So, I interviewed Tellison in Yeovil a couple weeks ago, I spoke to Stephen and Henry who were both very nice, and this is the result.
*******
“I want to make songs that people like, naturally…” says Tellison’s drummer Henry Danowski. “But if they don’t like it, then fuck ‘em.”
“Or maybe they could listen again?” singer Stephen Davidson politely offers.
Since releasing their debut album, Contact! Contact! in 2007, Tellison have gradually built a solid fan base, largely thanks to their exhilarating live performances, which has led to their biggest London show so far at KCLSU.
Tonight however, is the warm up gig in Yeovil.
“We hang out here a lot, because Ben (Encyclopaedia) who used to play in our band lives here. We actually started writing the songs for our new album here…” says Stephen, by way of explanation.
The freezing cold dressing room above the Orange Box, which contains little more than a sofa and fridge full of cider, is not the most glamorous or exciting of locations, and it is a little hard to see where the inspiration for song writing may come from. But it is fitting that this will be one of the first chances fans get to hear some of the new material the band are working on.
As Henry mock-pretentiously puts it, Tellison are “riding the wave of change”, and a slightly less frenetic album than the debut can be expected.
“We were excited to be in the band and when we were playing we had so much energy,” he continues. “Now we’ve been doing it for a while we’re thinking about things more, like arrangement and instrumentation… It’s maturity.”
Stephen agrees. “I think it’s a little slower. Some of the songs on the first record we wrote when we were 16 years old, and it was about playing things as fast as possible, trying to make it exciting by making it fast and energetic. Now I think the new songs are coming out sort of muscular and mid-tempo… there’s a bit more groove to them. I really want to say we sound less white… can I say that?”
To say that the new songs are slower is to perhaps give the wrong impression however, if those which are played tonight are anything to go by. For anyone who has listened to Contact! Contact!, Fire, Architects and Hospital are all far more down-tempo than any of the new songs.
The four new tracks debuted in Yeovil fit in seamlessly with the old favourites, and it is apparent that Tellison are as excited to be playing them as the crowd are to hear them.
“I think there’s a sort of very natural thing where very often the song you wrote last is your favourite song and you think it’s sort of the pinnacle of what you’ve done,” Stephen explains. “But while I think there’s a definitely an element of wanting play new songs, it’s also very satisfying and humbling to have a record like our last one where people know the songs and know the words and sing it back to you. I think that’s what keeps things fresh with the old songs.”
So out of the new songs, is there a favourite?
Henry ponders for a while, before deciding “I like playing Thebes.”
“We have a new song called Tell It To Thebes, it’s lyrically about the written word,” Stephen elaborates. “It’s totally that sort of… more intelligent, rhythmically, hopefully it has a groove. Matt plays the saxophone.”
Saxophonist/guitarist/keyboard player Matt ‘the moustache’ Roberts is the latest addition to the Tellison live show, and manages to look a part of the tight knit band, despite this being his first gig with them.
“I also really like playing a song that Pete (guitar and vocals) wrote, called Collarbone,” Stephen continues. “We wrote that a year ago and I was kind of digging it, I thought it was ok but didn’t know if it was good enough for the record, then we revisited it over the last couple weeks and I think it’s better now, it’s really fun to play.”
Although the new songs are now being played live, the new album is still in the early stages, and so Tellison released a remixed version of Contact! Contact! last month to keep the fans happy while they wait.
The idea for the album came when Henry was studying at a music college in America. “The people I lived with and friends from college, they were all into electronic music. I had all the basic tracks from the record so I gave them to my friends and they messed around remixing,” he explains.
“Over time I thought it would be nice to get the whole record done, to hear someone else’s version of the songs, because I was getting bored of the recorded version.”
“We were stunned with the quality of the remixes,” says Stephen, “it was really refreshing and awesome. Bloc party did it and I was really into that. It’s an awesome way to celebrate it… and it really feels like that’s the end of Contact! Contact!, we feel like we’ve tried as hard as we could and we’re ready to do some new stuff.”
