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Big Cats Under the Influence
Charlottesville's Drunk Tigers purr to the Dec
Thu, October 29, '09 |
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I vividly remember Drunk Tigers’ first show at the now defunct Is Venue back in the beginning of the year. Despite having problems while sound checking and faced with the prospect of playing to only ten people (both not unusual for a show at Is Venue), Drunk Tigers played a loud, raucous set. Of those ten people, I think the majority knew they were on to something. Even their first bassist, Jon Bray, exclaimed to me a week later, “I heard some bootleg recordings of that show—we sounded fucking tight!”
- The Dec: When did you guys first start playing together?
- Matt Bierce: Zach Carter (guitar, vocals) and I started playing two summers ago, in 2008. Mike Parisi (drums) joined us last fall and played our first show last December. We had our first bassist, Jon Bray, join in March and now we have another guy, Dan Sebring, who started playing with us this past July.
- I know Mike Parisi hasn’t been playing drums for too long. Does that influence the music at all, perhaps give it a more primal feel?
- You could say that. I guess you could say he’s been forced to have a selective sound and his arsenal is more focused as a result. He does sort of tend towards heavy, floor-tom beats, but that kind of complements what we do, which is pretty straightforward guitar-rock. So, it worked out pretty well. I don’t know who to compare him to, but he does like to do some fills and other things like you might hear in New Order. But all around, we’re all a little bit loose, and Mike’s style is good because he’s not really locked into a certain way of drumming or trying to show off or something like that.
- Does having a new bass player change the band’s dynamic at all?
- Since Dan has joined, we’ve been playing a lot of shows, so he got up to speed pretty fast with what we’ve already written. We’ve written some stuff with him since then as well. I wouldn’t say he’s changed the kind of stuff we’re doing. He tends to be a little more punk-influenced than our earlier stuff, which isn’t really relevant because we’ve only been a band for a year! (Laughs) I wouldn’t really say it’s been a huge change.
- Who primarily writes the music in the band?
- I’d say it’s pretty collaborative. I will often have an idea for a song, like a chord progression or some lyrics. Maybe that’s like half the songs. Zach and I just click together really well, and have similar taste. From there, it’s really collaborative. We change stuff all the way up until when we record. It’s hard to say who writes what, but he has songs that he sings and does the lyrics for.
- You mentioned that you guys are really still a new band, as you’ve only been playing for a year. Does the amount of positive feedback you’ve received surprise you?
- Yeah, a little bit. We weren’t really expecting it. Zach’s been in bands that have toured a lot, but I really haven’t. I’ve been in bands that have played a lot before, but the bands I’ve played in were never really looking to do a lot and get a lot of attention. We just kind of played for our friends, or at bars and parties. In Drunk Tigers we didn’t really expect much attention, but I guess it makes sense. We’re not neophytes. We’re coming out of some experience, which is cool. But I really wasn’t expecting it, going into this band. I just wanted to play in a band and write songs, and get all that out there.
- How would you say Drunk Tigers is different from previous bands that you’ve been in, or bands other members have been in, like Cataract Camp [Zach Carter’s previous band]?
- I think we’re a little bit more straightforward than most of the bands I’ve been in. I’d say probably the same goes for Cataract Camp. They wrote some really cool, punk-infused, Fugazi-ish stuff. But we’re not trying to do anything really when we set out to write songs, it’s just what flows naturally. I guess that’s one benefit of having played in bands before, we’re not trying to impress ourselves or each other. We’re just playing straightforward fun songs. I used to play in a band called the Gult Coast Army in Charlottesville, back in 1999-2003. We played fun songs, but didn’t have a consistent style. We just wrote whatever and played the hell out of it. Drunk Tigers is much more streamlined now that we have a sound.
- Why did you guys decide to play music in Charlottesville?
- We all live here. I work here, Zach works here, Mike was in grad school recently, but he now works around here. Dan just moved back to Charlottesville this past year, from Richmond. We didn’t have a choice, I guess! (laughs) We’ve all been here for a while.
- Do you ever feel like Charlottesville is ever holding you back in terms of success? Do you think it would be easier in a bigger city like New York?
- That’s an interesting question. I suppose one might have the opportunities more at hand for reaching the people who make all the decisions in the world, but at the same time, you’re just a drop in the bucket. Up in New York, what’s the point of competing against all of those other bands? I wouldn’t go there just for that. But at the same time, people up there are more used to seeing shows just because it’s a bigger scene there. In Charlottesville, there is a scene, but it just can’t support the huge number of bands and venues in the same way. It’s a smaller, more dedicated, group of people who are remarkably good musicians, and passionate about it. But there is a high turnover, because it’s a college town. I guess that’s the biggest downside of the scene here, but I honestly don’t see a huge advantage in being up in New York for music.
- Tell me about your upcoming release.
- We actually don’t know what it’s going to look like, but we’re going to the studio in about two weeks to record a handful of songs. It’s all originals, two of which we just finished writing last month. Another one started as this bizarre, poppy television theme music, and it’s continued to morph over the past nine months. But weirdly, that poppy riff that started it off is gone, and it’s a faster, different song. It’s an interesting song that is parallel to our evolution as a band (laughs). But we’re probably just putting out a short EP, or maybe we’ll combine it with a past EP and make it a longer piece with some artwork.
- Tell me about your upcoming show at the Tea Bazaar.
- We’re playing Friday, November 13th, with two bands. Impossible Arms, from Chapel Hill, are on Odessa records. They just recorded a new album. They’re really fun, they’re a dirty kind of early 90s indie-rock sound. I would compare them to something like Dinosaur Jr., in that vein of interesting melodies, paired with gutsy-loud rock. We’re excited to play with them. They’re on a label with some bands I really love, The Kingsbury Manx and Americans in France. We’re actually playing with Americans in France in December.
The other band is called Red Satellites. They’re also from Charlottesville. They do a pretty fun, dancey, piano-driven, David Bowie kind of glam thing, and I’m friends with those guys, Kevin and Dan. They write good songs. It’s gonna be a good show.
Eight months later, the band has come a long way. After the departure of Jon Bray and the addition of bassist Dan Sebring, they managed to climb WTJU’s charts with their first EP and land opening sets for bigger acts such as Islands, Titus Andronicus, and Pattern is Movement. On the eve of their homecoming show at the Tea Bazaar, I spoke with Matt Bierce, guitarist and singer of the group.
Drunk Tigers play at the Tea Bazaar on November 13th.