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Making Memories With BEN WALSH From TIGERS JAW · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  It was ben I play guitar and I see in Tiger Jaw and we are
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  going on tour in Australia in August with High Withers and Susie and it's been
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  a couple of years since we've been down there. We're really really lighted.
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  Thanks for having me, why it say? As he studied targets draw hit
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  Australia in August for a running shows with Slow with Its starting on August eleventh
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  in Melbourne before traveling through Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide and finishing in Freemantle in
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  August twenty is. So it's not far away, Manny, you're packed and
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  ready to go again. Yeah, it's there's a lot of little too,
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  like get ready for an international tour. Um. I feel like mentally I'm
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  almost there and uh yeah, just figuring out what to bring because right here
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  now it's very very hot Philadelphia, so uh we get been to winter for
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  this tour, so I kind of figure out what pack. You mentioned a
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  mental side of things, and I like how much how much of that's involved
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  in the tour, like getting yourself mentally prepared for a trip away from home
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  with strange people, Like is it is it a big thing. Well,
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  I think early on in tour and we were eighteen, eighteen, twenty years
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  old, Uh, it was a lot easier to just pick up and leave.
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  And you know, now really we're worry about it too much. As
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  as we get to our thirties. It's it's like there's more stability at homes.
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  It's a little bit tougher to make sure kind of everything's in order.
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  So yeah, it's just like, uh, yeah, the mental preparation is
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  a little bit more intense as we get a little bit older, but just
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  as much excellent, but there's just more responsibilities I guess at to get an
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  order before we take off for a couple of weeks for sure. So you
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  mentioned mate, So what can fans expect from me Sho tom Arod. Well,
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  we've we've released h a new album and a new EP uh in the
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  time since we've been down there, so um, really excited to play some
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  new songs that we haven't played Shelley before. Um. But it'll be a
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  nice mix of old songs and new songs. Um. I think we're playing
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  about an hour set for pretty much all the shows. UM, so yeah,
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  it'll be it'll be a nice mix. Um, and for the two
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  of those are side best performances where we'll do a full band performance one day
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  and an acoustic performance the next day. Um, and it'll be myself and
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  Rihanna doing the acoustic performances. So, uh, those we like to mix
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  up, you know, throw some wild card, old old songs in the
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  mix. And uh so that that would be fun to mix it up as
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  well. Thanks you So, so the acoustic shows are going to have different
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  set lists to the band shows. Yeah, yeah, we usually mix it
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  up a little bit, so it'll be fun. Oh so, but that
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  is unfamiliar with Tigers Joy. Yourself and Adam started the band in Pennsylvania back
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  in two thousand and five while you still at high school. Mate, So
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  what were the early days is a band like would have been pretty crazy,
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  you know the earliest days. Uh, it was yeah, just myself and
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  Adam like making songs. We had a couple other people in the mix at
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  the very beginning, but sometimes we would just chose the to us or record
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  stuff just two of us. Uh. It was. It was a very
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  fun time. We would just like write songs, play weird covers, or
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  try to figure out how to record ourselves. Um, we would like play
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  these shows as we so we would if there was a show for to us
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  and the two of us could do it, we would take it. And
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  then we would try to like ask our friends to fill in in different things.
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  So apecially I was the drummer, but if our friend who was a
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  drummer was around to fill in for us, I would switch over the bass,
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  and our friend who played bass was also around, I would switch second
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  guitar. So just pretty fluid in the early days. But it was just
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  it was so much fun, um and they were pretty vibrant music scene in
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  Scranton where we grew up. A lot of really cool like indie rock bands,
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  a lot of cool like hardcore he bands all and had some great punk
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  bands. So every show mixed bill. Uh. We got to work with
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  a lot of people and build a little music scene together. So it was
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  a fun and exciting time. And then it just was really crazy how it
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  kept expanding further and further outside of Anton and and you know, started doing
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  stuff in nationally and you know which just down the loads us here where to
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  come back to Australia for the third time. Uh, you know a place
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  I ever thought that I would visit alone and get to play music in right.
