This Friday August 3rd,
The Project Lodge welcomes indie electro-pop duo Technicolor Hearts from
Austin, TX. We spoke to Naomi and
Joseph of TH and here’s what they had to say.
For those who don't
know anything about Technicolor, what can you tell them? How long have you been together?
Technicolor Hearts is a new band from Austin, TX. We've only
been playing shows for about 8 months but we've played in many
previous projects namely Agent Ribbons and Death is not a
joyride. Naomi plays violin and
sings and Joseph plays guitar, keyboards,
synths, and programs drum machines. We are both visual artists so in
addition to being a band, Technicolor Hearts is like an art project
for us. We
enjoy creating a visual landscape to accompany our music and include elements
of performance art and audience participation. Mainly, we like to have fun.
You guys are on the
road from Texas. What do you miss
most about your home state?
Food! We are super health conscious eaters and are used to
having access to organic vegan food
24 hours a day at some of our local Austin eateries but it
can be challenging to find good stuff on the road sometimes. Especially late at
night. When we're on tour we live out of a cooler and make food from scratch in
the car pretty often.
How long have you
been on tour? Where are you
going? What else can you tell us
about the tour?
This is week 3 of a 6 week tour. We've been through the southwest, west coast and northwest
and now we're headed through the midwest. This is our first tour of this scope
and we've met a lot of interesting people and new fans along the way. So far the small towns have been
especially supportive and enthusiastic.
Eureka, CA and Pocatello, ID were particularly awesome!
What have you been
listening to in the van?
Actually, to make touring affordable and stay eco-friendly,
we tour in a small compact car.
Its one of the perks of playing in a 2 person band!
Recently we've been listening to St. Vincent, The Knife,
Connie Converse, movie soundtracks, Disney sing-a-longs, and some stand up
comedy. The new Frankie Rose album is pretty good. We also picked up some music
from friend bands along the way: Yoko OK, The Monster Women and The Lost
Lockets to name a few.
How did you each get
your start in music?
Naomi comes from a family of musicians. Her mom, little
sister and little brother also play violin. She started playing violin at age
11 in the school orchestra. She was classically trained, played in orchestra
through college, and began playing in bands at age 18. Joseph picked up playing
guitar and keyboards mainly leaning how to play them himself as a teenager.
Both of us have played in and toured with a few different bands in the past few
years.
So, you're coming to
the Project Lodge here in Madison on Friday August 3rd. Have you played Madison before?
Naomi played at Project Lodge once with her last band Agent
Ribbons, but this is the first Madison show for Technicolor Hearts.
When coming to
Wisconsin, get excited for good beers.
This isn't really a question.
Naomi actually does not drink, but Joseph and our tour
manager Lizzie will definitely get ready to enjoy some tasty beers when we get
there.
Do you guys home
record, or...?
For our EP, we collaborated with our friend Eric Martinez at
this really nice little studio in Austin called East Side Tone. We recorded
some parts ourselves and he helped us with the rest.
Do you have any
thoughts on why cassettes are more of a thing again now?
Nostalgia is definitely a factor for anyone who grew up in
the 80's or 90's. Also it's a fun
way to share your music that you can make at home other than CDs or mp3s. Since
vinyl is so expensive to make, tapes can be a great alternative for a band
going for a warm lo-fi sound.
Can you think of an
exceptionally bad show/tour experience from the past? How about a good one?
We are a pretty new band, and have been pretty lucky so far
so no exceptionally bad shows to talk about really. One of our best shows so
far has been getting to open for Zola Jesus at a sold out venue in Austin! We
felt really good about our set and both Zola Jesus and Talk Normal sounded
great and there was such great response from the crowd for everyone's set.
What comparisons to
other bands do you usually get from people who see your shows and listen to
your music?
These are some of the ones we've heard...Bjork, The Knife,
My Bloody Valentine, Beach House, Zola Jesus, but I don't know how much we feel
like we sound like some of those artists.
What bands do you
love? What bands do you find you
tend to emulate, whether you like it or not?
There are definitely a lot of bands we listen to a lot that
are doing things that really inspire us. Recently we'd probably say it would
have to be bands like Bat For Lashes, St. Vincent, Portishead, LCD Soundsystem,
Joanna Newsom, Tune-Yards, CocoRosie.
What's the next thing
Technicolor Hearts are working on?
After we finish the tour we hope to get a little bit of a
break to work on new music and hopefully a music video. We would like to do
maybe some regional dates before the year ends and then we really want to start
focusing on writing a full length album.
Finally, when the
Technicolor Hearts movie gets made one day, who will play Naomi and Joseph?
We are really hoping for an animated film. Maybe something
surreal like Yellow Submarine.
Be sure to catch Technicolor Hearts this
Friday August 3rd at The Project Lodge when they are joined by
Madison’s own Problem Child, The Wets, and also The Mommies and Chud. (FB)
— Tom Teslik
