Tiger Army are set to return to Australia for a February 2017 tour which will be their first visit down under in eight years. Vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Nick 13 talks with us about their Americana inspired new album and how it’s been getting to play the new songs live.
SCENEzine
How’s 2017 been for you so far?
Nick 13
Not too bad. We had a bit of time off at the beginning of the year which was much needed after being on the road basically all of 2016. We just did our first gig in Denver playing with Frank Turner and our next shows are in Australia so we are really looking forward to that.
SCENEzine
We are huge fans of the new album we really dig it. Have you been enjoying playing the new songs live?
Nick 13
It’s been a lot of fun. I feel like adding them to the set ties together a lot of the different influences that we’ve always had. It adds some things that are cool for pacing to play a fast aggressive older song and then slow it down with a ballad like “dark and lonely night” from the new record. Then it brings a whole new energy when you pick things back up from there. It’s amazing how just playing even four new songs in a set can make the whole thing feel fresh again as a player. It’s been great.
SCENEzine
How was it playing Riot Fest last year on the same lineup as reunited Misfits?
Nick 13
Riot Fest was amazing. I had heard rumours about the Misfits and when it got announced I thought well that’s cool but we are playing on a Sunday and there’s no way we will be playing on the same day. So when the schedule came out and it turned out we were playing the same day on the same stage it was very cool. The crowd that we played to was amazing and one of the biggest crowds we’ve played to in a while. I heard up to 15 or 20 thousand people were watching us when we played it was pretty incredible, a huge pit with a very vocal response. That was great to see since Chicago is quite far from California, and I did get to see a line up of the Misfits that I never thought I would see. Obviously that was an important band to me growing up and an influence. I got to see one of the two times they played since 1983 it was a great day.
SCENEzine
Your newest album has an accompanying documentary explaining how the album came about during an Americana style road trip. Do you think it’s cool that so many parts of America still exist almost frozen in time?
Nick 13
Yeah it is cool and was great to be able to get out there and see it. I tend to play in the same cities in various states like as many times as I’ve been to Arizona there are two main cities. In the big cities on the coast everything tends to get redeveloped very quickly and cool little buildings are torn down to build condos and things like that. So it’s a real eye opener when you get out in the middle of the country into some older towns that are not very much in demand so to speak. You see all this beautiful old stuff that’s just kind of sitting there frozen in time.
SCENEzine
As a musician you’re probably always looking ahead to what future tours you have lined up but did that trip help you to live in the moment more?
Nick 13
Yeah I think so, like you just mentioned this past year we had dates booked all the way through and 2017 is starting to look like that as well. So it was great to be able to get away from it all and have no itinerary whatsoever. I didn’t have any plan other than the one I made for myself that day which was usually just I’m going to drive this direction or take this highway and stop where I want to stop. That’s a lot different from touring on a pretty rigid schedule where you’ve got planes to catch or lobby calls and things like that. It lent itself to being creative by just being with the car and a guitar, some cd’s and a lot of open space.
SCENEzine
One of our favourite songs from the new album is “prisoner of the night”. Is there much of a story behind that song?
Nick 13
As far as lyrics go they tend to come from a place often from the subconscious. Sometimes things pop into my head and I start writing. I can look at a song and know what it’s drawn from after it’s done but I never sit down and write on a particular topic. Lyrically that song has to do with a love of the night and feeling more at home there which has always been a part of my personality. But on the flip side it also has to do with insomnia, isolation, paranoia and some of the ways the night can isolate you from the rest of the world. Musically for me it draws on early New York city punk from the 70’s. Stuff like Johnny Thunders, very early Misfits static age era.
SCENEzine
Is it true “world without the moon” took a lot of inspiration from the Ramones?
Nick 13
It did, that’s a song I wrote on the trip we were speaking of that people can see more of online it’s called the road to V it’s on Youtube and Tiger Army facebook. There was actually a full lunar eclipse on that trip and I was in a small town called Silver City New Mexico. I was staying in an old hotel from the 1800’s and I walked out into the night to watch the eclipse and I forgot the start time. It’s a good 45 minutes from the start time that the eclipse is total. So by the time I got somewhere dark in the town that I could watch from rather than walk back I decided to just stand there and wait. The melody for that song came to me while I was waiting so by the time I got back to the hotel room I had a few lyrics along with the melody I was jotting down, recording a few things with my I phone. As far as the recoding of the song I was always interested in the way that The Ramones seemed to have these melodies beneath the buzz saw guitar and of course they made End of the Century with Phil Spector. So I decided I wanted to do something that was kind of the way I heard those things come together in my head, not necessarily the way they did on record. Spector didn’t actually use a lot of strings on the record he did with the Ramones. So as far as what we did production wise that’s where the inspiration came from.
SCENEzine
Very soon you’ll be back touring Australia. Do you have any favourite memories from a previous visit?
Nick 13
Gosh I’ve got a lot of fond memories of Australia. I love walking around at night and seeing the strange creatures or at least strange to somebody from the States like the giant bats. It’s almost like another world to us. It’s usually been quite warm and that’s nice for us. The scenery is beautiful, the oceans, the beaches, the trees, the people are great. The music sub culture is something I can relate to and it’s a always been a great time there.
SCENEzine
On your recent tour has there been any older songs you’ve enjoyed seeing the response from the crowd?
Nick 13
Yeah we are constantly bringing back and also shelving different songs. At the point where you have five albums and an EP which is probably 70 or more songs you obviously can’t play them all in a set. So every time we do a tour we try to bring out a couple of deep cuts that someone hasn’t heard before. I tend to have a lot of my set lists going back years on my computer so I can look at what songs we played last time we were in Australia and add a few old ones that people didn’t hear that time. I always appreciated that with bands. It’s not like we have any hits per se (laughs) but bands that are album bands like we are have fans that know all the records and know all the songs. As a concert goer I always like hearing something that isn’t necessarily an obvious choice but might go back many years and is a song you always wanted to hear live. I just saw The Damned not too long ago and they played a couple of songs I’ve never heard them play, older songs.
SCENEzine
There’s a romantic nostalgia to your music. Do you get humbled when finding out couples find your music special to them?
Nick 13
Yeah it’s definitely surreal to see the way that the music has really become a part of peoples lives. Our songs have been the first dances at weddings, been played at funerals and even inscribed on a few tombstones. It is humbling and sort of strange to see how something that came out of your head and out through a guitar, goes out there into the world and becomes a part of it.
SCENEzine
Lastly can leave us a message for all your Australian fans who are stoked for the tour?
Nick 13
We are really looking forward to getting back down under. First time in eight years. I think the band sounds great right now we’ve just played about 100 shows together in the last year. It’s going to be a lot of fun, we are looking forward to seeing everyone.
(Interview by Christian Ross)
