Jimmy LaValle
Sensory Stimulation
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At this late date, the jaded indie rocker might well observe that instrumental bands are a dime a dozen. Luckily, groups like San Diego’s Tristeza have both the chops and the vision to stand above the pack. On the band’s impressive debut album Spine And Sensory, vocals take a backseat to a highly melodic, double-guitar setup that recalls the dynamism of Pell Mell and the low-key warmth of Aerial M.
Near the conclusion of a lengthy U.S. tour and just after a stellar set at New York City club Brownies, Tristeza guitarist Jimmy LaValle sat down with Nude As The News Associate Editor Jonathan Cohen for a chat about songwriting, the San Diego Padres and the merits of instrumentalism.
NATN: How did you guys arrive at your instrumental framework?
Jimmy LaValle: We started and we were originally going to sing, and our first show came around and we didn’t have it done. It just kinda kept going as that. But now, that’s where we want it. Because it has always been in the back of our minds that if you’re watching a band and you can hear the vocals [that you automatically give meaning to them].
But in our music, there’s a lot of different meanings that come out of it. You can watch us and kinda develop what you think about what a song could mean rather than what it actually means to us. What it means to us is just as important, but it also can mean something entirely different to you, and that can mean a lot more. That’s a lot of what our standpoint behind the instrumentation is.
NATN: Are they any specific influences that have shaped the sound? I hear some Pell Mell, some Rex..
JL: All five of us are all over the place, but those are actually bands we don’t listen to. Tortoise, you know, we listen to them and dig them. But we’re definitely trying to be original with it. It is very hard, because there’s a lot of instrumental acts and it’s pretty hard to strike out on your own.
NATN: Tristeza’s sound is very dreamy. Did you guys sound like that from the beginning?
JL: There’s a lot of time put in on our songwriting. We don’t dish out a song in a day -- it takes a lot of time and is really a team effort. It usually starts with guitar, or just as a jam. We try to do our best at carrying melodies with guitars or keyboards. We went through a more aggressive time, but most of our new stuff is more on the softer side. It’s just about how we’re all feeling with our personal lives and what not -- how things are going for us.
NATN: Has the San Diego music scene been conducive to Tristeza’s development?
JL: Totally. It’s been really good and supportive. There was a time when we played a little too much, and we lost a lot of following because people figured they’d catch us next time. As far as like other bands, they’re all pretty supportive. There’s Black Heart Processional, who just got signed to Touch And Go, and Sterling Silver, which is out on tour right now. We’ve met up a couple of times with them on this tour, and it’s been really cool to see friends from home.
NATN: How did Spine And Sensory wind up on a small label from Michigan?
JL: It was via a friend of ours.. He called us up, because we originally recorded it for Caffeine vs. Nicotine, but we decided we didn’t want to do it with them. We bought it out, and we just kinda shopped it to labels. A lot of people offered to do it, but it was.. I don’t know.. it wasn’t the deal we were looking for. We wanted it out by a certain time, and the Makoto guy called us up, said he wanted to do it, and we talked it over and decided to try it. The CD came out in March and the vinyl finally came out in May.
The next vinyl press will be on 200 gramme vinyl, because I think the first press was a little too light. We chose different colors for the cover, and it’s a gatefold, and we’re happy with the way it came out. We’ve had a lot of bad luck with the pressing plant as far as getting things out, but we keep running out of the CDs. 3500 have been pressed, but 2500 are gone. It’s awesome! This tour has been a lot better. It’s our sixth time out, and we’ve seen a big improvement from all of the hard work we’ve done.
NATN: Have you played in New York City before?
JL: Once before and it was terrible. We played with a band called Rosenberg and One. Ever heard of them?
NATN: Nope.
JL: Exactly. We played first, got thrown on last minute at Coney Island High. We played to maybe 10 people. But we’re actually working with this great company from NYC called Insound. They’re doing a tour support EP for us, which will contain four tracks. It clocks in at 64:44.
NATN: A long one, eh?
JL: Well, it’s a surprise. I’ll let you find out for yourself. We also did another 7-inch for the Rocket Racer label. That should be out in late July.
NATN: What kind of stuff do you guys listen to?
JL: Our bass player listens to a lot of Latin music, and the drummer listens to early '60s music. I mean, we listen to Led Zeppelin and Queen and Brian Eno and David Bowie. The music we listen to doesn’t really come into play. I mean, I say Led Zeppelin and it’s like "Uh, okay." Basically music itself is an influence -- to do it, play it and feel it and to project it. It’s all in the way you -- what’s the word I’m looking for -- the way that it comes off. For a show, I’d like to say that we have a certain energy level. We’re not just there.
NATN: There seems to be a bit more of an edge to the live show than the CD.
JL: Yeah. A lot of that is.. well.. we recorded the CD really early on. We’d been together for awhile, but a lot of the songs were new [at the time]. "RMS 2000" is just a straight jam in the studio that was totally off the cuff. We’re happy with the album, but it seems like now we finally know how to perform the songs right, you know, with a lot more dynamic. Live, some parts are pulled out and made longer to create more of an ambiance, more of a feel.
NATN: Tell me about "Cinematography," the piano-heavy track on the album.
JL: It’s actually one of our first songs, and we just figured it out on piano and decided to record it that way. It’s not in the repertoire, though. It’s really old. I’d like to play a lot of the old songs, but they are old songs, so..
NATN: Have you guys known each other for a long time?
JL: Me and Christopher have known each other for 3 years. We’re all between 20 and 23. The drummer and Christopher were friends from Michigan, and me and Stephen are from San Diego. Luis we kind of all met around the same time and we just decided to play together. Me and Christopher were in another band prior to this, but we weren't too happy with what was going on with it. You want to be able to project emotion and what you feel, and we couldn’t really get it out of that. We started writing songs acoustically and turned it into what it is now.
NATN: What are your thoughts on adding vocals down the road?
JL: We’ve thought about asking people to do guest vocals, but I don’t think we’ll really throw it in. We’re pretty strong on that. We really want the audience to feel what they feel, rather than have us tell them what to feel. I don’t really think we will use vocals. People are very black and white on it -- they either think we totally should have vocals or that we shouldn't have them at all.
NATN: I think one of the nice aspects of Tristeza's sound is that there's a lot going on with the guitars.
JL: Well, that’s what we really try to do. All of the parts are recreated live -- the only overdubs were just for making the sound fuller. When we write, we always try to beat the last song we've written in terms of how difficult it was to play. We try to outdo ourselves. We pretty much write in a format as if there were vocals, you know, this part four times and then a "chorus," four times for that. We pretty much just write numbers down -- four part one's, eight part two's, and so on.
NATN: "When We Grow It" kind of stands out on the album, because it takes quite a few minutes to kick in.
JL:Actually none of the other dudes were really all for that. We’ve gotten negative response for it taking so long to get there. But my thought process was to try to get lost in that ambiance and just feel it. By the time you’re lost, the beat kicks in.
NATN: What has been the band's worst touring experience?
JL: The last time we were in Seattle, we got into two streetfights in one day. It was our roadie, which was even funnier. We didn’t play the best show. Our first West Coast tour was pretty disastrous all around -- it wasn’t too successful. The same summer we went out for six weeks in the South, but it was iffy. We had a lot of cancellations.
NATN: What’s on the schedule for the rest of the year?
JL: We are planning on actually taking some time off the road to write. We really want to write a new record and have it released on whatever label.
NATN: Are you guys Padres fans?
JL: I used to be. Goose Gossage, man... I have a shirt with his name on it.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"