The Tiger & Me are once again ready to get their show on the road, with a string of live dates around the country celebrating the release of their foot-tappin’ new folk single, ‘Made it to the Harbour’.
The Melbourne sextet are not afraid to explore each end of the musical spectrum with their sound being described as ‘charming pop’, ‘explosive dirty rock’ and ‘dark-hued folk”.
Made it to the Harbour is the follow up single to Pantomime, the infectious pop tune which was the first release from the band’s second full length album, The Drifter’s Dawn. After teaming up with producer Steven Schram (Little Birdy, The Cat Empire, San Cisco) they spent countless hours working together in the studio to create an album that truly harnessed the raw energy and intensity of their live shows. The Drifter’s Dawn was released under ABC Music imprint Four/Four.
Since 2010 you’ve released two albums and two EPs, that’s fairly prolific, what keeps you guys going?
Is it cheesy to say a love of music? Possibly yes. I guess we have it a little easier than most bands in that we have 3 main songwriters in the band, and the other 3 members have all contributed tunes at various times too. This allows for no shortage of material to work with. The rhythm section are pretty switched on musicians meaning they will pick up songs at lightning speeds, so sometimes it’s as easy as someone coming in with a finished tune, we run it a few times and it’s good to go! Other times we work much more collaboratively and it takes months to massage the song into place. But either way there’s always new material coming in.
Given your history, does that mean we can expect another release this year, or are we being greedy?!
Greedy, you’re being greedy! The recording of this last album, unlike all of our previous ones, was a concentrated 3 weeks in the studio, 8-10 hour days, 6 days a week. There’s a great benefit to working this way, but by the same measure when it’s all done you’re ready for some time apart from that process. Right now we’re more excited about hitting the road and integrating the new tunes into our live show and having some fun with it. We continue to write, but 2014 is probably when we plan to dive back in to recording.
The Drifters Dawn was released late last year. How has it been touring the album?
Touring has been great. What’s not to like? You travel around Australia visiting family, making new friends, seeing bands, drinking free booze and playing to new fans. It’s exciting to see the crowds grow a little more each time you pass through and you also get some pretty unique experiences. Last tour we ended up playing in 40 gallon hats on the back of a truck to a country pub full of rusted on locals – Jane even got to ride bareback on a horse called Mick Dundee – you just can’t do that in Northcote…
Given the album is said to capture the raw energy of your live shows, what’s it like playing songs from the album live?
It’s been an interesting mix. Some of the songs were pretty much recorded entirely live in the studio, vocals and all, so bringing them into the live set has been an easy transition. Others were really shaped, layered and written in the studio so bringing them back out into a live environment has been a bit more of a challenge. What works in the studio doesn’t always work on-stage, so tweaking the form and instrumentation to make them really come alive has been a bit of a process of experimentation, and we really use the crowd’s response to let us know if it’s working or not. There all sitting nicely now. Very nicely.
The album has deservedly received some great reviews, how does all the flattery sit with you? Is it something you take much notice of?
Why thank you. Yes and no. Anyone who tells you they pay absolutely no attention to praise (or criticism) is probably not quite shooting straight. It’s always interesting to see how reviewers respond to a recording, but we take it with a grain of salt. We’re more interested in how fans and new people are actually responding to the music in a live environment which gives a truer perspective than a single dissection of the record.
It’s the conclusion in a triology of recordings, would you ever do something like this again in the future?
It’s hard to say either way. But, being a betting man, I would put money down that the next one won’t be trilogy, then again maybe it will be one of those “trilogies” so popular these days that people just keep adding to but somehow keep getting called trilogies. I guess we like the idea of experimenting with themes and ways of approaching music rather than just a standard collection of 12 songs. So there’s likely to be some form of that in whatever we do next. The current state of music and technology is throwing a lot of the old rules out the window so there’s plenty of room to experiment.
You guys play quite a few gigs in your hometown of Melbourne, what’s it like being involved in the city’s music scene?
Being involved in a scene is sweet. I’ve always wanted to be involved in a “scene” since reading about Dylan and the Greenwich Village scene. There’s such an interesting array of extraordinary musicians and great people in Melbourne. Stylistically the bands that we like are all over the place, but it still allows for collaboration and inspiration. It’s also like a support network, everyone’s in the same business and it ain’t always easy, sometimes you need someone to help you out of jam (no pun intended). We always try to choose supports for our shows as bands we really like, which means we get to see a great gig and hang out with them too. It’s win-win. Bi-winning, as some would say, though perhaps those particular people shouldn’t be sought for advice on the English language.
‘Fess up. What records have you stolen from your parent’s record collection and why?
Well, my father had a collection of records but all he ever played was Neil Diamond and Vangelis – so initially I wrote the whole stack off with a “that won’t be necessary” wave of the hand. A couple of years ago I went back for a double check, just in case, and pulled out some gems: The Wall by Pink Floyd, All Things Must Pass by George Harrison and some excellent Stephane Grappelli.
You’re playing the newly relaunched Elsternwick in March. Are you excited? And what can we expect from your show?
Yeah, hells yeah. We hear good things and it’s always good to get outside the Northside comfort zone. You can expect usual Tiger goodness: everything from whispered ballad to fevered maelstrom, from charming pop to big time rock. We’ll be playing a selection of tunes off the new album, as well as some old favourites from our other records and maybe an upbeat cover or two.
If you could choose any, what Australian acts would you like to collaborate with?
Hmmm, that’s a hard one. If we’re going out into hypothetical land then collaborating with some of the greats like Neil Finn or Paul Kelly would be pretty amazing – if only just to see how they work and learn from their experience. In a more realistic sphere we’ve been known to collaborate with talented songstresses The Nymphs, since we share a band member. We shared the stage with Mikelangelo some time ago, a gentleman a scholar and a fine performer – so we’d definitely be open to more of that. We did an interesting collaboration last year with a man by the name of Murtaza Jafari as a part of The Key of Sea project. He is a refugee from Afghanistan so working together with him was a real eye opening experience in trying to find some shared ground in music. In general we’re really open to working with all sorts of artists, it can be challenging but pushes you to expand the way you play.
Where we can see you play next, what releases do you have available and where can we get them?
Our next show will be at the Elsternwick this Friday the 15th of March.
Followed by a succession of gigs down the east coast:
Saturday 23rd March – The Joynt, Brisbane with Luna Junction and The Forty Thieves
Sunday 24th March – The Beech Hotel, Byron Bay
Tuesday 26th March – The Vanguard, Sydney with Evan & the Brave and The Twoks
Thursday 28th March – Hotel Steyne, Sydney with Papa Pilko and the Binrats
Then we’ll be bringing it all back home to Melbourne on Saturday 13th of April at the Northcote Social Club joined by The Twoks and Texture Like Sun.
All our albums are now available through ABC, iTunes and all good record stores.
