TEGAN AND SARA

Nicholas Charles Reinhart, guitarist/songwriter extraordinaire.

Nick Reinhart has many qualities, but none greater than the quality of knowing exactly what he wants. He’s a confident dude. He’s also unusual, both as a musician and as a music-appreciator. He’s the songwriter in Tera Melos, a trio of savants from the hilly suburbs of Sacramento, CA. Though the band has toured with The Fall Of Troy, Portugal. The Man, and other young, progressive bands, and though Tera Melos cite Hella and Dillinger Escape Plan as influences, there are no established reference points for music this experimental. Many Melos songs sound like an entire history of Saturday morning cartoons squashed into six minutes of furious, largely instrumental experimental rock music.

The music works because Mr. Reinhart—and Tera Melos—grasps an faultless vision of what music should be. It should be “fun.” At times, it’s odd to hear Mr. Reinhart describe music so simply when he constructs sounds so complex. Late last summer, I sat down with Mr. Reinhart after a show in Fresno, CA. We discussed how music fits into his life, where his songs come from, and, above all else, the Canadian alternative pop duo Tegan And Sara.



BRILLIANTMP3S: How would you describe Tegan And Sara to someone who's never heard Tegan And Sara?
Nick Reinhart: They remind me of Blue Album-era Weezer mixed with Pinkerton with girls singing. I don’t have much frame of reference for other alternative rock bands. Usually Weezer is the band I’ll use to compare other bands to because Weezer is my favorite band. So I like other bands that will bring me back to Weezer. There’s something about that Tegan And Sara album [The Con] that makes me feel like I’m listening to Weezer with girls.

BRLMP3S: So you downloaded this album before it came out?
NR: I’d been looking for it. I found it. I was really stoked and I hadn’t heard anything off it yet. I was really intrigued by them and I ended up liking it right off the bat.

BRLMP3S: Were you into the last album?
NR: No. You gave me the last album when I first got my iPod. You were like check this out. I remember putting it on and Nate [Latona; Tera Melos’ bassist] going through my iPod and going, “Oh, Tegan and Sara, those are those lame girls that sing.” The intrigue started in Alternative Press magazine, in the most anticipated records of 2007, like six months ago or something. There was a picture of Tegan and Sara getting their hair done. They just look super cute in these striped tops and I was like, damn. At the time I didn’t even know they were lesbians. I was super intrigued by them. I started looking for it and looking for it and started researching them and I really liked what they were all about and I got that record. Now that’s what I’ve been listening to the most out of anything.

BRLMP3S: Do you like the songs or the production or both?
NR: The production is pretty cool. It was Chris Walla, you know him.

BRLMP3S: He might be in charge of the theme for the Olympics next year.
NR: [Laughs] Really? Random. The production is cool. It’s a really clean, produced sound, which I think they could go either way. They could have a raw sound or a really clean sound, but the songs are really, really fucking cool. Super non-contrived and really innocent sounding, these two punk rock chicks playing these pretty pop songs. You should check it out.

BRLMP3S: I want to. I think that single is really good.
NR: Yeah. “Back In Your Head.” That’s Sara. And that’s the one I have a crush on.

The first single from Tegan And Sara's newish album, The Con. It's called "Back In Your Head."

BRLMP3S: Do they both write songs? Are there Tegan songs and Sara songs?
NR: Yes. They live on opposite ends of Canada and they write songs and send them back and forth. Then they’re like, what do you think of this and homegirl will add some stuff and blah, blah, blah. Actually, I don’t know if they even do that. But either way, they both do their own songs. There are Tegan and Sara songs. Once you digest the full record and watch the Youtube videos you can start to tell who is who and tell the characteristics of each writer. It’s interesting.

BRLMP3S: So what other albums have you been jamming to recently?
NR: The second most played is The Pixies Trompe le Monde and Bossanova. I’ll listen to those two records at least once every day.

BRLMP3S: What about those records got you addicted?
NR: I’ve had Bossanova since ninth grade. A friend burned it for me but I never gave it a chance to fully digest it. And for some reason I was like oh I want to check out the song “Velouria.” So I popped it on and just let the whole record play probably like two months ago and I was completely blown away. So I researched them a little more then downloaded the next record, which was Trompe le Monde, which is the most current Pixies release. On those two records, the production is so fucking cool and the songwriting rules. I realized everything about that band was what we try to make our band be, I guess, if that makes any sense.

