Tempo No Tempo (Photo by Jonathan Hung)

The Bay Area is invading New York on the 20-24th of Oct. for CMJ’s Music Marathon/Festival. Tempo No Tempo, Azeem, Little Teeth, and Still Flyin have all confirmed through Sonicbids to play the 5 night 75 venue event.  Over the next few weeks we will be featuring Q & A’s done with the bands heading eastward.

Tyler McCauley, vocalist for the Berkley grown, indie-post-punkers Tempo No Tempo was kind enough to provide us with our first feature. Enjoy!

PlasticMilk SF: Tempo No Tempo seems to have a “less is more” philosophy that shines through your arrangements and even in the whittling down of your line-up from a 5-piece to a 3-piece. Can you explain where the motivation to keep your band stripped to the core comes from?

Tyler: The “less is more” philosophy comes from a number of influences, but mainly, it all began to cohere when our longtime keyboardist/singer Chris Cadena left the band. We had a much fuller, indie rock sound when he was in the band, and when he left, we made a conscious decision to strip down to something new, instead of adding a new member.

From there, we discovered new dialogues between our parts, and we gave ourselves challenges like writing drum parts without toms, only using an old Casio keyboard, and using the voice as a rhythmic instrument. Waking Heat is really a document of us finding out how to be a trio, and I think the space and rawness on the record is a result of that arrangement still feeling new to us – only one of the songs on the album is over a year old!

PlasticMilk SF: When listening to Waking Heat I’ve heard a lot of influence from older DC groups like El Guapo, Q And Not U, and some of the more melodic elements of Jawbox. What are some influences you’d note that are maybe a bit less obvious to the listener?

Tyler: One of the real cornerstones of our musical language, in practice and writing, is West African music, specifically from the Ewe tribe in Ghana. All three of us took an African Drumming Ensemble class for about three years at Berkeley, and Alex is still in a drumming group with our instructor, CK Ladzekpo. That class really gave us a new rhythmic toolbox, and I think without that class, we would have stopped playing dance-influence music.

We began as a very “dance punk” disco-beat band, lots of simple off-beat hi hats and Franz Ferdinand-esque moves. When we began working with African music, we were inundated with crossrhythms that were challenging, chaotic and interesting while still remaining dancing and funky. There are many parts on Waking Heat that are directly influenced by that style of music, and it’s a huge part of who we are as musicians.

Every time I give this answer to an interview question, I feel like a nerd. But it’s true! Traditional African music blew our minds. We can’t lie.

PlasticMilk SF: I noticed that your album is self-released. Can you explain how you came to that decision?

Tyler: Basically, we wanted the album out as quickly as possible, and this was just the easiest way. We didn’t want to spend months shopping for a label, hoping someone would give us money or a release, so we just put it out there. We don’t play any of the songs off our old records, so we wanted a record available that reflects who we are as a band.

PlasticMilk SF: Coming from the Bay Area scene, which is currently awash with garage-rock and more electronically driven music, where do you think Tempo No Tempo fits in the local sound scheme?

Tyler: Firstly, I really love the garage and electronic scenes in SF: Thee Oh Sees, The Fresh & Onlys, Grass Widow, The Splinters, Maus Haus, Wallpaper, Broker/Dealer, Dirtybird Records, Anticon. – all of it. I’m not really sure where we fit in, but it’s definitely one of the best times to be a band in San Francisco, with lots of national attention for locals, and tons of cool bands popping up all the time.

PlasticMilk SF: Tell me a bit about Waking Heat and the process recording it at Tiny Telephone.

Tyler: Unlike our past records, the songs on Waking Heat are 100% collaborative, and were built off of listening to hours of improvisation tapes and finding the good bits and building them into tracks. We did lots of demo-ing at our practice space, recording, editing, arguing; we knew going into recording that we wanted a live, raw record, something we never got when we recorded on our own before. We knew we wanted to work with Jay Pellicci, who recorded some of our favorite albums at Tiny Telephone, and when he said he was into the idea, we booked 5 days at Tiny and did 100% of the record in that time block.

We specifically wanted to be uncomfortable, time-wise, so we wouldn’t put too many overdubs on the album, and keep it focused on our initial performances. Jay did a brilliant job, and we really couldn’t have finished it in 5 days without him. Oh, also: I have to say that Tiny Telephone is hands-down the best studio in San Francisco, and you can’t ask for a better studio owner to pop in and out of your sessions than John Vanderslice.

PlasticMilk SF: What are some of the first reactions you’ve received when people hear the record?

Tyler: People seem to like it, and the overall first impression be “this is way different than your previous records.” Which is pretty much exactly what we were hoping for.

PlasticMilk SF: If you could work with any musician/producer (living or dead) for the next Tempo No Tempo album, who would it be?

Tyler: The DFA. Easy

PlasticMilk SF: Explain what’s in the band’s future

Tyler: Touring! We’re going to the East Coast for the first time, playing CMJ (booked it using Sonicbids), then more West Coast tours. Hopefully we’ll have time to write some new songs before the end of the year, but we don’t have any recording plans yet.

PlasticMilk SF: Thanks a bunch for your time!

by Patric Fallon