The two members of Earth to Clark on stage.
Ari and Adam Gasser: ‘Our music has a stong lyrical message.’
Clark, it turns out, was never part of Earth to Clark. He was working at a Papa John’s when he inspired the band’s name.
Earth to Clark — what founding member Adam Gasser calls a “funktastic partydelic rock reggae hippy hip-hop” band — is now an acoustic duo, comprised of Adam and his wife, Ari Gasser, following the death of longtime drummer and co-founding member Mark Atkinson in March.
Before co-founding Earth to Clark, Adam was in a heavy metal band where, he says, he found himself consumed by negative thoughts due to the band’s depressing tone and sound. He began to write what would become Earth to Clark songs, focusing on a positive, progressive sound. He was joined by a bass player and a drummer, as well as a singer — that was Ari.
The two met at an open mic. Ari started singing along with the rest of the crew, yet resisted becoming a full band member as she didn’t want to be “the girlfriend in the boyfriend band.” She joined when she saw it was her ticket to a free pass to the Midwest Sunsplash festival. Eight years later, Ari and Adam are married with four kids.
“Our music has a strong lyrical message,” says Ari. “What we write about will usually come from something that we see or a lesson that is lacking and needs to be talked about. We use our stage as a platform.”
The group’s songs come from “experience and pain and struggle,” Adam adds, including subjects such as poverty, the drug addiction of loved ones, and homelessness.
They try to inspire their listeners to be the best version of themselves, as they “hold loyal to what we say in our lyrics,” says Adam. “We try to do whatever we can in our community or in our lives to make things outside of ourselves bigger and better.”
The group has released two recordings, The Giving Tree in 2017 and Growing Pains in 2021.
Earth to Clark aims to make their performances family-friendly. For the past several years they’ve hosted their own late summer music festival in Brodhead, Wisconsin, called the Vibe High festival. Children are welcome; there’s even a mini “kiddie village” show that rocks alongside the adult’s festival.
Following the death of Atkinson, Earth to Clark dialed back on performances, but decided to continue the band as a duo, playing summer and fall Madison gigs at the High Noon Saloon and The Bur Oak. They host a weekly Sunday night open mic in Beloit at 5bar from 7-9 p.m. and will next be playing live March 18 as part of an Evansville Underground Music concert.
