Tera Melos first caught my attention back in 2006 while their music was still predominantly instrumental. Their music ping-pongs through math rock madness and post-rock experimentation all the while delivering a warm dose of melody. Their fantastic and most recent Patagonian Rats was released in September of 2010 through Sargent House and they have been touring in support of it since.
You guys are about to embark on a month-long tour with Marnie Stern, is there a name for the tour? If not would you like to name it?
no name as of now. i kind of associate naming tours with really bad emo screamy bands. we toured with maps and atlases a few months ago and played the ottobar in baltimore. we got there a little early and apparently there was a matinee show going on. there were all these 15 year old girls dressed like vampires running around. i don't know what bands were playing, but i know it was billed as some sort of AP tour and it had a really terrible name. all these old ass dudes, also dressed like vampires, tearing off their shirts playing this really awful music. it was surreal. although, one of the merch guys ended up buying every cd we had, i think 4 or 5. also, i wanted some candy from a little machine but i didn't have a quarter and one of the vampires overheard me and politely gave me one. so i guess they're pretty good guys underneath the pounds of make up. anyways, that's probably what i'll associate with naming tours for the rest of my life.
You have become sort of infamous for your sarcasm and self-deprecating wit, what motivates you to effectively nuke so many in such a hilarious fashion?
i hadn't noticed! haha. for better or for worse this band has always been outspoken, but the key is understanding the conext in which we're outspoken, otherwise we just sound like angry jerks. we're just trying to be honest. and we don't limit our honesty to the rest of the planet- we're also honest about ourselves. it's really just who we are as people. this band has a lot of larry david moments. unfortunately at times it can work against us, but that's life. it's pretty remarkable what goes on in the world of music that no one really questions or pays attention to for that matter. the new banksy film, "exit through the gift shop," perfectly parallels how i feel about music/bands/the industry. most of the creative world (music, film, art, etc) is based on perception and sometimes i have a problem with that and can't help but question it. things are just so backwards. i mean we're not trying to be buddyhead or anything. we're just trying to be real.
What are your favorite aspects of touring, and on the flip-side, your least favorite aspects?
the adventure element is one of the coolest parts of touring. it's real unpredictable and that makes it exciting. even the shitty things that can happen end up being awesome stories that we'll tell for years and years. i've even sort of trained myself to look at it that way even as the events unfold in real time. for instance, recently on a drive home from indianapolis nate and i stayed in a hotel parking lot somewhere in iowa or wyoming or something. it was the end of november. there was a gnarly snow storm and it was freezing, litearally freezing. i spilled some water on the floor in the van and it instantly froze. we slept in that shit. our piss bottles were rock hard. i remember thinking, "this is so rad. we'll tough guy it through the night and laugh about it tomorrow." it was terrible though, haha. i guarantee most humans would not have weathered that storm (pun??), but we weren't about to pay $120 for 5 hours of sleep. i woke up the next morning, stumbled out of the van into the sub zero iceland, strolled into the hotel and had a continental breakfast.
Your new album Patagonian Rats continues expands on the melodic side of Tera Melos. When did you guys decide to include singing in your music? Has this changed your writing process at all?
we started to toy around with vocals a few years ago. playing this kind of music makes it difficult to introduce new elements in a complimentary way. it definitely changed the writing process, but really our writing process has evolved and shifted with time just because that's how life works. in other words, we didn't say "we want to add vocals, so let's start writing songs this way." i think we just really like performing melodic music. we usually tend to find the most creative way to present a melodic idea into a song. that can mean taking a more obvious chord progression or melody and twisting it to be a little uncomfortable, or taking a weirder or more obscure melody and grounding it just enough for it to make sense. it makes writing and playing really interesting for us.
What or who inspires you to create and play music?
i can't really think of anything that doesn't inspire me to create music. all of the above. i know that's a really broad answer. i attach musical thoughts to everything that passes through my brain- eating, watching the simpsons, talking, taking out the trash etc. i'm not trying to be all abstract with this answer. it's the truth. actually, here's a less confusing repsonse- i think being happy is what most inspires me to play music. since music is what i'm most at ease with in life, it makes sense that i'd be inspired to maintain that sense of comfort and happiness by continuing to create sounds.
You guys have been working with Sargent House for a few years now, how has this partnership helped you guys?
the relationship been extremely integral over the last few years. cathy pellow (our manager/label owner/friend) is a very forward thinker and the people she has working for her follow suit. since our band/music is outside the box it makes sense to have people surrounding us that think outside the box. i honestly don't know what we'd be doing without them. before our time with SH we never had an ounce of interest from any labels or booking agents. a lot of times my mind drifts into paranoia because the position we're in seems to good to be true.
You guys have been known to be a sort of “musician’s band”, that is even though you didn’t have a large fan base earlier in your career tons of dudes who played in bands bigger than you guys raved about you and took you guys on the road. What is it about your music that illicit this reaction?
i think the "musician's band" term is a way of saying that the average joe music listener doesn't quite appreciate or possibly understand the music as well as a musician might. i don't know if that's true with regards to us. it's hard for me to have an objective perception of that idea applying to our band. i guess since we played complex music it was more difficult for non-musicians to get into. i could see that. i think other bands helped us out because they liked our music and we were nice guys.
What would be the line-up at your ultimate wet-dream concert? (You can include dead people too) hmm. beach boys '80 + king crimson '82 + flaming lips with a steven drozd clone so he could play drums and guitar + sonic youth '90s + aphex twin and squarepusher collaboration + pantera '96 but phil would have a shaved head + the clash '82 + underworld + tera melos. not too many dead people in there.
Is there anything else on the horizon for you guys that you’re particularly excited about?
just the future. i'm curious about what we will have accomplished a year from today. hopefully a lot of good stuff.
Any final thoughts?
stop letting strangers dictate what you should and shouldn't like. thanks everyone for your interest in our music, we really do appreciate it.
Tera Melos Official Site
MARNIE STERN, TERA MELOS - 2011 TOUR DATES
Feb 18 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo
Feb 19 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
Feb 20 - Scottsdale, AZ @ Martini Ranch
Feb 22 - San Antonio, TX @ Ten Eleven
Feb 23 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk
Feb 24 - Dallas, TX @ Sons Of Hermann Hall
Feb 25 - New Orleans, LA @ The Parish
Feb 26 - Tallahasee, FL @ Club DownUnder
Feb 27 - Orlando, FL @ The Backbooth
Feb 28 - Atlanta, GA @ The Drunken Unicorn
Mar 01 - Raleigh, NC @ Kings Barcade
Mar 02 - Washington DC @ Red Palace
Mar 03 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church
Mar 04 - New York, NY @ Santos Party House
Mar 06 - Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East
Mar 07 - Montreal, QU @ Il Motore
Mar 08 - Toronto, ON @ Wrongbar
Mar 09 - Kalamazoo, MI @ The Strutt
Mar 10 - Chicago, IL @ Subterranean
Mar 11 - Omaha, NE @ Slowdown Jr
Mar 12 - Denver, CO @ Moes
Mar 13 - Salt Lake City @ Kilby Court
Mar 15 - Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
Mar 16 - Portland, OR @ Branx
Mar 18 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill
Mar 19 - Sacramento, CA @ Sol Collective
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