Interview: Three Trapped Tigers
If there’s any band who deserves success in 2010, it’s Three Trapped Tigers. They’ve very steadily built up a fanbase in 2009 through two incredibly powerful, complex, mind-blowingly good EPs (EP1 and EP2) and have been playing live shows that have wowed audiences. I can certainly say that their performance at The Great Escape back in May was one of the highlights of the weekend, as my eyes were completely transfixed to the stage. I managed to get hold of the band themselves for an interview that covers, amongst other things, what influences them, improvisation, the state of the industry, and their future plans for the next twelve months.
The Musical Chairs: What artists influenced the blueprint for the sound of Three Trapped Tigers?
Three Trapped Tigers: It’s a mix of loads of different bands/people that the three of us all enjoy. Some of them are pretty obvious. Other less obvious ones include Supersilent, Volcano!, Humcrush, Tape, Fennesz, So So Modern.
TMC: How much of your songs are pure improvisation and how much is structured?
TTT: Very little is pure improvisation. In fact, there’s only one bit of ‘pure’ improvisation in the whole set. On the first EP, we were keen to keep some free improv in there and that was the start of 4. Of course, within the songs there is lots of scope for improv, and that’s the key to keeping the live show interesting. All three of us are improvising around the set parts the whole time and the more we tour, the more we get away from how it originally sounded.
TMC: Did you always plan to name your songs as numbers?
TTT: No, and if I’d known how much hassle this was going to cause, I’d have picked words out of a dictionary instead.
TMC: The video for 6 is one of the more surreal videos I’ve recently seen (see for yourself readers at the end of this interview). How did that idea come about?
TTT: That was all our manager’s idea. He’s a nut-sadist. It was pretty hard work running around in those suits all day but I think we pulled it off in the end.
TMC: Do you get frustrated when people try to pigeonhole your music?
TTT: Not really. Well, kind of. I don’t have any problems with genre categorization at all: it’s clearly useful. And it’s actually something that we consider in the creative process. But some genres and particularly multi-hyphenated sub-genres that journalists just make up for fun are fairly useless and that frustrates me. You tend to find that one person’s math-rock is another person’s jazz-fusion anyway, and we’d probably disagree with whatever anyone said anyway. To me it’s pretty obvious that we’re a rock band, and that’ll do. So long as you don’t have to travel on any escalators in HMV to find us, that’s fine.
TMC: After two EPs, is there an album in the works or are you going to focus on more EPs?
TTT: There’s an album in the works, but there’s a third EP before that. Expect that in Spring and the album to follow.
TMC: You recently did a few shows warming up for 65daysofstatic. Were they fun shows to play?
TTT: Yes: fairly big shows in big clubs with decent soundsystems – and people even seemed to be listening.
TMC: Given the current state of the music industry, is an exciting or a daunting time to be a recording artist?
TTT: Well it’s both, right? It depends what your ambition is. If anyone wants to make money, then clearly it’s a daunting time. But if you’re more interested in making decent music and getting people to listen to it, then it’s also exciting. We’ve done everything ourselves so far in terms of releases. And for EP3 we’re doing all the recording at home. So it’s swings and roundabouts: people can listen for free, we can record for free.
TMC: What touring plans do you have for 2010?
TTC: We’re working on that at the moment. They’ll be a tour around the release of EP3 in March, festivals then a big album tour towards the end of the year.
TMC: Finally, do you have any musical recommendations that you wish to pass on to our readers?
TTC: Ultimate Thrush, Lawrence English, Volcano the Bear.
What artists influenced the blueprint for the sound of Three Trapped Tigers?
It’s a mix of loads of different bands/people that the three of us all enjoy. Some of them are pretty obvious. Other less obvious ones include Supersilent, Volcano!, Humcrush, Tape, Fennesz, So So Modern.
How much of your songs are pure improvisation and how much is structured?
Very little is pure improvisation. In fact, there’s only one bit of ‘pure’ improvisation in the whole set. On the first EP, we were keen to keep some free improv in there and that was the start of 4. Of course, within the songs there is lots of scope for improv, and that’s the key to keeping the live show interesting. All three of us are improvising around the set parts the whole time and the more we tour, the more we get away from how it originally sounded.
Did you always plan to name your songs as numbers?
No, and if I’d known how much hassle this was going to cause, I’d have picked words out of a dictionary instead.
The video for ‘6’ is one of the more surreal videos I’ve recently seen. How did that idea come about?
That was all our manager’s idea. He’s a nut-sadist.
It was pretty hard work running around in those suits all day but I think we pulled it off in the end.
Do you get frustrated when people try to pigeonhole your music?
Not really. Well, kind of. I don’t have any problems with genre categorization at all: it’s clearly useful. And it’s actually something that we consider in the creative process. But some genres and particularly multi-hyphenated sub-genres that journalists just make up for fun are fairly useless and that frustrates me. You tend to find that one person’s math-rock is another person’s jazz-fusion anyway, and we’d probably disagree with whatever anyone said anyway. To me it’s pretty obvious that we’re a rock band, and that’ll do. So long as you don’t have to travel on any escalators in HMV to find us, that’s fine.
After two EPs, is there an album in the works or are you going to focus on more EPs?
There’s an album in the works, but there’s a third EP before that. Expect that in Spring and the album to follow.
You recently did a few shows warming up for 65daysofstatic. Were they fun shows to play?
Yes: fairly big shows in big clubs with decent soundsystems – and people even seemed to be listening.
Given the current state of the music industry, is an exciting or a daunting time to be a recording artist?
Well it’s both, right? It depends what your ambition is. If anyone wants to make money, then clearly it’s a daunting time. But if you’re more interested in making decent music and getting people to listen to it, then it’s also exciting. We’ve done everything ourselves so far in terms of releases. And for EP3 we’re doing all the recording at home. So it’s swings and roundabouts: people can listen for free, we can record for free.
What touring plans do you have for 2010?
We’re working on that at the moment. They’ll be a tour around the release of EP3 in March, festivals then a big album tour towards the end of the year.
Finally, do you have any musical recommendations that you wish to pass on to our readers?
Ultimate Thrush, Lawrence English, Volcano the Bear.
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Posted on December 1st, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Interviews, News
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