A Sunday evening amongst endless warehouses in Miramar, a small group of friends gather at Stereo Disguise Recording Lab for an intimate performance by Tape Deck Mountain. The San Diego-based three piece have paid their dues on the local level, and have received deserving attention from the blog world leading up to their debut release. For this interview, we did something slightly different, reaching out to a few of Travis, Jordan and Paul's peers for interview questions.
Photos and Videos by Charles Bergquist.
Alex Devereaux (Swim Party) - Has your music always been the layered, effected music that makes up Tape Deck Mountain's soundscape or did it evolve from experimentation?
I've been into trippy layered music for a while like old Verve, Spiritualized, & GYBE. I bought a delay pedal 1 month after buying my first electric guitar, I guess it's always been a party of my guitar/life style.
Tyler Stover (Banter) - A theme throughout your album is death, and/or being a ghost, is there something behind that?
My lyrics are mostly subconscious. I haven't really experienced a lot of death or any ghosts in life so I'm still trying to figure out why the album came out this way. Possession? Prophecy?
Tyler: Tell us about your high school experience. Were you a member of clubs? What was your deal?
I wasn't too fond of high school, my closest friends went to other schools and I spent a lot of time trying to avoid social interaction. My first couple years I played the sax in marching band, got cut from the soccer team, and sat the bench in baseball. The last 2 years were spent watching my friends band practice across town and learning how to play Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on guitar.
Andy Ralph (Writer) - How many guitar pedals does Tape Deck Mountain use? 11
Andy: Spark's or Four Loco? Trying to quit both.
Matt Halverson (Lefse) - If you could play any venue what would it be?
Petco park? Indio Polo Grounds? Burning Man Fest?
Matt: Have you ever been kicked out of a bar? If so why.
Never gotten the boot. One time a drunk guy slammed my head into the wall at scolari's office(RIP) cause I supposedly cut in the bathroom line. A bouncer quickly gave him the boot.
Sezio: Most of your friends play in multiple bands, can you discuss the pros and cons of just having one musical project?
I've been trying to start some side project bands, but so far it has been a lot of talk and not a lot of rock. Obviously the pros and cons of being in multiple bands are mostly time scheduling issues.
Sezio: Where could one find you when your not in the studio or playing a show? Any hobbies?
I went bodysurfing a lot this summer, the water is unfortunately cold now so I have moved on to playing scrabble on facebook, I have 6 simultaneous games going on. Also I enjoy fantasy football and watching the Chargers win.
Tape Deck Mountain's debut release, Ghost, drops on Lefse Records Tuesday, November 17th. Soda Bar will host their record release show, with following dates in LA, SF and Sacramento.
- Pick up your copy of the record from Insound here.
- Check out a third video of Tape Deck covering Danzig's "Mother".
- Big thanks to Brad from SDRL, and Charles Bergquist.