Questions With Tussle

So I was really looking forward to my interview with San Francisco's Tussle, a band I've been into quite a bit ever since they released their debut, Kling Klang, a couple years ago. Filled with tight disco beats, strange electro sounds and tons of reverb heavy dub atmosphere, its certainly a spaced out and unusual record, but one that is highly danceable and easy to digest. I wanted to talk to the guys about Telescope Mind, their excellent second album, and I was fortunate enough to get sampler/synth player Nathan Burazer on the phone. Unfortunately, two things made this interview kind of blow, and they had nothing to do with the conversation.

So how is the tour going so far?

Its been great. We've really enjoyed touring with the Hot Chip guys, they're super nice. The shows have had great sound and tons of people, so its been great.

Those guys seem like they're probably pretty fun to hang out with, huh?

Oh yeah, they're really awesome.

So you released Telescope Mind at the end of last year. Could you tell me a bit about how you recorded it?

Sure, the producer of the album was Quinn Luke, and we recorded it in San Francisco at his very small studio. We had to record bass and drums first because we couldn't fit our whole band in to the studio, and then he had to mix it together, do a rough mix, and then Josh and I would come in and do electronics and percussion and other stuff.

Is that process similar to the way you guys actually write your songs?

Not really, usually its more us all in a practice space jamming together, and we record the session on a mini disc and then listen back to the parts we like and sort of find the pieces we want to start building from.

( So I'm doing this interview in my car in a parking lot because I was running errands when Nathan called me back. Luckily I had my tape recorder with me. Anyway, at this point in the interview, some redneck meth head who was clearly fucked out of his mind came up to my car and knocked on the window, telling me he had some baby in the McDonald's bathroom across the street and that he needed me to drive him two miles to some drug store because he needed to get medication for his kid because his wife had an emergency and something blah blah blah. I didn't believe his story because he was so obviously out of his head, and I told him I couldn't do it. He then calmly said, "Well can you at least give me a cigarette?" I did, and he left fairly happy. Nathan heard how strange this guy sounded, and I think it might have freaked him out a little.)

Ok, sorry about that. I don't know whats going on.

Is there some emergency or something? Because you can call me back later or something if you need to go or there is a problem.

No, I'm not sure whats going on... I guess, yeah, this guy was trying to get me to give him a ride, but he left and I don't see him anymore. Pretty strange. I can't even remember what we were talking about now.

(laughing) Neither can I... oh yeah, we were talking about writing songs.

That's right. So then do you guys have a lot of recorded material to sift through in order to find what you like from these sessions?

No, we usually don't record the entire session. We just start recording when we hear something we like.

So there have been a couple line-up changes throughout the history of the band right?

Yeah, after Kling Klang, the first album, Andy Cabic wanted to spend more time working on Vetiver and working with Devendra Banhart, so he left after that. And then we made Telescope Mind and Alexis left the band shortly after.

Why?

Well, its kind of a long story, but, I'll just say that it was less than amicable. It wasn't fun, but we had to do it.

Can you explain a little more?

No, I feel like I really don't need to say anything else about it.

So you guys had new people playing on this album, and the sound and production is in fact fairly different than what you did on Kling Klang, a little clearer with less reverb and less of a dub sound.

Yeah, that's true for sure. We went through a dub phase and were listening to a lot of it around the time we made Kling Klang, and after a while we kind of felt like we had done that and we wanted to move on to something else. It was an influence for a while for sure, but we don't really listen to quite as much dub as we used to.

So dub was something you all happened to be listening to at the same time during the first album?

Yeah, it wasn't a conscience decision and no one ever talked about it, it just sort of happened that way.

At first I was thinking it was kind of strange to mix this repetitive Kraut influenced disco beat stuff that you do with dub, but I guess it kind of makes sense in a way. I had just never hear something that combined them in quite the same way.

Yeah, but it does kind of make sense, doesn't it, mixing those two worlds and bringing them together?

Yeah, and I guess there are other bands that have done similar stuff with dub, like Portishead and The Slits come to mind for me.

Yeah, I would say that a band like The Clash is a pretty good example of someone with strong dub influence, and they mixed that in pretty well.

But your stuff sounds a lot more like actual dub to me than anything The Clash ever did. They had that influence for sure, but some of your songs remind me of actual old Jamaican dub like Lee Perry stuff.

Yeah, especially with that song "Decompression" on Kling Klang, its as close as we've ever gone to straight up dub, and now we're kind of interested in going in different directions.

So what have you guys been listening to lately that might have influenced your change in style on the new record?

Hmm. Maybe more Kraut, like Faust and Can and stuff like that.

Do you find yourselves all discovering certain sounds together as a band?

Kind of. You know Moondog?

No.

You should check it out. We all listen to hip hop too, a lot of the same groups.

So those influences come together naturally for you. Do you ever approach recording sessions with a particular sound in mind?

Never. We don't usually have any specific idea of what we want to do, it sort of happens by accident.

I noticed you guys switched labels for this new record.

Right yeah, we're working with this label in Norway called Smalltown Supersound.

Yeah, they've got a pretty prestigious line up with Lindstrom and 120 Days and Whitest Boy Alive and stuff like that.

Yeah, and they've got the new Sunburned Hand of the Man, and its being produced by Four Tet.

Wow, I hadn't heard that. I bet that's going to be interesting. So what made you want to switch labels?

Well, basically, we did our thing with Trouble Man, and he was very supportive at first, but we got a better offer from Smalltown Supersound and we decided to go there. We had some communication problems and stuff like that, and we got a lot of interest from Smalltown and Alexis was friends with the guy that runs the label, so he arranged us to play a festival in Oslo, and he heard the record and got really excited about it and we went from there. And we're actually working on a new album right now that should be out later this year.

Cool. Are you guys planning on doing anything drastically different with this one?

Yeah, we're working with this great producer named Thom Monohan, he's produced records for Vetiver and Devendra and Joanna Newsom and Brightblack Morning Light.

And this is where incident number two occurs: my tape recorder stopped working. Unfortunately I didn't notice it for a while, so we continued to discuss the new album (he says there will be some surprises on it), their live shows (the main thing the band focuses on when they write songs) and making it as a starving artist in San Francisco (it is apparently much easier to do than one would imagine, as long as you can find a place in Mission with rent control or roommates). Wish I could type it out for you, but I don't want to misquote the guy.

Anyway, go see these guys at 8th Continent tonight.