American Mars Interview

INTERVIEW WITH AMERICAN MARS FROM TheCelebrityCafe.com ARCHIVES

DM) Which song on the album is your personal favorite? The one that most reflects the musical style of American Mars?

TT) I guess I'm partial to "Grief," which closes the record. I fought hard to convince the band that the song deserved a spot on the album. I think it captures the emotional intensity of the band in a special way and I'm proud of the sounds that we managed to get in there. There's little touches, like the beeps and the horn at the end that are close to my heart. They surprise me every time.

DM) It sounds like you and Karla (the other lead singer) have slightly different musical styles. Who are your influences?

TT) Karla and I do have different influences but we always felt that those made the band more interesting to ourselves and to our audience. When we made "Late" Karla was listening to a lot of Jeff Buckley and this friend of hers Brendan Benson, which I think is where the popiness of "Queen Bee" came from. I was listening to a lot of Joy Division and the Clash and maybe not so surprisingly to the Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen" record at the time. I'm also a really big fan of Aphex Twin so I tried hard to get some sounds on the record that I thought might have the same sort of sonic quality that you find on Ambient Works Vol. 1. We obviously didn't make a very electronic record, but I did want to incorporate some "found sound" elements in the sonic fabric of "Late."

DM) In "Hourglass" you start off with "I was born in the year of the Tet Offensive". What influence did the Tet Offensive have on you?

TT) That line, and that song in general, was written as some explanation of who I am as a songwriter. It just seems so strange to me to have been born in a year that was so turbulent. I, and I suppose many folks of my generation at times feel very identity-less, and I often feel that who I am as a person has been determined more by the events that occurred in the year of my birth than anything I have done or said or will ever do. I mean I was born in the year that America killed MLK, where do you go from there?

DM) Who did you have the crush on in "Crush"?

TT) I'm afraid I can't tell you that.

DM) What inspired the long lyric-ed (2 words) song, "Sugar Cone"?

TT) "Sugar Cone" came about as just an improvisation that we'd play once in a while. We were talking about it one night at practice and it was decided that it should have some sort of vocal that would give it some kind of direction other than its basic surf rock context. We all thought it should be kind of sexy and I don't really who remember came up with the words "Sugar Cone." The whole thing is kind of throwaway but it still makes me laugh.

DM) If it wasn't for music, what career would you be following?

TT) I think I'd probably become a professional student. Other than music, the only other thing I really enjoy doing is reading and going to movies. There aren't too many careers that those skills benefit. I'm not very good with numbers.

DM) What was the last dream you had?

TT) I had a dream about walnuts. The next morning I woke up, went to the refrigerator, and it turns out my wife had bought walnuts the night before without my knowledge. It that strange?

DM) Was there a particular song is exemplary of the cutting edge of your music?

TT) I guess that "Grief" is one that I'm proudest of. Again, I think it captures what the band is about emotionally, lyrically, musically. It certainly is perhaps the darkest thing that we've ever done, but I still consider it an early benchmark in a lot of ways in terms of the kind of
intensity that I would like us to have.

DM) I hear some overdubs, effects and the such, have you ever done one of your songs acoustic?

TT) Most of the songs are written acoustically and then built up from there. Our guitarist Gary and I just got done doing a series of shows as a duo where we both just played guitar. I was real nervous about doing it at first, but in many ways it was a great experience for us as musicians and me personally as a songwriter. It was good to find out if the songs could stand on their own without all the bells and whistles. I think they did.

DM) Did your mother sing to you as a child?

TT) Yes she did. There was always a lot of music in our house. I remember that very soothing voice at night as I was going to sleep. I think all kids should be sung to.