Whilst there is a lot of scene inbreeding with famous bands and artists remixing each others songs, with Tellison it’s all about keeping it in the (extended) family.
“I think it’s awesome that the people who did our remixes are all friends or people who’ve been coming to shows for a while,” says the singer. “Making music and sharing it is really fun. We’ll do remixes again but it’ll be different.”
“Yeah,” Henry adds, “we wouldn’t do it in the same way with the same people, but there’s this new website where bands put up their tracks and people can access it and people can have fun with it, like Radiohead did it with their single…”
With the focus now on writing and recording the new album, we won’t be seeing Tellison live again until April, when they tour with Australian punk band The Living End. Stephen and Henry are already looking forward to it, although they are notably avoiding Middlesbrough this time…
“We like Middlesbrough but weird stuff always happens to our band there,” explains Stephen. “Like once we ended up and came to in Wakefield, and our van was full of vomit, Ben was crying…”
“I think I broke his foot,” Henry interrupts. “He had one shoe off and he was weeping covered in vomit… Everyone was so angry, it was so awful, I thought the band was gonna break up,” Stephen laughs. “Another time, Andy (Tellison’s bass player) kissed a…”
“Vertically challenged?” suggests Henry
“He kissed a little lady,” Stephen continues, “in a club once and she only had half a finger… he definitely kissed her. Another time a fire alarm went off in a club and they didn’t know how to turn it off so they just turned the music up… and they had tea and toast on the bar and me and Henry played twister.”
“You get parmos as well,” adds Henry.
“Paaaaarmos,” Stephen chips in, in a vaguely northern accent.
“It’s basically like a bed of chips with coleslaw, some cheese, a deep fried piece of chicken on top, béchamel sauce and then more cheese on top of that… its like fried lasagne with chicken,” Henry explains.
“You think ‘is that ok…’ but it tastes so bad!” laughs Stephen. “Our friend Phil (of Dartz! fame) said ‘I’m gonna introduce you this local delicacy, Parmo’, and he’s a skinny guy, but he said if you’re going have a parmo you have to have a side dish… and he got a pizza, as a side dish. It’s so bad, one of the worst things I’ve ever had.”
Parmos and little ladies aside, Tellison are actually passionate about touring and playing live. Gig promoter Rob Dahl has booked the band to play shows across the South West, and thinks their success is down to their "high impact" live shows.
“Or maybe they could listen again?” singer Stephen Davidson politely offers.
Since releasing their debut album, Contact! Contact! in 2007, Tellison have gradually built a solid fan base, largely thanks to their exhilarating live performances, which has led to their biggest London show so far at KCLSU.
Tonight however, is the warm up gig in Yeovil.
“We hang out here a lot, because Ben (Encyclopaedia) who used to play in our band lives here. We actually started writing the songs for our new album here…” says Stephen, by way of explanation.
The freezing cold dressing room above the Orange Box, which contains little more than a sofa and fridge full of cider, is not the most glamorous or exciting of locations, and it is a little hard to see where the inspiration for song writing may come from. But it is fitting that this will be one of the first chances fans get to hear some of the new material the band are working on.
As Henry mock-pretentiously puts it, Tellison are “riding the wave of change”, and a slightly less frenetic album than the debut can be expected.
“We were excited to be in the band and when we were playing we had so much energy,” he continues. “Now we’ve been doing it for a while we’re thinking about things more, like arrangement and instrumentation… It’s maturity.”
Stephen agrees. “I think it’s a little slower. Some of the songs on the first record we wrote when we were 16 years old, and it was about playing things as fast as possible, trying to make it exciting by making it fast and energetic. Now I think the new songs are coming out sort of muscular and mid-tempo… there’s a bit more groove to them. I really want to say we sound less white… can I say that?”
To say that the new songs are slower is to perhaps give the wrong impression however, if those which are played tonight are anything to go by. For anyone who has listened to Contact! Contact!, Fire, Architects and Hospital are all far more down-tempo than any of the new songs.
The four new tracks debuted in Yeovil fit in seamlessly with the old favourites, and it is apparent that Tellison are as excited to be playing them as the crowd are to hear them.