BRLMP3S: It doesn’t. You’ll have to keep talking.
NR: Ok. Those guys, the Pixies, are not good musicians. They’re actually really jangly musicians and you can tell that from all the live recordings, I have a bunch of those too. But they’re super, super awesome melodic songwriters. They do this weird shit that is so pretty and melodic sounding, but it makes you scratch your head and rewind it to find out what it was. I just think the vocals on those particular two records are some of the best vocals that I’ve heard in a band before. That’s not why I wanted to add vocals to this band, but this was right after the fact we’d done our new record and decided to start adding vocals. I hear those two records and I was like, fuck, this is exactly how I want the vocals to come off. Because with Frank Black, it’s not so much in what he has to say, but it’s the way he presents the vocals and the way he uses his voice as an instrument. He’ll make up words and these weird phrases and shit. It’s more about how they compliment the music instead of like, oh, listen to what I’m saying. That was really awesome to me. Those are two 100% perfect records. Also, coincidentally, everyone that asks me about the Pixies is like: ‘do you like Surfer Rosa and the older stuff?’ I don’t like the old stuff at all. I think the songs are lame, well, most of them are. And I don’t like the production on the other records. And I guess on Bossanova and Trompe le Monde was when Frank Black took over and told Kim Deal, ‘I don’t want you to sing on these records, I want you to take a back seat.’

BRLMP3S: Do you listen to instrumental music regularly?
NR: No. The only instrumental band I listen to would be Hella. Well, and Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, but I wouldn’t really consider that instrumental music.

BRLMP3S: Do you have a lot of kids coming up and asking you what you listen to?
NR: Yeah.

BRLMP3S: Your band creates strange expectations, as it might pertain to the answer of that question.
NR: Yes.

BRLMP3S: But you’re honest with kids?
NR: I would say: ‘I don’t listen to instrumental music; I don’t listen to any of the bands you just listed off.’ I’m wearing a Fear Before The March Of Flames shirt but I’ve never heard this band before. [Laughs]

BRLMP3S: It’s a nice shirt. The stripes are so subtle.
NR: It’s American Apparel dude. Someone gave it to me.

BRLMP3S: American Apparel makes shirts like that? I’ve never seen that before.
NR: But if a kid asked me, yeah, of course I’d be straight with him. I’d be like, dude, you should go download the new Tegan And Sara record to go find out what I think is totally killing it right now as far as what I’m currently listening to.

BRLMP3S: See, it’s not like you can’t hear that stuff in your band, but I’m sure that most people don’t hear that.
NR: Yeah, you’d have to really, really dissect the melodic content of the songs. Obviously Tegan And Sara aren’t doing weird, fucked-up noise passages. The Pixies kind of did. That’s why I’m so drawn to those two bands right now. The way they use melody parallels the way I try and get that across. But it’s weird. I’m not going to lie. I know that it’s weird to say that those are my two favorite bands right now.

BRLMP3S: Why do you think your songs have so many passages? For me, I can hear these little moments of bands like Pixies, Weezer, and whatnot. But it goes by so quick. It takes spending a lot of time with your music to find that. Why does so much happen?
NR: Well, if you would have asked me that two or three years ago, the answer would have been, because we like to keep ourselves occupied and we get bored really easily. If we were just going to play this section of the song over for four times and transition to the next part, that would get boring to us. Especially when we were a strictly instrumental band. Now, however, that’s more of how I’ve trained myself to write. When I’m at home in my bedroom, it won’t be like, play this chord progression four times then move onto this next section. It’s like, I’ll play this riff once and then pretty much just keep adding to it to make this really, really long riff that has all these different changes in it. A riff ends up becoming an entire song. That’s why it takes so long for us to bust out new songs. The writing process is exhausting.

BRLMP3S: Are the reference points for that style of writing really musical? What else influences your writing? I’ve always felt your stuff is really cinematic. Your music made so much more sense after watching segments your movie.
NR: There’s not a cut and dry answer as to what inspires it to come out that way. It’s never been like we really, really like this band so lets write music like this. It’s never been like that. It’s just evolved to what it is. Granted, the first time I heard Dillinger Escape Plan or the first time I heard Hella I wasn’t playing fucked-up noisy whatever you want to call it music. So those two bands definitely changed the way I heard things and perceived music. But now there’s nothing that influences it to be that way other than 'let’s have fun with this and challenge ourselves with our songwriting.' Playing traditional song structures isn’t very challenging. Granted, I like that stuff a lot and at some point I do want to record solo songs, just shitty acoustic pop songs. I’m really into that, but not in the context of this band.

Snakeville Trailer I


The trailer for Snakeville, which Mr. Reinhart co-wrote and performed in.

BRLMP3S: Do you feel like a full time musician?
NR: Oh yeah. I always knew I wanted to be a full time musician, but at the beginning of this year was when it really hit me that I’m not going to be able to do anything besides this. That includes getting a real job and making money, or having a girlfriend, or doing other fun artistic projects. Which I do. I do cram more stuff in, like the music stuff, but it is 100% a full time thing at this point.

BRLMP3S: That must feel awesome.
NR: It’s cool. Right now it’s a bit stressful. It’s getting to the point where it’s like, hopefully we’ll be touring a lot next year. We can’t work normal jobs, because no one wants to hire someone who’s going to bounce out in three-and-a-half weeks and leave for a month. We’ll come home and practice and that’s a lot of fun and it’s really exciting doing new things.

BRLMP3S: But you need these tours to pay the bills for the rest of the year.
NR: Right. And right now we’re in a weird transition where we’re not touring enough to make money to pay bills at home. But if we can just stay afloat for the next six months we’ll hopefully get to that point where we can each take home a few hundred dollars towards each tour to put towards expenses. It’s cool but it’s scary at the same time.

