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The album opens with a single guitar note that hangs in the air for a long moment, buzzing and bending until it's in full vibrato. Then comes the riff that announces the arrival of The Priests, via "Not From Me." Guitarist Colin Tyranny lays out a wicked vibe from the beginning, and The Priests pick it up and keep it alive to the very end of their new Get Hip release, Tall Tales.
It's their first album on the famous garage rock label, but they're no rookies. The band formed in Rochester, New York, in the summer of 1997 after Colin and drummer Billie Jacque, both natives of the Boston area, moved there to attend art college. They met a singer named Matt Allyn there and The Priests were born. After the release of their first, self-titled CD, their original bass player moved to San Francisco. The spot was filled by Lord Robb, who also contributes Farfisa organ to the mix, and that Priests sound solidified.
Streetwalker, the band's second album, sold well despite lack of strong distribution, and through a combination of live performances and sound clips available on the Web, word of mouth spread and the band gained a reputation. Get Hip, a label with solid distribution capabilities, signed the band last year. As The Priests were preparing for the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, Colin took time to kick back a while and talk about life in the Priesthood.
Cosmik: You know how I feel about The Priests' music, but we garage fanatics are really a pretty small fraction of the public. And it obviously takes a lot of dedication to get as good as you guys are. With those two things in mind, what can you tell us about what motivates you? What fires you up and keeps you true to this kind of music?
Colin: Well it's funny, people hear garage in our music, and we definitely have a primitive style, but I don't see us as a garage band, per se. I am constantly trying to move forward with our music, and many of the garage bands are so static. A "stuck in the 60s" thing. I am trying to push it more, do our own thing. Garage rock of the 60s is an influence, as well as psychedelia, 70s punk, blues, primitive and tribal music, and some other things. We're a band of today and tommorow.
Cosmik: Don't you find it hard to avoid the garage tag, though? The trappings are all there.
Colin: Well, it is an influence for sure, and we're not avoiding it, but we just make a point of doing our own thing, creating something new. We are not revivalists or purists. You take influences from any place you can. Basically, we're just being ourselves. The emotions your hear in our music are real, no pretense. "Garage" gets thrown around so much, it can be a trap. I think when people hear the word they're expecting a certain thing, like a Who/Kinks type, fast power chord music. We are the polar opposite. We like to make things slower, slinkier and sexier in the vibe that we create. I like to think of our music as hypnotic and trance inducing, both on record and especially live. Anyway, labels are unimportant when it comes to music.
Cosmik: What's the main gear roll call in the band? Starting with what you've got going. All I know up front is it sounds vintage.
Colin: Most of our gear is vintage, or vintage sounding, but the gear is a small part of it. I mostly recorded Tall Tales with a 60s gibson SG into an old Fender amp. Of course the Farfisa organ is vintage, and we've got an old Ludwig drum kit. We used a lot of gear, both new and old, on the record. It's funny, I get asked all the time from people, what kind of guitar do you use, what kind of amps, what kind of pickups, like I have some magic formula to creating my sound. I'm flattered that people like my playing enough to want to know, but honestly it's the player and the experience that creates the sound. The gear is just part of the equation. I tell people to not get hung up on the gear side, as that can take away from the instinctive, creative side, where you can just pick up anything and make music. It's really a path I've been on for a long time.
Cosmik: What is it about music, as a listener, that can totally hype you up and make you just have to pick up the guitar?
Colin: For me, it is the primal type of reaction when your hear something that speaks to you. You just know that you have to be doing that.
Cosmik: Give us an example of something that had that effect on you. Something that really got to you, way more than usual.
Colin: When I was young, real young before I discovered punk rock, I was a huge Doors, Zeppelin freak. That type of music, mostly from the 60s, just really spoke to me. I was drawn to the moody vibe of The Doors music, and especially the guitar playing of Robby Kreiger. He is probably my biggest influence as a guitar player. It has nothing to do with fashion or image, because he had none; it's the weird, slinky atmospheric things he played. I was also a fan of the San Francisco sound with bands like Big Brother and the Holding Company and Jefferson Airplane. They are associated with the hippy thing, but I always loved that spastic guitar style that they had. It just got in my brain. Then of course there was Black Flag and all the punk stuff that I was way into. It all influenced me, but as a creative person I have developed my own individual style.
