Tombstones In Their Eyes - Punk Rock Blew My Mind And Really Opened Things Up

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NÚMERO 39

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TOMBSTONES IN THEIR EYES PUNK ROCK BLEW MY MIND AND REALLY OPENED THINGS UP

PUNK ROCK BLEW MY MIND AND REALLY OPENED THINGS UP [ Interview with John Treanor from Tombstones In Their Eyes by Benjamín York ]

The new psychedelic rock continues to give us bands, spouting like water between the stones. One raises a stone in a road of any part of the world and appears a psychedelic rock band, and most with an exquisite quality and personality. The list would be endless and we would be able to mention many excellent new bands.

Today we present another band from Los Angeles, called Tombstones In Their Eyes, who will launch their five-song ‘Fear’ EP in early August, elevating us to a gray sky laden with feedback and reverberation that shake us again and again but in a fantastic way.

We talked to the band’s frontman John Treanor in order to become more familiar with the band. We also invite you to follow them on their social networks.

Hi John. Thank you for chatting with us today.

To begin with, let's start at the beginning of everything. Does your name come from the lyrics of Steppenwolf’s "The Pusher Man"?

Yes, the name comes from the song “The Pusher”, which was made famous by Steppenwolf. It was originally written and performed by Hoyt Axton, whose version is great, as well. For some reason, that line “You know, I've seen a lot of people walkin' 'round With tombstones in their eyes” really stuck out to me around the time this project started to take shape. The songs were dark, and it felt like a good fit.

I understand that the band started out by exchanging demos with your friend James Cooper. Is that so? When did it happen and when do you decide to start your band?

James and I have known each other since we were about 13. We went our separate ways after high school, and lived very similar lives, funnily enough - sort of the druggy rock lifestyle - before we both cleaned up. When we reconnected in late 2012, it was like no time had gone by. We decided to try writing some songs together and commenced to do that, even though he lived in NY and I was in LA. Garageband and Dropbox made it

possible. I would write something, then wake up the next morning to find that it had been edited, drums added, etc. It was great and James really encouraged my songwriting. At a certain point, I formed a band in LA to re-record the demos and that’s when it became Tombstones In Their Eyes, the band, rather than the project.

James does not appear in the credits for your first album "Sleep Forever" (2015) nor for the EP "Bad Clouds" (2016). But he’s on the new EP. What is James’ actual relationships with the band?

James has songwriting credits on some of the songs on the first record, but did not play on the recordings. I should have given him a credit, as I did on the new record, for Musical Guidance, as that is his role. He still helps, in the background, by pushing me and contributing his own ideas and opinions.

How do you describe the word “Psychedelic” in your music?

That’s a difficult question to answer. Technically, with this band, it comes from chord choices, melody choices and certain effects like fuzz, delay, reverb, as well as layering. In our music and songwriting, it really comes from musical influences. Everything from the Cramps, Butthole Surfers, Lyres, Pussy Galore, Devo, Spacemen 3, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Catherine Wheel, Built To Spill, Love, Beach Boys, 60’s garage, the 80’s garage/psych revival bands, Electric Wizard and many more. I know some of those bands aren’t considered psychedelic, but I think they are, haha. I’m basically a kid who started with the Beach Boys, Elton John, Rolling Stones, then went through Kiss, Aerosmith and then punk rock blew my mind and really opened things up.

From punk rock, it branched out into noise, indie, garage, metal, etc. I’ve never been one of those guys who wants to have a band that looks, dresses and sounds like they could have stepped out of 1966. I like some of those bands, but my music is a blend of all my influences and I’m way too lazy to figure out how to dress like a perfect 60’s guy.

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What did you learn from your first two releases? What, if any, error did you avoid this time around with the new EP? From the first release, Sleep Forever, I realized that I should just have made that one an EP, or two EP’s. I fell in love with the recording process and just kept adding songs. I think it would have been better to keep it short and focus on songs that fit together better.

So, I learned from that and made the Bad Clouds EP, and pretty quickly. I don’t know if I learned anything from the Bad Clouds EP, except that I’m really proud of it, haha. The songs fit together well and I can stand behind each one.

There is a change in "Fear" in terms of the style of your cover artwork, compared to the previous 2 releases. The first two form a diptych of Ludolf Backhuysen's "Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast" (1667). This change is also sonorous. Perhaps something has also changed in the band itself?

The artwork I had been using for the previous releases, and for all the Soundcloud demos, were primarily paintings of ships in distress in stormy seas. That became a theme that I liked, and which fit the music, as most of it was about a person in distress. This time around, I decided to do something different and commissioned a piece from Darren Grealish, a well known artist who does psychedelic posters, record covers, etc. I did ask him to include a ship in the artwork. And,

yes, the band had changed a bit. Josh Drew, who played bass on the previous releases, had switched over to guitar and we now had Mike Mason in on bass. So, it had become more of a band, rather than me with friends who were helping me make a record, like on the Sleep Forever record.

While the cover designer (Steve Gerdes) remains the same for the first two, now in "Fear", you’ve adopted the work of Darren Grealish, who is known for his many posters. Now, when looking at this cover, you know there's a psychedelic sound here. Is this search intentional?

Steve Gerdes, a good friend, also put together the package for the new EP. He’s a pro and has been doing record covers for 30+ years, I think, so I’m honored that he will help me with my little releases, haha. Steve basically takes the artwork and puts together the package. With the Fear EP, he actually did more, as we only had the front cover, so he got the original file from Darren and used elements of the front cover on the back and inside of the CD sleeve.

But yes, I wanted something for the new cover that gave a bit more of a clue to what was contained within. So, I found Darren after seeing a great poster that he had done for the Brian Jonestown Massacre. For some reason, I had never had the idea of looking around for art in this way, since I had been appropriating the old paintings for so long

5 Can you give us a "track by track" rundown / commentary of the songs on this EP?

This was a new song, and kind of different from the older demos. I wanted to do something heavier some very gentle verses. It’s about depression and wanting to die or escape.

added some heavy electronic drums and the synth lines. It was great, so different from my “song” nic drums. So it has both the electronic drums and real drums by Stephen Striegel. We also beefed it up a bit with some undercurrents of heavy fuzz.

matter is probably obvious, but it’s written from the perspective of the drug heroin.

“Another Day”

tten from the perspective of a woman. A pretty simple song with a lot of layering. We had trouble with the song out with some heavy flanged guitar. Another song about someone at the end of their rope.

“Fear” to my influences than a lot of my other songs. Something ominous and repetitive. The lyrics are about holds true for some of the other songs – I’m not insistent on lyrics making complete sense all the time).

What are your plans for the band in 2017?

James and I are starting to write songs again. I will also be getting together with Josh and Mike to do some writing together, which would be a first. That would give them more input into their own parts and change the dynamic a bit, so things may change a lot for the next release. I can’t wait to get back into the studio, so probably another quick EP once we have some new songs. Then, hopefully some shows, as we’ve turned into a studio project (which I don’t mind). We need a drummer for live shows, so that search will begin shortly.

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