What is your name and what do you do in Tigers Jaw?
Ben Walsh, guitar and vocals
How did the band start up? What were your first goals and aspirations when you had the idea to do the band? Adam and I started the band in late 2005 and recorded a few songs in adam's basement with two other members who quit shortly thereafter. We recorded a very minimalistic album called "belongs to the dead" for the summersteps records handmade series. Brianna joined the band in summer 2007 and then we went through a few lineup changes before Dennis and pat joined, forming the current lineup. Our goals starting out were just to write music that was something we liked and that was a departure from bands we'd been in before. We were very motivated by the Scranton band okay paddy(rip).
What bands were you all involved in before Tigers Jaw?
Tigers jaw was my first serious band. Pat and Dennis were and still are in a band called Three Man Cannon. Adam was in a band called kosmos. I don't believe Brianna was in a band but she's been involved with music for a long time. Some of us were in other bands during tigers jaw, most notably Captain We're Sinking. Adam and I tend to get kicked out of bands pretty frequently.
Where do you get a lot of your influences from both lyrical and musically?
We have been blessed with meeting a large number of great people and great bands since we started and we are very influenced by them. Additionally, all five members have a varied taste in music. My favorite album of all time is "In Reverie" by Saves the Day, and recently I've been listening to a lot of the Sidekicks, Osker, and Brand New. Lyrically, we are influenced by every relationship, every interaction we have, every positive and negative feeling, and just growing up in general.
Care to get a little deeper with that? What sort of frustrations either positive or negative drive you to write the lyrics and music that you do? I don't know that I'd put it that way, being driven by frustration, exactly. When I write a song, nothing is too deliberate. If I sit down with the intention of writing a song about something specific, I come up with absolutely nothing. It kind of just happens bit by bit when I'm thinking about something else. certain lines are directly influenced by things like failed friendships/relationships, or not feeling competent, or growing up but having no idea what I'm doing. other times I write lyrics and they don't seem to be about anything at all.
Tigers Jaw is a pretty unique band name, where did it come from and who thought of it?
Technically Phil Elverum thought of it. The name is taken from a microphones lyric. It was Adam's call on naming the band tigers jaw though.
What bands have you been on the road with and what was your favorite experience?
Summer 2007 we toured with Louch and the Green Chair. The band was comprised of Adam, myself, and Louch's handsome drummer Thomas filling in for us. The shows were scarcely attended but it was our first experience touring, and was very worthwhile and enjoyable. Summer 2008 we toured with title fight. we toured as a four piece (Adam, Dennis pat and myself). summer 2009 we toured with our soul mates in kite party. It was our first tour with all five of us. This past January we toured with end of a year and aficionado. We can't pick a favorite band we've toured with. A few of those bands are tied and all for different reasons that are unable to be compared.
You get the opportunity to travel to a lot of amazing places when touring, what have been some of your favorite spots to play the past few years? Personally, I really enjoy playing in Boston and New York City. Cleveland was very good to us this past January. Playing in Canada was great but I've never been so cold in my life. I'm not too picky though, I just enjoy traveling in general and just visiting places I've never been to before.
You guys put out a self titled full length in 2008 and on vinyl in 2009, how did that come about and why did you decide to release the vinyl on another label? The CD was released on the now-defunct Scranton label prison jazz records. The label had no intentions of releasing it on vinyl. Our friend nick from Photobooth offered to press it on vinyl so we did. We didn't have much of a budget so we hand-screened the covers ourselves.