Cosmik: Sure, that's the difference between copycats and the real players. It's knowing how to distill things and use it as lessons instead of borrowing the whole thing. But a bit of essence is there. How many different influences -- I mean main influences -- are being stirred up when you guys get together?
Colin: Well, there's a ton of stuff that moves us, but when we get together to rehearse or write, it is about capturing the energy, tapping into the correct atmosphere and then communicating with each other musically. Depending on peoples' moods and such, it's not always easy to get to that place. As far as what we listen to, there's a lot: 13th Floor Elevators, Velvet Underground, Can, Doors, Damned, Tom Waits, Howlin' Wolf, I could go on forever.
Cosmik: All of them have that kind of mystical sound, very dramatic and powerful. And ethereal, sometimes. Your sound is all of that, but on your own terms. Do you think of your music as drama in some ways?
Colin: Absolutely. I'm drawn to the occult-like power that music can have. In our live shows, and in our songwriting we draw heavily on mood and vibe. We try to tap into that sort of strange energy, feed off it and give it back to the world. It can be dramatic, but we're not acting; it is pure, raw emotion. When we write songs, generally I'll come up with a riff just from messing around at home, or at practice if the energy is right, we all just start playing and it somehow magically comes together. I can't say where the ideas come from, sometimes they just pop in your head. We're constantly writing, though, so we weed out a lot of crap to get to the good stuff.
Cosmik: I'm interested in the differences between The Priests on Tall Tales and The Priests on the previous recordings. The music had that cool mystique before, and actually it had a lot of the same elements, in general, but on Tall Tales your sound just explodes out of the speakers. Tim Kerr is famous for bringing that out of bands he produces. What can you tell us about working with Kerr?
Colin: Working with Tim was an amazing experience. He is one of the most positive, inspiring people I have ever met. He brings so much more to the recording experience than just the recording aspect. We met him at the airport, and he just had this big smile on his face, and we knew it was going to be great. On our first two records we were just left to our own devices to make a record. We would go in, do one or two takes and that was it. With Tim it was a whole other experience. He made us communicate with each other in ways we hadn't, or couldn't, before. Recording Tall Tales became a spiritual event in a way. We all set up in the room and ran through some takes like we had done in the past, but he would force us to play better, to listen more, to swing it more. He never got frustrated or tired or impatient with us. He helped us out with a few arrangements, played piano on "Wayward Waltz" and tamborine on everything else. I think we have always maintained our signature sound, but we pushed ourselves and the songwriting on this release. There is more of a hypnotic psych vibe that we have been exploring that was hinted at in our two earlier releases.
As far as the equipment, and the "sound" of the record, Tim isn't hung up on gear. It either sounds good or it doesn't. I know he is not a fan of reverb, which was a bit of a change for us, but I was open to anything. We had an engineer in charge of the techie stuff, so Tim could concentrate on the creative side. Tim's main concern was getting the right performance, and getting into the right groove. It's a mental thing. He always would say, "We could record this on a boom box, and if you guys have got it together, it wouldn't matter. It would be great". He taught us all so much. It was a great learning experience for us, and I can't say enough about him.
Cosmik: Reverb is such a huge part of the way most of us think about this kind of music. That is... music with that mysterious vibe. Did it take some doing to start feeling it without using reverb? Because I'd think it would be an entirely different atmosphere for you.
Colin: It was a bit of a struggle, but ultimately good for our growth. Matt [vocalist Matt Allyn] had the biggest problems with it. Tim likes to have everything up front, and his reasoning was the more reverb you add, the more things get lost in the mix. We did reach a medium, though, with a touch on the vocals, and he added some on a few organ parts where it fit. He taught us not to rely on it, which was good. I think the guitar was left dry, but we made up for it in fuzz and feedback parts. That was one thing Tim was interested in, going back and adding guitar feedback in certain parts to build the mood and atmosphere. It is kind of his trademark, both in his own guitar playing and when he produces. Listen to the track "Undone." I had a great time with the feedback on that song.
