Tilly & The Wall: The MusicSnobbery.com Interview

Look who's back on this blog -- one of my favorite bands, so I was pretty stoked to write this up. Tilly & The Wall are back with a new album and U.S. tour for 2008. The five-member Omaha band will once again release more foot-stomping, catchy tunes on Conor Oberst's Team Love label. This tour sees the band test-driving new material and bring along fellow Team Lovers Capgun Group.

Nick White (far left in the picture) is the band's keyboard player and we talked last week about the follow-up to the brilliant Bottoms of Barrels and the perils of touring. I'm truly excited to welcome him to this space.

What do you folks do when you're not in Tilly and the Wall?
We do lots of different little things. Jamie works at a coffee shop and does some teaching. Neely teaches as well. Derek DJs and works in a movie theater. Kianna does some painting. I do a lot of traveling when I'm not on tour. I also like to try different restaurants.

Is recording an album more of a scheduling event or more of a creative experience, since you have your paws in various capacities?
It's something we've all been feeling. The songs were not all written by the time we got to the recording studio. We're just felt we should get together and book some studio time. Luckily enough, we had time to do so.

I have a theory when it comes to third albums. The first two albums of a band are pretty much the same in that in that the first you want to establish a sound, the second you just want to do your sound better and third you want to change things up. Did you want to change things up in the third album?
I think we all want to make something that's slightly different. When we got down to writing, they all just came out. The way we recorded and the way we approached the songs are not too different from what we've done previously.

Did you saddle up in Omaha again?
Yup, with Mike Mogis.

This is your third time working with him. Did you go with him because there is a familiarity with him?
This is the first time we've tracked with him. Previously, he'd been the mixer. What's good about that is that he has a nice new studio in Omaha. The place is beautiful. He has nice new equipment.

What's great about Mike is that he's open to new ideas and techniques. He does have awesome studio tools to make it sound perfect and that's what he wants to do. Then, we would give him a CD of 20 tracks of drum sounds or horn parts just to give him an idea of what we were going for.

You mentioned that you had some material written for the studio. Are you one of those bands who are always writing on the road?
We don't write together on the road, but everyone writes on their own in their journals. What we did is rent a practice space so that we can hammer out some ideas for a couples of days before we got to the studio. What's funny is that we never demoed any of our songs before, so we got ProTools and played with that.

How did you like working with that?
I loved it. It's strange because what you record yourself doesn't sound how you wanted it. My initial instinct was to change the direction of the song, but obviously when we recorded it in the studio, doing what we did on the demo, it sounded much better. It's just interesting to decided what we liked and what we didn't like.

The last album had a lot of Latin elements, can we expect more of that in this one or some more international flavor?
Yeah, there are some horns again on this one. I just think there's more movement on this album. We tried to make it so that the songs overlap each other and it flows together. There will be a saxophone part in one song and then a larger sax part in the other.

We definitely tried to think of different instruments to use. I tried desperately to get some steel drums in there.

That would have been sweet.
I thought so too.

Obviously, what Tilly & The Wall is known for is the tap dancing. It does makes you stand out and it's adds such a great dimension to your music. You have admit that it's it's expected that you have it. Did you want to shy aware from it or do you just embrace it with each recording?
It's always fun to have the tap dancing in there, but we made sure to bring in different percussions sounds. Jamie recorded some step routines that were done in a gym. Then there are some drums and taps together.

You have five creative types in your band, I'm sure you butt heads with each other.
It's interesting when you have five songwriters in your band [laughs]. I think it's cool because everything is open. Usually someone has a vision of their song, and who wrote most of the music and lyrics will have their vision seen though. Believe me, we have a system [laughs].

Lyrically, what are some of the ideas you are writing about on this album?
We kind of run the gambit of ideas. There seems to be a few songs about the end of the world and the usual love songs.

You have a title yet?
Nope. We have about 15 songs and we have to determine what's in and what's out. We'll do a digital single and 7" inch next month, but no title. We should get cracking on that [laughs].

How about End of the World?
That's great with me, but I think the others might not go for it [laughs]. We have a release date of June 3, but not a title yet.

If you're at a loss, just self-title it. The self-titled album is a lost art form.
Right on, I can see that.

Since you're on Team Love, does Conor give you guidance or advice?
We do send him what we record, which we haven't done yet. He's helps us with track order ideas. With the first album, he helped with the recording.

I'm a huge fan of the band. I love everything you do and seeing you live and what not. I do get frustrated that you're not more popular than you are. Are you satisfied with the level of success that you have or do you have ambitions to get the band more out there?
You know, we are completely happy with where we are. None of us expected to be able the tour the world as much as we do.

So no intention in signing with a major label or licensing your music to the Gap or something?
There's always considerations for the survival of the band. They are always there, but we haven't acted on them. They are not in our plans ... just yet. [laughs]

You guys are seasoned veterans of the road. Any advice for keeping sane?
Yes, don't stay in hotels.

You're kidding. Just too expensive?
It's easy to get a cheap hotel on the spur of the moment and put it on a credit card. Then you go home and see your bill and it's like "Shit!" Right now, we're traveling eight people deep and getting a hotel would just eat up so much money.

Well, when you play New York you're welcome to stay at my place in Jersey.
Right on, thanks so much.

Recently, I saw this band called Bang Camaro, who have 20 members in the band and I'm sure a lot of crew members. During the show, they were asking audience members if they could stay over and I don't think they were kidding.
I can see that being really fun if they all slept on the same floor and they have one giant blanket for all of them. That would be a funny picture.

What are some your favorite places to play outside of the U.S.?
Personally, I love playing in Spain and Portugal. They are just magical places. Japan is another place that's just out of this world.

I first saw you at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia where it was about 200 degrees inside.
That's one of our all-time favorite shows we've played. It was so uncomfortable in there, but it ended up being such a fun show.

Final question, you are based in Omaha, where they had American Idol auditions...
Yes! It's funny you say that because someone mentioned that to me yesterday. I didn't even know about it. Apparently, one of the singers they selected was from Freemont, which is this tiny town outside of Omaha. Maybe the person will put Freemont on the map. I'm all for it.

The tour begins Feb. 29 in Pomona, Ca and hits the First Uni in Philly on March 19 and Knitting Factory in NYC on March 21. In the meantime, CSS remixed Tilly's "The Freest Man". Tale a listen.