The Tenant Interview: SXSW 2010

Emerging from the ruins of frontman Brad Register's previous band, Summerbirds in the Cellar, Florida foursome the Tenant released its debut EP, 'Is Listening,' at the end of 2009. Though three of the members live in Orlando, their appearance at SXSW will be a hometown show for Register, who relocated to Austin to help friends open a bar shortly after forming the band. Spinner recently spoke with Register and bassist Dave Kazyk about their music and plans for the festival.

How did the band form?

Brad Register: [Dave] was playing bass for Summerbirds right at the very end, as everything was just kind of falling apart. I already decided that I was moving to Austin, so Dave and I kind of agreed to write remotely and tour. As we were leaving to record our first album, I met Chandler and Travis.

Dave Kazyk: Brad and I had known each other just from playing around town for a long time. And at the tail end of Summerbirds, they brought me into the band ... to help write some songs. And then they almost immediately broke up. Then [Brad] told me about the Tenant, and he asked me if I would be interested and I was just like, "Yeah, great." I didn't know [drummer] Chandler [Strang] or [guitarist and keyboardist] Travis [Reed]. We all just kind of got together in a room and it just happened to work, the four of us.

How does Tenant differ from Summerbirds in the Cellar?

DK: I would say that this band is a bit more organic. I think that's the best way to describe it. Maybe it's a little more kind of rock-influenced.

BR: I think that Dave and I agree a little bit more on writing and what we want the band to sound like, whereas in Summerbirds, we had three different ideas going on. And we had all agreed to share duties in that band, so when those three ideas didn't come together as well as we wanted them to, we ended up getting into a lot of arguments about it. Whereas, I think Dave and I have a pretty similar set of ideas.

Is it difficult having Brad based in Austin while the rest of the members are still in Orlando?

DK: It's like an e-mail band. We e-mail stuff back and forth, and it just seems to work. We also kind of do a lot of improvising in the studio. And we've been pretty lucky that it's panned out pretty well.

How did you come up with the band name?

DK: It's from the Roman Polanski movie 'The Tenant.' It's a strange little movie. I was not [familiar with it]. And I also didn't know that Brad was quite a cinephile.

BR: Polanski's just a fantastic director. It's really dark. Everyone's seen 'Rosemary's Baby,' but no one's really seen 'The Tenant.' 'The Tenant' [is] fantastic, 'Repulsion' [is] fantastic. But we thought the Tenant was a better name than Repulsion.

What are your musical influences?

DK: For Brad and I, we like a lot of stuff that came out of Manchester, like New Order and Happy Mondays and Stone Roses and Doves. That whole sound, we kind of bonded on. Joy Division and Interpol. You name it. In our first press release, I think we said "for fans of M-83, Washed Out and Phoenix." It was very hard for us to come up with three bands that we sound like.

BR: That's a tricky question. I'd say for this band, some bands we would draw from are the Pet Shop Boys and Tears for Fears, but my musical influences are all over the place. Dave can't stand old outlaw country, and that's my favorite thing. It doesn't come through in the band at all.

So, what's your sound like?

DK: Kind of dreamy, dark pop.

BR: It's kind of electronic, with real drums and real guitars and things like that. So it's a hybrid of the two -- electronic and a four-piece normal indie rock band.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

DK: I think OMD. I don't know if that's guilty or not, but yeah. That band makes me happy.

BR: I hesitate to admit to people that I really like the Pet Shop Boys, but I found out later, as I get older, that people are really coming out with that, that they have always liked the Pet Shop Boys. So it's not really a guilty pleasure anymore. One of my favorite guilty pleasures is 'Islands in the Stream' by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. That's finally going into print [laughs]. I can't even believe it. I was joking.

Beatles or the Rolling Stones?

DK: Beatles for me. I don't know if I can speak for the rest of the band.

BR: Rolling Stones. The Beatles did everything, but I'd say the Rolling Stones.

What other acts are you looking forward to seeing at SXSW?

DK: Broken Social Scene. I'm pretty psyched about that. I've never seen them before.

BR: I want to see Deer Tick. I'd like to see !!!. I'll probably be working any other times that I'm not playing, so I've kind of tried to make a list of things that I can ask, if I can have this time off to go see these bands.

What's in your festival survival kit?

DK: [Laughs] tequila. Some of my best friends live in Austin, besides Brad, so I'll have opportunities to go places and just kind of chill out. One of the challenges is to make sure it's not too much fun so we suck.

BR: Hopefully all the instruments will make it here from Florida. I guess that will be in the survival kit. Two years ago when [Summerbirds] played. it would have been an entirely different list of things. Fortunately, [now] I have my apartment. It's just minutes from downtown, so anything that I would need. I guess, is there. It's kind of cheating, I guess.

You definitely have an advantage.

BR: I'm going to charge three to five dollars for people to come to my house to brush their teeth.


Liz Raftery is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.