“I think there’s a sort of very natural thing where very often the song you wrote last is your favourite song and you think it’s sort of the pinnacle of what you’ve done,” Stephen explains. “But while I think there’s a definitely an element of wanting play new songs, it’s also very satisfying and humbling to have a record like our last one where people know the songs and know the words and sing it back to you. I think that’s what keeps things fresh with the old songs.”
So out of the new songs, is there a favourite?
Henry ponders for a while, before deciding “I like playing Thebes.”
“We have a new song called Tell It To Thebes, it’s lyrically about the written word,” Stephen elaborates. “It’s totally that sort of… more intelligent, rhythmically, hopefully it has a groove. Matt plays the saxophone.”
Saxophonist/guitarist/keyboard player Matt ‘the moustache’ Roberts is the latest addition to the Tellison live show, and manages to look a part of the tight knit band, despite this being his first gig with them.
“I also really like playing a song that Pete (guitar and vocals) wrote, called Collarbone,” Stephen continues. “We wrote that a year ago and I was kind of digging it, I thought it was ok but didn’t know if it was good enough for the record, then we revisited it over the last couple weeks and I think it’s better now, it’s really fun to play.”
Although the new songs are now being played live, the new album is still in the early stages, and so Tellison released a remixed version of Contact! Contact! last month to keep the fans happy while they wait.
The idea for the album came when Henry was studying at a music college in America. “The people I lived with and friends from college, they were all into electronic music. I had all the basic tracks from the record so I gave them to my friends and they messed around remixing,” he explains.
“Over time I thought it would be nice to get the whole record done, to hear someone else’s version of the songs, because I was getting bored of the recorded version.”
“We were stunned with the quality of the remixes,” says Stephen, “it was really refreshing and awesome. Bloc party did it and I was really into that. It’s an awesome way to celebrate it… and it really feels like that’s the end of Contact! Contact!, we feel like we’ve tried as hard as we could and we’re ready to do some new stuff.”
Whilst there is a lot of scene inbreeding with famous bands and artists remixing each others songs, with Tellison it’s all about keeping it in the (extended) family.
“I think it’s awesome that the people who did our remixes are all friends or people who’ve been coming to shows for a while,” says the singer. “Making music and sharing it is really fun. We’ll do remixes again but it’ll be different.”
“Yeah,” Henry adds, “we wouldn’t do it in the same way with the same people, but there’s this new website where bands put up their tracks and people can access it and people can have fun with it, like Radiohead did it with their single…”
With the focus now on writing and recording the new album, we won’t be seeing Tellison live again until April, when they tour with Australian punk band The Living End. Stephen and Henry are already looking forward to it, although they are notably avoiding Middlesbrough this time…
“We like Middlesbrough but weird stuff always happens to our band there,” explains Stephen. “Like once we ended up and came to in Wakefield, and our van was full of vomit, Ben was crying…”
“I think I broke his foot,” Henry interrupts. “He had one shoe off and he was weeping covered in vomit… Everyone was so angry, it was so awful, I thought the band was gonna break up,” Stephen laughs. “Another time, Andy (Tellison’s bass player) kissed a…”
“Vertically challenged?” suggests Henry
“He kissed a little lady,” Stephen continues, “in a club once and she only had half a finger… he definitely kissed her. Another time a fire alarm went off in a club and they didn’t know how to turn it off so they just turned the music up… and they had tea and toast on the bar and me and Henry played twister.”
“You get parmos as well,” adds Henry.
“Paaaaarmos,” Stephen chips in, in a vaguely northern accent.
“It’s basically like a bed of chips with coleslaw, some cheese, a deep fried piece of chicken on top, béchamel sauce and then more cheese on top of that… its like fried lasagne with chicken,” Henry explains.
“You think ‘is that ok…’ but it tastes so bad!” laughs Stephen. “Our friend Phil (of Dartz! fame) said ‘I’m gonna introduce you this local delicacy, Parmo’, and he’s a skinny guy, but he said if you’re going have a parmo you have to have a side dish… and he got a pizza, as a side dish. It’s so bad, one of the worst things I’ve ever had.”
