Like many of the buzzworthy bands at SXSW, Tennis’s name is almost everywhere you look. With almost a dozen performances, including two official showcases, Tennis is one of the busiest and most popular bands to see this year. Guitarist and songwriter Patrick Riley took a few minutes to talk with us before getting on stage in front of a packed house for their showcase at Club Deville on Thursday March 15th. We started out with a few fun facts before talking about SXSW and the songwriting and production on Tennis’s new album, Young and Old. The band returns to Austin in just over a month for a May 8th show at the Parish.
PPI: We have a couple of quick icebreakers. Peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese?
PR: Grilled Cheese.
PPI: Would you rather be a famous painter or novelist?
PR: Novelist.
PPI: Favorite state?
PR: Florida!
PPI: Would you rather drive or fly?
PR: Neither.
PPI: Is there a third alternative you’d prefer?
PR: Walking, biking, sailing. Any of those three.
PPI: Best sno-cone falvor?
PR: I hate sno-cones actually. Damn, I’m dodging some questions.
PPI: No problem, I like outside of the box answers. Okay, what was the best thing about SXSW?
PR: Umm… [laugh]…I think that’s a loaded question. I don’t know if there’s anything good about SXSW. It’s hectic here. I think you’re playing for the wrong audience, too. I think you’re playing for a bunch of people that are just like passing by. Or like music executives or music critics or something. It’s not the proper environment for music I feel like. It’s just like a party. But in that respect, if you take out the music, and are just straight like SXSW party, then it’s a great party. It’s the best party of the year. If you say SXSW music festival, then it’s probably the worst music event of the year.
PPI: Was making a sophomore record easier or more difficult than expected?
PR: Far easier than expected. We actually thought that we had exhausted our creativity. Cape Dory kind of came as a fluke. We had no idea we could write something like that and we were quite nervous that we wouldn’t have any more of that in us now that we were an actual band and people had these expectations of what we’re supposed to sound like or how good we’re supposed to be. But once we started writing we cranked out the first song, which gave us hope and proved to ourselves that we had more songs in us.
PPI: Alaina handles singing duty in the band, but when it comes to lyrics and instrumentation, what can you tell us about your songwriting process?
PR: I think you can tell really clearly which songs are written by me musically. The ones that are like – there’s a lot of syncopation and complexity and just – awkwardness, maybe, are written by me, and then the ones that are just smooth and more beautiful are written by Alaina. So, I think that’s kind of like our two styles that sometimes go together, sometimes don’t go together, create different feelings for different songs.
PPI: What was the dynamic like between you guys and Patrick Carney, and how did his production affect your sound on the record?
PR: A lot of the production was mutual decisions. The sounds that came out on the album were very much sounds that we had wanted when we came into the relationship. What he did more than anything was just kind of force us to write things that we never thought we would write. Like even though we would have a demo that was completed, or at least in our minds was complete, he’d force us to write more parts. Another chorus even though we already had a chorus that we loved, and thought was completely finished. He’d tell us to write another one, and we were like “Oh, no! We don’t wanna do that!” But he’d just keep pushing us to write more until all of the sudden the songs – there was much improvement across the board from songs, even if it’s just subtle changes. He helped out with that I think.
PPI: Was your approach and mindset regarding changes from Cape Dory to Young and Old deliberate or organic? Does that make sense?
PR: Yeah, yeah, it does make sense. I think a little bit of both. We definitely, after touring with Cape Dory for a long time, we realized which parts of it became a bit redundant to us, and obviously wanted to change on the next recording. But there were a lot of things we really loved, we knew we were good at, or were working for us with Cape Dory, and we took those into the new album. I think the changes were really just natural. I think you can see our writing style has been evolving. We’ve actually already started writing our third album, and it’s taking it’s own direction. It’s weird, but I can’t even say where it’s going. It’s like it’s already been written for us and we’re just following the path.
PPI: That’s exciting!
PR: Yeah!
PPI: I noticed that live you’re using a guitar effect to get bass, right?
PR: No.
PPI: Oh, it’s a bass?
PR: It’s a baritone guitar. If you notice, the neck is really long on it.
PPI: Okay, sorry, my lack of perceptiveness.
PR: No, it’s okay.
Is it also a baritone guitar on the record?
PR: Yes. I like the way baritone sounds compared to bass. I think it has a lot more tone.
PPI: What artists are on your playlist when you tour?
PR: Um, NPR?
PPI: Any specific shows?
PR: This American Life and… I dunno… I do a lot of Fresh Air. We’re around so much music and the cool thing about being in a band is that you get to experience music first hand from a lot of different bands. We try to just keep it that way it’s like a really convenient thing we have going for us where a lot of the new bands we hear, we’re hearing them live for the first time. Honestly, I haven’t had that feeling before ever since I was a little kid, where a friend would be like, “Oh you’ve gotta go see this band!” and the internet didn’t exist and you couldn’t check out what they sounded like, and you’d show up and have your mind blown. That’s kind of what I’m going though right now, and I really like it and want to keep it that way.
PPI: Is there a slogan or a motto that you could say Tennis lives by?
PR: Maybe simplicity. We’re down river swimmers. We try to get from point A to point B the easiest route.
PPI: Any more sailing trips in the future?
PR: I think so! It’s hard to say when. Our schedule is so busy. It’s tough to even look past a week from now. In all honesty I haven’t even looked at our full SXSW schedule, because it’s so daunting.
PPI: It is a crazy week. Thanks for making time to talk to us!
Ticket information for Tennis at the Parish in Austin
