One Brother, One Sister, Two Bands: The Akres Are Stirring Up Seattle Music

Is it possible for angst-free siblings from a small town to cause a stir in the Seattle music scene?

Just ask Carrie and Erik Akre, a sister and brother who are singer and drummer for two of Seattle's best up-and-coming pop bands.

Carrie's emotive vocals spark the bluesey rock sound of Goodness, while Erik's drumming provides a solid foundation for Citizens' Utilities smooth harmonies. The latter band has a country flavor and a sound that is more Simon and Garfunkel than Soundgarden.

Offstage, the Akres share an affinity for talking fast, a self-described "total dork humor" and a simple philosophy: work hard, believe in yourself, keep a sense of humor.

And that philosophy is proving successful. Goodness is selling out Northwest shows and snagging radio airplay, and Citizens' Utilities is causing a favorable buzz locally.

Both bands have CDs out. Goodness' self-titled disc, released a year ago on Seattle's Y Records label, is in national chain record stores and has sold 15,000 copies. The band has since signed with Lava Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic.

Citizens' Utilities signed with New York-based Mute America Records, also last September. Their first CD, "Lost and Foundered," was released in late April and has sold more than 1,000 copies.

While the capricious nature of the music industry makes it impossible to predict who will be the next The Presidents of the United States of America, producer John Goodmanson says both Goodness and Citizens' Utilities are deserving.

"If (Goodness) can turn their regional success into a national thing, they'll be huge," he says. "And, both bands are impressive live . . . . there's no denying they're just amazing."

Seated in a booth at a Queen Anne restaurant on a recent afternoon, Carrie Akre, 29, and Erik Akre, 26, are playing catchup. Carrie is wearing the exhaustion of a five-week national tour, Erikof six-weeks on the road.

Both traveled by van - but the difference between 15,000 and 1,000 albums sold is that Goodness had air-conditioning - and played 500-audience capacity venues in such cities as New York, Atlanta and Chicago.

The Akres (pronounced AH-kree) grew up in Kennewick in a middle-class family that included their mom, a human resources manager; their stepdad, a Hanford engineer; and three older step-siblings.

Competing for attention at the dinner table and on camping trips taught the children to be independent, but also supportive. When not on tour, Carrie and Erik can spend hours contemplating the mysteries of the music business: who gets record deals and why, who gets played on MTV and who doesn't.

"Even if we don't come up with a solution, it's nice to be able to say, `What is up with that?' " says Carrie.

"If we didn't have (music), we probably wouldn't talk to each other as often," adds Erik.

Now, after more than a month of leaving each other messages on voice-mail or scrawled on the walls of clubs across America where they knew the other one would be playing, the two siblings are face-to-face. Conversation switches from food allergies (Carrie's) to the flexible schedule of a taxi driver (Erik's most recent nonmusic job) to dealing with drunken hecklers at shows and a mutual yearning for snowboarding.

At age 23 - ancient for a band novice - Carrie responded to a "wanted: singer" ad in the Rocket. She had just spent a year in France as a nanny after graduating from the University of Washington with a B.A. in fine arts. Being in a band hadn't been a life dream, she says, but she wanted to give it a shot.

Soon her iron vocals were mixed with driving guitars for Hammerbox, a four-piece group that put out two albums, attracted a large Northwest following and then broke up five years later in early 1994.

The band wasn't communicating, Carrie explains, and she was too insecure to announce her songwriting desires.

"There are still Hammerbox fans who say to me, `I can't believe you left!' Carrie says. "But they weren't there. It was horrible, and I'd rather leave and be healthy then sit there and be miserable."

Her next project was co-founding Goodness with Erik, who had been band-hopping for a decade.

Described by Goodmanson as a disciplined and solid musician, Erik started on the drums at 12 - in a room directly below Carrie's, as she's quick to add - and joined a punk band called Diddly Squat two years later. (One of his bandmates was Nate Mendel, who went on to play with ex-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl's band, Foo Fighters.)

Talented drummers were in demand in Seattle, and Erik played in four bands, sometimes working three at once, while his sis was fronting Hammerbox.

Most notably, Erik played in Treepeople, an aggressive pop four-piece that put out four albums but finally broke up.

With Goodness, Erik, started playing locally after the Akres rounded up Danny Newcomb, Fiia McGann and Garth Reeves, but Erik still wasn't a one-band guy. Citizens' Utilities (Bill Herzog, Joshua Medaris and Chad Shaver) needed a drummer, and Erik signed on.

Soon Citizens' Utilities became a full-time gig, and Erik told his sister he was leaving Goodness.

"We knew the stress and strain of being in a band relationship and we didn't want to put the family relationship in jeopardy for the sake of a band," Erik explains.

"The last person I want to have stress with is my brother," Carrie adds. "That's the one thing I couldn't bear."

The split was amicable. Goodness hired Chris Friel to replace Erik, who plays on two tracks on the CD.

Music also helped bring the two closer to their father, George Seguin, a former jazz musician who now works as a drug and alcohol counselor for the state. He lives in Western Washington and attends as many shows as he can.

Although the Akres have worked as expresso-slingers, janitors (Erik), for temp agencies (Carrie) and, in Erik's case, given music lessons, they ponder rock stardom. They know that would mean hordes of fans, media attention, isolation. But as Carrie - ever the big sister getting the last word - says, "for the stuff you have to deal with on even a moderate level of success, I think you might as well just go for all of it."

Her words could be prophetic. In three weeks, Goodness is going to perform in Russia, along with the Supersuckers and the Posies, as part of the first U.S./Russian rock festival. They'll share the bill with three of Russia's most popular rock bands at VladiROCKstok '96, a three-day event celebrating the rebirth of Vladivostok, a Russian seaport that has been a closed military outpost for the past 60 years. The bands will play on Sept. 21 ata 20,000-capacity stadium.

Seattle's Taiga Productions, a nonprofit company formed to establish cultural ties between the Pacific Northwest and the Russian Far East, is the producer. Sponsors include the Washington Apple Commission and Alaska Airlines. Proceeds will benefit Friends of the Earth Siberian Hotspot Program, Russian Children's Fund and Vladivostok Performing Arts Organization.

----------------------- Where to hear the Akres -----------------------

Today at Bumbershoot, Goodness plays at 3 p.m. at the Rock Arena; Citizens' Utilities plays at 7:30 p.m. at the BumberClub, and headlines at the Crocodile on Sept. 27.