Parmos and little ladies aside, Tellison are actually passionate about touring and playing live. Gig promoter Rob Dahl has booked the band to play shows across the South West, and thinks their success is down to their "high impact" live shows.
"They always attract a good core fan base," he explains. "And people who aren't already fans are usually converted. They're shit-hot right now."
It is their spirit as much as their music which appeals to many of their fans. Their sound has been described by Marsha Shandur of XFM as ‘fight pop’, a term coined by Dananananakroyd, and it's a description which the band are happy to use.
“I like fight pop… I like fighting,” states Henry.
Stephen agrees, albeit slightly more seriously. “It’s good because the songs are pop songs, we’re not under any illusion that they’re not, but at the same time they have that fight, a sort of passion which hopefully is what makes them kind of special. I think that’s a nice way to describe it.”
“I like fight pop… I like fighting,” states Henry.
Stephen agrees, albeit slightly more seriously. “It’s good because the songs are pop songs, we’re not under any illusion that they’re not, but at the same time they have that fight, a sort of passion which hopefully is what makes them kind of special. I think that’s a nice way to describe it.”
Marsha has been a fan of Tellison for years, and has given them radio play on her XFM show.
"Their music makes you feel very emotional but in a physical, almost aggressive way," she says. "Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, their tunes are incredibly catchy, verging on poppy without losing any of their credibility.
"When you see Tellison live, you can see just how much they connect with their fans," Marsha continues. "Every note is sung, every offbeat clapped along to, every synth line mimicked. And all the way through, they look so surprised and grateful and excited."
Tellison are yet to reach the level of success where being in the band is a full time job, and so, aside from Stephen who is in his final year of university, they all have other jobs.
Stephen laughs. “Peter, poor Peter, went to Oxford University because he’s very smart, graduated with a very good degree, then because he wants to do the band he ended up running a coconut shy in a travelling fair… We’re so honoured that he chose us!”
“Andy at the moment is a loan shark,” he continues. “In these economically troubling times he breaks people’s legs with a baseball bat… You don’t wanna mess with him.”
It is Henry however, who seems to have the most ambitious of alternative careers, should things not work out with the band.
“I wanted to be a downhill skier, and a stunt man, lots of high speed things. I’m pretty agile, good at gymnastics,” he states, “but then I realised I’m better at the drums”.
And if drumming, downhill skiing and being a stuntman all fail to lead to success?
“I might become a chef,” he continues.
“We might open a restaurant actually…” says Stephen. “It’s basically going to be the best restaurant that’s ever existed.”
“It’s not just a restaurant, it’s a concept, a way of life”, Henry enthuses.
“The band is just one of the stepping stones to this, it’s how we’ll make the cash, then we’ll be able to unleash this concept on the world. We’re wasted on music”.
Tellison are yet to reach the level of success where being in the band is a full time job, and so, aside from Stephen who is in his final year of university, they all have other jobs.
Stephen laughs. “Peter, poor Peter, went to Oxford University because he’s very smart, graduated with a very good degree, then because he wants to do the band he ended up running a coconut shy in a travelling fair… We’re so honoured that he chose us!”
“Andy at the moment is a loan shark,” he continues. “In these economically troubling times he breaks people’s legs with a baseball bat… You don’t wanna mess with him.”
It is Henry however, who seems to have the most ambitious of alternative careers, should things not work out with the band.
“I wanted to be a downhill skier, and a stunt man, lots of high speed things. I’m pretty agile, good at gymnastics,” he states, “but then I realised I’m better at the drums”.
And if drumming, downhill skiing and being a stuntman all fail to lead to success?
“I might become a chef,” he continues.
“We might open a restaurant actually…” says Stephen. “It’s basically going to be the best restaurant that’s ever existed.”
“It’s not just a restaurant, it’s a concept, a way of life”, Henry enthuses.
“The band is just one of the stepping stones to this, it’s how we’ll make the cash, then we’ll be able to unleash this concept on the world. We’re wasted on music”.
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