Fogle: Vocals, Drums, Violin, Synth, Engineer, Producer

Constantine Hondroulis: Bass, Guitars, vDrums, Synth Vocals, Producer

with appearances by:

George Hondroulis: Drums

Lizard McGee: Guitars

Milan Karcic: Guitar

Bob Ray Starker: Saxophone

Jay Gasper: Guitar

Henning Nugel: Guitar, Bass, Synth, Drums

Tom Boyer: Synths

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to After Death Plan? How long has the band been around?

I’ve been in bands since the late 80s.  Most notably Our Flesh Party, Salt Horse, and currently Earwig.  After-Death Plan is an organic offshoot of Lesley’s music collaborative, Mal VU, from her time in Chicago in the 90s and oughts.  We liked each other’s approach to songwriting so much that we made ourselves an official band somewhere around 2012.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

We were at a Thai restaurant discussing where energy goes upon death. Lesley was saying that many people have that planned out within their religion and that belief is a powerful thing. Even though it may be a passive stance in that you are picked up, it is still a plan. She said you wouldn’t be able to use old logic in a bodiless and languageless dimension. She’d written a mythology of archetypes and her eternal justice character has a detailed role in her own afterlife. She’d put a lot of thought into it and I told her she should write afterlife insurance policies for people. One other person had told her that. That is the after-death plan.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Lesley and I are co-writers, though Lesley writes the majority of the lyrics.  Our songs are typically on the darker side.  Our first album, Literature, was all songs based on classic books and authors.  Other themes might be language, power, examination, love, death, books, characters, the psyche, and mysticism. I’m not sure where this is going in the future but she calls self-pity a thing of the past.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

I don’t think there’s a direct line that we can draw to any band or bands that inspire our music.  Personally, I listen to kind of a lot of 80s underground and new wave, with a healthy dose of 90s angular math rock (Barkmarket, Jesus Lizard, Jawbox, Melvins), but I’m also a sucker for big pop hooks.  I admit that the bassline for Charlie Puth’s “Attention” is pretty fucking good.  But, also, fuck Charlie Puth…

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

It’s kinda dumb, and I’m a little embarrassed to say, but if it wasn’t for Kiss I wouldn’t be doing this.  As a kid in the 70s they were these larger-than-life characters that I just couldn’t resist.  You could sing along with the big choruses, and I remember there was an HBO concert special back then that I would watch over and over.  The fire, the blood, the make up - it was spectacular, and I knew that’s what I wanted to do.  I wouldn’t say that I kick back and relax with their music these days, but they’re in the back of my mind somehow.  Turns out Gene Simmons is a creep.  That’s a fine how-do-you-do.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

I googled “old timey calisthenics” to come up with some kind of clever/smug answer here, but it turned into a weird rabbit hole.  The real truth is that I change my strings and maybe do a little vocal warm up if I have to sing in the first couple of songs. 

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

It’s not like we’re on the Grammy’s radar or anything, but we do not take for granted that we have the luxury of keeping our artistic vision pure.  We get to write whatever we want, however we want.  There’s no rules when it comes to art, and that is a highlight for sure.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Touring isn’t really a priority for us.  But answering this fantasy-football kind of question, I’d say that David Bowie had a dramatic presentation I relate to.  Lesley likes theatrical shows like Shockheaded Peter or Residents shows.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We want to create bigger and better things and collaborate with thinkers who surprise and inspire. It’d be great to find the funding to pull off some bigger theatrical multimedia shows we’ve sketched out.