Cosmik: Once everyone got their footing, did that new way of hearing your music bring out new ideas from you as players?
Colin: Yes, he pushed us out of our preconceived notions on recording and performing, pushing us out of our comfort zone and basically kicking our asses to make a great record. Once we were going it was great, songs got rewritten in the studio, different parts, new ideas, different versions. Once we had tapped into that creative energy, the ideas were just flowing. "Undone" was an unfinished song that never really clicked at practice. It really came together in the studio with Tim's guidance. "More" was originally slower and more tribal and Tim kept saying "Faster, Faster!" It must have worked: Little Steven picked it as "Coolest Song in the World" on his Underground Garage radio show. Tim was instrumental in the artistic success of this record.
Cosmik: This is actually your third record, but the first with a larger label and distro behind you, is that right?
Colin: Yep, Tall Tales is our first record for Get Hip. Our first two CDs, The Priests & Streetwalker were released independently on our bass player's label, Garage Pop Records. Get Hip has been great so far at helping us spread our message.
Cosmik: Get Hip seems like the perfect label for The Preists. How did they find you?
Colin: There were a couple bands that we were friends with that had put out releases on Get Hip, and I believe they heard about us through them. The Frantic Flattops and The Irving Klaws. Gregg Kostelich [Cynics guitarist and Get-Hip head honcho] contacted us for a showcase with the Cynics, and he offered us a deal after that show. They had just finished their latest record. Living Is The Best Revenge, with Tim Kerr. That's how we ended up recording with Tim. Gregg suggested it.
Cosmik: How has this compared with what it was like before, when you didn't have a label behind you?
Colin: It's easier because you have support behind you. Get Hip is a well known label, with great worldwide distribution, so we can reach a lot more people that we couldn't on our own. I'm glad you think we fit in there, as I often think we don't fit into any specific scene or genre. We're happy so far.
Cosmik: Has the quality of life changed somewhat? Better stories, longer drives, that kind of thing?
Colin: Somewhat. We have a lot more opportunities now, things that we couldn't have done before. We have built our myth so much on our own, and now things just keep building and getting better. More out of town gigs, lots of traveling, some more headaches. We love to play new places and meet new people.
Cosmik: What's your favorite story from the road so far? And don't worry; any minors reading this magazine are sneaking past the warning stickers.
Colin: Hmm, there have been so many Priests adventures. Getting the van stuck in the mud, pushing it out and playing the gig covered in mud; Driving straight from San Francisco to Vegas and sleeping on the front lawn of a casino; Getting followed back to our hotel by psycho girls we tried to ditch. We've done it all.
Cosmik: Playing a gig covered in mud just adds to the legend, of course. Doesn't do much for your guitar, though. So now you're heading off for South by Southwest in Austin, which puts you on a shorter list, you know? "Bands that pass the test." What's the plan for the week?
Colin: We're just playing us much as we can, and meeting as many people as we are able. We have friends there, Tim is from there, it's a great city, so we plan on having a great time. We started off with one show, and then the Get Hip showcase fell through, but things kept happening and we ended up with all these great shows. Our friends The Ugly Beats, who just released a record on Get Hip, have really helped us out with gear, shows and a place to stay, so we are thankful to them. I have never been to SXSW, but we're really looking forward to the whole experience. Our LPs finally came in from the printer, so now Gregg is excited about promotions for us, and it seems like everything is happening at the right time. It's really up to us how far we want to take this. We've been doing our thing on our own for so long, and now that we have this label support and lots of new people hearing about us, it makes it all worth it. Things just keep growing. I have always said there are a lot of Priests fans out there that just don't know it yet. Spread the word.
© 2005 - DJ Johnson