All Tiny Creatures Interview: SXSW 2010

At the 2009 South by Southwest Festival, All Tiny Creatures made its national debut. This year the experimental, instrumental rock band is back with another national debut - their first live performance with vocalists. The Madison, Wisconsin-based foursome currently has an all-instrumental EP available on their website, but they're releasing their first LP that includes singers this summer. Spinner recently spoke with frontman Thomas Wincek who says after recording the album he was excited to perform live with the vocalists, but as SXSW gets closer he gets more nervous.

Describe your sound. How would you put your sound into words?

Using new music minimalist processes and ideas but applying it to rock band concepts. That's kind of dry, but that's the general idea.

When you take that idea, minimalism applied to a rock band, what sound do you end up with?

Like Phillip Glass with drums, maybe? [laughs] Taking the ideas of micro-editing and repetitive compositions but putting them into a rock band context is kind of what it ends up sounding like.

How did the band form?

I've been writing music for, I don't know, since the late 90s. I used to write entirely electronic music but I started writing these pieces for more traditional band instrumentation. I had four or five pieces written... and from that I started thinking about how I could play it live. So I started gathering these musicians I knew.

What influences you guys?

I guess the one common thread is things that are repetitive but change over time. Like I said, from a classical standpoint Steve Wright, Philip Glass, Terry Riley. But then also I'm interested in a lot of modern process music, popular music. There's a micro-house thing and all the cool micro-editing stuff, like the Field do.

How did you come up with the band's name?

It was the title of a composition; it was actually called "To All Tiny Creatures." It was one of the first things I wrote and I needed a band name, so I went off of that.

In that song, did "All Tiny Creatures" have a specific meaning?

It's the song where one thing happens for six minutes and it's a visual image that came to my head.

You mention one thing happens for six minutes. On your EP, you have a 17-minute track called "Segni" that's also very repetitive. Your songs tend to be long and tend to be repetitive, what's the point? Is there an artistic reason for it?

That's a good question. The point? I like the way it sounds. [laughs]

But some artists will say there's a deeper meaning, nothing like that for you?

That's all bullshit. Anytime, anyone says... unless they're talking about lyrics, if you're actually talking about music and trying to ascribe a deep meaning to something that's musical, it's pretty much bullshit, and it's been that way since the beginning of music. You can feel a certain way; a piece of music can make you feel a certain way. The musician that wrote it, they can feel a certain way too. But in the end, it's just writing music. Especially instrumental music, people that start to say, "this song's about a cavern, and dungeons and dragons." It's total B.S.

Do you have any musical guilty pleasures?

I don't really have guilty pleasures. I don't get that. I think if you enjoy something you should definitely enjoy it and not feel guilty about it. I like Pop music with a capital "P." I like the idea of Lady Gaga, it's more like an art piece than a pop phenomenon. I think she's a prime example of music being tertiary – or more aside from the point. Even though it's got big hooks and stuff like that, it's more of a performance art.

When you perform what kind of response do you get from the crowd?

It's varied. The first time we played out live it felt really good. People were screaming at certain sections, like when the bass line comes in. If you're in a certain mood it can be a very euphoric kind of thing. There have been a couple times when people catch that vibe and that's been the best. Or anger, downright anger. That's happened before too.

You've had angry responses to your music?

Yeah, just kind of like, you could hear rustling and people yelling; just really dissatisfied with what's going on.

Do you find it's one extreme or the other -- they love your music or hate it?

It's like that with most things I guess...I guess not, I guess you could be a middle of the road rock band and appeal to everybody.

Are you not interested in that?

Maybe sometime in the future.



Tom Henkenius is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.