BRLMP3S: What was the last job you worked?
NR: The last work I did was just last weekend. I did some landscaping for a friend of the family. I shoveled bark at their house. That’s the kind of odd jobs that I do. Or if my step dad’s plumbing company needs me for a job I’ll do that for three or four days. As far as “real” jobs go, I don’t remember the last job I had. I think it was probably Halloween last year. I worked at Party City. That was a long time ago now. I don’t think I’ve had a real job since then.

BRLMP3S: How would you say you’ve changed between wanting and not wanting management?
NR: A year ago the thought would have never crossed my mind about our band needing someone to help us out in that department. But now, this lady that’s helping us, she’s not like a manager-manager. She really is just functioning as a fourth member of this band, where she just does all the shit we wouldn’t know how to do. Like emailing this booking agent, or calling up her homeboy who manages so-and-so. It’s so much easier that way than us just sending off an email to whoever saying, ‘hey we’re this no-name band from California. Do you want to do some shows together?’ I think we’re at the point now where we’ll benefit from having someone like that, whereas a year ago we did not need someone to help us book shows or get us press. But it’s really fucking cool and it’s working out. It’s exciting having someone so stoked on your band and doing everything they can to help us out.

BRLMP3S: What do you call Tera Melos? What kind of music?
NR: I don’t know. Whenever someone asks me that, it’s like, ‘What do you call it?’

BRLMP3S: What if they haven’t heard it?
NR: Ok. Today I hear a knock on my door. I never answer my fucking door. I look through the peephole and it’s this crazy mailman that I always see walking through my neighborhood. You can tell he’s a nutty dude because he’s got this really long hair that’s slicked back and he wears these super thick glasses. So I’m like, fuck it dude, this guy’s funny. I’ll answer the door. He’s just delivering a package. So he gives me my package and he’s friendly and he sees this guitar hanging up in my house. He’s like, ‘oh, I see a guitar in there, do you play music?’ I was like, yeah, as a matter of fact I play in this weird, experimental band. ‘Oh cool right on, right on.’ I was like, I guess I’d compare it to King Crimson or Yes, kinda like fucked-up, non-traditional music. The dude flipped out. He’s like, ‘dude, Yes and early Genesis and King Crimson. Those are my favorite bands and I have this record and this record.’ He’s really stoked. I guess for people in their 30’s or 40’s I’d just say we’re a progressive rock band in the vein of King Crimson or Yes, because that would make sense to them. But to a kid, for example, I’ve probably been asked that so many times and I can’t think of what my answer would be. I’d just say it’s weird music and it’s probably something you’d never hear on the radio. Maybe it’s something you’ve never heard before and you’ll have to just check it out. I couldn’t explain it. It’s fast drums that probably don’t make sense. It’s loud guitar. It’s lots of weird sounds. I guess that would be the way I’d describe it if I absolutely had to.

BRLMP3S: What was in the package from the mailman?
NR: My roommate ordered two film books about directing from Amazon.

BRLMP3S: There’s really nothing conventional about you guys. Even the bands you tour with and the tours you do. It’s not that conventional. It’s not that conventional to throw an instrumental band on these huge sold out tours.
NR: That was really weird. I would agree with that. The huge band picking up the no-name band that no one has ever heard of.

BRLMP3S: You dream about that shit.
NR: Right. That was surreal, for sure.

BRLMP3S: Can you even pick out a high point of that first national Fall Of Troy tour?
NR: I remember we played the SOMA in San Diego. There are two rooms and I think we played the smaller one, which was 800 capacity. The show was, like, over sold out. We opened that show. I remember at one point, during one of the quiet parts in “40 Rods To The Hogs Head” the entire room was completely silent. It was so rad that every single fucking person in that room was listening to us and not talking or on their cell phones. We had everyone’s attention. It made me feel like that scene in Instrument, when they’re playing at that school on that school stage. It’s really clear. There’s that shot of Brendan [Canty] with that bell. I just remember it gets really, really quiet during Fugazi’s set. I remember actually being conscious during “40 Rods”, just thinking: this reminds me of that Fugazi set. That was probably the highest point during that tour for me and that was only the third show.

Actually, I have one other high point. Philadelphia at the First Unitarian Church. We were on the exact opposite end of the country however many thousands of miles away. We were late to the show and we had to load in really, really quick and it was fucking freezing outside and we had to load down these weird stairs. But we walked out and kids went nuts, because everyone apparently had been waiting for us to come to Philadelphia. It was in the basement of this church and there were 500 kids there that just went crazy and understood what we were doing and why we were doing it.

BRLMP3S: Why are you doing it?
NR: Doing what?

BRLMP3S: Doing ‘it’?
NR: It’s not something I can explain. It’s more of an intrinsic thing. I guess you can just tell when someone else gets that feeling about our music. They’re just like, dude, I fucking get this. I couldn’t put it into words and I can’t explain why I get it, but there’s just something about this music that totally makes sense. