Tellison
When can we expect another Tellison album? And what can we expect from it?
We’ve been writing towards a new record for a couple of months now. A tentative plan might have us record at the end of the summer and the record surface sometime at the start of next year. The usual frustrations of full-time jobs and minimum-wage incomes are the only real things standing in our way.
You’ve played Bristol a couple of times now…what do you like best about the city?
Bristol seems to have taken us to heart since the release of or second album “The Wages Of Fear”. It’s a great town to come to with a lot of really good venues and a what seems like a pretty active live music scene. I’d always say it’s refreshing to get out of London and play to people who, for whatever reason, might seem a little less jaded in terms of gig-going. Bristolians always seem to have pretty powerful lungs too if the sing-alongs are anything to go by.
What other new bands are you digging at the moment?
In the last year I’ve been heartened to see UK bands like Tall Ships, Algiers and Little Signals starting to do better and better. Further afield I’ve really been enjoying records by (forgive the terrible name) The Front Bottoms, Devon Williams and Into It, Over It. We’re all huge fans of the US podcast RadioLab as well which whilst not a band is something we’ve spent a lot of time listening to independently and as a band.
What’s been your biggest gig to date?
I don’t know for certain but we’ve played to big crowds whilst supporting Biffy Clyro and last year at 2000 Trees Festival. I think in terms of our own headline shows the London date of this tour at The Garage will be close to if not the biggest we’ve ever done.
If you could support anyone on tour, who would it be and why?
I think it’d be great to support someone who’s music you care about a lot so you could listen to it every night. In that sense I’d love to tour with Stapleton again as well as bands like Frightened Rabbit, Death Cab For Cutie and Dave Bazan. Another way to look at it would be to want to tour with someone who puts on an amazing show every night. Into that category I’d put touring with hip hop acts like Dr. Dre and Snoop or big rock bands like Weezer or someone who brings the party like Andrew WK or maybe Fu Manchu whilst our buddy Darwin Deez and his crew might get a look in too. I’m also desperate to see a band called Dreamtime Wild Rice. They’re fantastic.
What’s the best thing about touring?
Waking up in a different city every day, feeling everyday concerns of the 9-5 slowly drift away whilst you settle into what can be a very different type of lifestyle. Also every day becomes a chance to have a great show, meet interesting new people and do things you’d never ordinarily get the chance to. Being in a band, touring and playing music is the thing we all love to do. Every day on tour it’s important we try to remember we’re living the thing we’ve worked towards for the other months of the year.
And the worst?
Being poor as all hell, worried, stressed, hungover and hungry then sleeping on a hard floor in the cold whilst the sweat of that night’s show slowly dries on your body and in your clothes. Waking up in a sleeping bag in a small room with four other men and knowing you’ve got to drive across the country to a place you’ve never been to where maybe no one will come to your show and maybe you won’t get paid. Also the constant desire to sit down somewhere clean, quiet and comfortable can get a little overwhelming.
What’s the weirdest thing a fan has ever done at one of your gigs?
People often do strange things at shows. Some aren’t really fit for publication. We’ve had guys get on stage and try to fight us or simulate sex with us. In Newcastle I accidentally spat a throat sweet onto this guy’s face whilst we were playing and he looked me in the eye, whilst we’re still playing the song, picked the sticky mess off his cheek, put it in his mouth and started screaming and dancing with joy. That was odd. We’ve had girls show up with all manner of peculiar “gifts”: cakes with our faces on them and knives and clothes and underwear. In fact a boy gave me some underwear on our last tour. Some girls once threw seemingly the contents of an entire underwear drawer at him. I also enjoy it when we finish playing a song and then someone in the audience calls out the name of the song we just played asking for us to play it. That always makes me chuckle.
Tellison play The Croft, Bristol, on Friday May 4. Tickets £6adv from www.the-croft.com
