Sydney-siders Tigertown have been touring the US non-stop, playing last year's SXSW festival as well as returning this year.
With their new EP, 'Lonely Cities', now out and their first Australian tour in ages on the way, it's going to be a big year for the family band. According to guitarist/ vocalist Chris Collins, the band will be well-rehearsed by the time they get back to the US.
Now at SXSW for their second visit, Chris says he's glad the nerves of playing a big American festival are long gone. “This time we'll be able to sit back and enjoy everything a little more: someone said Bloc Party might be there, so we're all very excited about that.”
Tigertown is a real family affair, with husband and wife team Chris and Charlie bringing their siblings along for the ride. You'd expect a certain amount of conflict when travelling the world with your family for an extended period of time, and Chris says that's definitely the case. “There might even be more conflicts, but they happen faster and more efficiently!”
He says the band always work any issues out as fast as possible, and they're lucky they all get along pretty well. “I'm sure there are some people it would never work out for, for whatever reason, but it's been great.”
Tigertown first came together after Chris met his now-wife Charlie. “We were both in different bands at the time but when we met each other we were inspired to write all this music.”
After recording all the songs they wrote onto an EP and getting some airplay, Chris says “suddenly we were a band”. For their last EP, Tigertown hauled themselves into the Blue Mountains to get away from it all. “[But] for the rest of our songs it was the UK, and a lot in LA as well since we were living in LA for a while.”
Chris says it was in LA where they first started learning that collaboration is never a bad thing. “Some of our favourite songs are the ones Charlie and I wrote together alone at home, but we're still learning to collaborate with people from outside the band. It really adds to the sound.”
The EP's title track, 'Lonely Cities', is the song they're most excited about. “Everything came together with that song, it has this great big party feeling,” he explains. “It's also literally about one of our friends from LA, a story about him just moving to LA from New York having broken up with his girlfriend and going through a lot.”
Back when Tigertown first began, Chris says the idea of having a Triple J sound was the furthest thing from their minds. They were just making the music they wanted to make, and people happened to like it. “Now whenever we think consciously about changing our sound we think back to the start, when we never even thought about our sound and we just wrote what we wanted: that's what people responded to.”
They've been called everything from alternative rock to folk to indie pop, but for Tigertown there's only one word that describes them, a word they never shy away from. “We're naturally drawn to pop. Growing up we listened to classic pop songs from the '80s and '90s, and the thought of music that lots of people like: that's a good thing.”
Pop got them this far, no reason to shy away from it now. As for any artist who dislike the pop label, Chris can understand where they're coming from: he just doesn't agree with it. “Back when Michael Jackson was cranking out all those smash hit songs that made everyone feel good it was a word that wasn't looked down upon as much.”
He agrees that as time has gone by it's been associated with music that isn't that good: popular just for the sake of it, not because the artists are particularly talented.
For Tigertown, though, pop is about music that makes you feel good. “We love that feeling, that concept. Of course there have to be artists to cover all the other emotions, but that's generally just not our sound.”
As for the future of the band, Chris says recording an album is the next step. “A dream of ours would be to release a full album this year some time. Nothing official yet, but that's the dream.”
'Lonely Cities' is available now.
Written by Stephanie O'Neill
Tigertown Tour Dates
Fri 1 Apr - Newtown Social Club (Sydney)Sat 2 Apr - Northcote Social Club (Melbourne)
Thu 7 Apr - The Foundry (Brisbane)
Fri 8 Apr - Beach Hotel (Byron Bay)
Sat 9 Apr - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)
Thu 15 Apr - Pirie & Co Social Club (Adelaide)
Fri 16 Apr - Jimmy’s Den (Perth)