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  Man. So but back when you started, man, like we say,
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  you were at high school, so it was it was it more for
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  fun and chicks back then. Mate, It does you always something want something
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  more out of music? Oh, we just did as it was fun.
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  Um had an older cousin who played for a band on the Swims, and
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  uh they were signed to this local Scranton label called Prison Jazz, and our
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  biggest ball was to get something put on this little label abstually did you know
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  CDs and they did a couple of seven inches, but it was it was
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  really a small label, but that was like our huge goal at the time
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  was to uh, you know, play as many shows as we could and
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  release music on Prison Jazz. It was, you know, very much just
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  about doing it was fun. Sort of touch on this man. But you
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  had the origins in the local DIY Scranton plunk scene, mate, So how
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  did that period of your life shape the band's feature. I mean, it
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  definitely has made me who I am. Scranton's a small place, but uh,
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  you know, being able to travel all over really kind of makes the
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  world seem a whole smaller in a cool way, and you get more of
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  an appreciation for how other people live in other places. And you know,
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  I'm really grateful I've met, you know, so many important people in life
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  through playing in this band, you know, in sort of like an indoor
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  way. It led to meeting my wife. Um you know, the people
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  that we are with and play music with are some of the most important people
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  in my life. So, uh like those early days really really shaped the
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  next fifteen so years of life. Um So yeah, it's just really grateful
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  that I still get to this and start get to travel and people in play
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  music. Yeah, you're the only original constant member let in the band made.
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  So how is your vision for Tigers Jeel changed over the years? Well,
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  I mean I would say that joined the band maybe a year into so
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  she feels just as of an original as me. Um. So, we've
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  we've always kind of had we've always kind of been on the same page about
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  the vision and it hasn't changed too much since the early days, just that
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  we've had more opportunities. But we do things that we love to do,
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  and we follow things up full fulfilling and feel right to us. Um you
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  know, we we do band at the pace that we want to do the
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  band, and we you know, we travel as you know, when when
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  we feel inspired, we make music. You know, it's just like,
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  uh, just a surprisingly the relationship that we have with with doing the band,
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  like it never feels it never feels work. And if it feels too
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  much like we'k you know, we pumped the brakes a little bit and kind
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  of get back to basics. And um, just a fun constant in our
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  lives and it's something that we're lucky enough in some for living off of.
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  But um, ultimately it's just you know, this really innately fulfilling artistic thing
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  that's you know, almost now a part of who are because it's been a
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  part of our lives for so long. So how would just say that the
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  band's sound has changed from the two thousand and six debut album Belongs to the
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  Dead to twenty twenty ones. I won't care how you remember me, all
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  right? So Belongs to the Dead was very very early on and them and
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  myself everything on just the two of us and wanted it. We were shooting
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  for a very five sound. We recorded things through a digital into a digital
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  recorder, but we sent everything through a tape deck. Um, so it
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  had this sort of tape pression, was sort of great sound. We also
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  didn't really what we were doing in terms of recording, so we were kind
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  of fumbling our way through the dark on those recordings. But it's, uh,
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  it's it's a very special sounding record and it was a very special time.
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  Um, you know, the theird since I've just you know, kept
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  on going in terms of in sound quality and also you know, taking more
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  risks with songwriting, I think, and just kind of like you change as
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  a musician as you're on the road a lot, and and you know,
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  you're playing style sort of evolved as you're you know, touring and playing different
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  people and what so, Um, the that we have now, uh,
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  you know, Colin and Teddy and Mark they've been touring with us, you
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  know for you know, four plus years. Teddy's been with us for almost
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  ten years come as well, So we've we've been really forded our sound on
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  the road for for a long time, you know. So it's trying to
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  like capture that when we record early, nice, lively and powerful sounding recording
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  that sort of reflex who we are as live musicians. I'm very good,
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  better, I'm less I've got for you, I might thanks very much for
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  you. Tim Tigers Joels in Australia from August the eleventh, so drawing around
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  with Slide with us, so check him out of the show. To you