Tapes 'n Tapes Talk It Off

What can you tell us about the sound of your new album, Walk It Off? Has working with David Fridman (Mercury Rev, Mogwai) helped?

"Compared to The Loon, it sounds more like us as a band. With this we had a proper studio, and got to make it how we wanted to. We were in upstate New York, the studio’s out in the middle of nowhere, and it was a lot of fun. The only pressure was internal, we wanted to make a record that we were proud of. You can’t really focus on making something that others will like, because if you’re not happy then what’s the point? As for our sound, I think, every song is just like 'I have an idea...' but it’s not like I have a specific band in mind. That was actually one of the coolest things about working with Dave. I could describe to him 'I really want this sound or vibe for this song' and he’d be like 'oh, well I have some ideas of where to put the drum mike.' That was nice."

And the song named after George Michael on the album?

"Unfortunately it’s not an ode, although I might start telling people it is, 'cos it’d be more funny that way. Basically, when I made the demo for that song I thought there was some resemblance to the opening part of Faith. So it became the George Michael Song."

When The Loon came out in 2006 you were all in employment, is that still the case?

"I have almost a full time job in the healthcare industry. It gets me health insurance and gives me something to do when I’m at home. A couple of the other guys work in bars just to get some money in their pockets when we’re not touring. Touring is so weird, it’s not a normal thing to be constantly on the road. So the job keeps me grounded. Having said that, if my job totally sucked I’d probably quit, but I work with nice people, so it‘s ok."

But have you ever questioned if the band was going to make it?

"Not really, the only time was when a couple of the guys left the band a few years back. They didn’t leave because they were unhappy in the band, they just had other things to do then. But the rest of us were a bit like 'what are we going to do now?' Since The Loon things have been good. The only aspiration that I’ve ever had is to make music that I would enjoy. So beyond that it’s cool that people have liked our music to the point where we’re able to go all over the world and all this crazy shit that I never imagined we’d be able to do. If we can continue making records for as long as we want to I would consider that success. I don’t ever see us being a band where selling a million records is the goal. If for some reason we wrote a record that did sell a million copies I wouldn’t be pissed off, but that’s just not where my head is right now. That kind of thing either happens or it doesn’t."