Interview: Tremoro Tarantura
PICTURE TAKEN BY CHRISTINA UNDRUM
What don’t you like about the studio environment?
Mateusx: I don’t like to rush. Tremoro Tarantura has a pretty complex sound and it takes time to make things sound right. A lot of studios are very sterile, anonymous and boring – just like hospitals – and that’s not very inspiring. Besides, most of the music is created on the spot. Maybe there’s a melody or a beat beforehand, which we then try out when recording, but usually we have nothing. A lot of Avaleeches was sporadically put on tape in the middle of night. Spontaneity doesn’t go hand-in-hand with studio-rental, and thinking about how much time we have left in the studio before we all end up broke doesn’t help the creativity either.
How do you decide which locations may be suitable for recording your music?
M: Whatever is suitable for the right sound, or whatever is available. We are lucky to be able to travel with our equipment, so we take it as it comes and try to make the best out of it. It just so happens that some of the places we used were unique. It’s like Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St in 2011; just a different band, different places and a different outcome.
Do you compose your music in similar locations to those in which you record?
M: 90% of the music is composed on the location – usually it’s just a pure stream of consciousness. We just play whatever comes to mind, and try to use our instruments like antennas to catch the vibe of the room. Other times I know what I want and then we just do it.
Adryyan: Like, if we tried something previously.
M: Then there’s the painful process of editing the madness and organizing the chaos into something that sounds like a song. This usually takes forever.
Your music is described as going “beyond common sense”. How does it do this, and to what purpose?
M: Usually I have problems knowing when to stop and it often gets over the top. I have too many ideas – it took me 2 weeks of mixing and tweaking to make our last single sound “right”, and the last record had some parts with over 100 tracks on top of each other just because I thought they all sounded good. Since there’s a lot going on it can get too much for the listener too.
A: It’s very complex.
M: It’s a circus.
The music is also said to ignore “the possibility of complete hearing loss as a result of inhuman volumes”. Why is inhuman volume necessary for you?
M: We are childish. Adryyan wants to feel the vibrations. Now I have minor tinnitus in my right ear.
A:It’s important to experience the music in the body too.
How does Avaleeches progress (if at all) from previous material?
M: It’s less repetitive; no more 12-minute songs. It’s also more dynamic. The contrasts are bigger and more intense. It’s still challenging, but there are some pop-hooks too.
A: Some of the ideas were tried out beforehand in a jam setting. That’s different.
M: Yes; he would do something cool in the rehearsal place and then we would record that in his flat the same night. There are also more people involved in this one.
A: We also wanted to create something you could move to – like a dance or any kind of primitive devotion.
M: I’m more interested in making people dance than making them headbang.
Any imminent future plans, aside from the release of Avaleeches?
M: Another album, and then maybe some touring.
Tremoro Tarantura Website – tremorotarantura.bandcamp.com/