Tu Fawning: Out Like Bats

Hello Tu Fawning – man is fast running out of band names and you've resisted the temptation to prefix yours with 'The', 'Crystal' or 'Black'. Well done. How did you find it?
Corrina [Repp, fellow multi-instrumentalist] is fond of making collages out of old National Geographic magazines from the 30s, 40s and 50s. Sometimes she'll snip out a few words to place on them. She just so happened to have a little arsenal of clipped words or phrases that she liked and ended up having "Tu. Fawning." We have no idea what the sentence was pertaining to but we loved the way it sounded. It didn't give us any initial image, which felt nice, like we could make it our own.

You started as a duo on your first EP (2008's Secession], but grew some extra limbs recently. How did that happen?
Essentially Corrina and I were singing and playing on each other's respective projects (Corrina Repp and 31Knots) and we just realised that we had a lot of common interests and fun. We talked a bunch about wanting to start a project influenced by a different pool of influences than we had done before.

After putting a set together and really getting into the band, we found ourselves a two piece with the ideas of a five piece. We were doing a short tour in France, getting really frustrated by the limitations of just the two of us. Whenever we'd discuss who of our friends we could get to join it always came back to Liza [Rietz] and Toussaint [Perrault]. They were just the perfect fit.

In the simplest terms, how would you describe your debut album (Hearts on Hold) to a stranger in a bar?
We're a rock band that's influenced by music that isn't rock.

Who in music has had the biggest impact on your style?
In this project, overall I think Django Reinhardt and Joe Pass influence my guitar playing a lot. Al Bowlly is a huge melodic one for me. We all have so many though. It's kind of crazy. I mean, Toussaint is ravenous for reggae, especially rare singles and Corrina adores old Hawaiian crooners from the 20s and 30s. For this album, I would definitely say that Marlene Dietrich and Balinese gamelan music were big touchstones, along with a lot of African percussion

What's your New Year's resolution?
To write more music and work in a bar less!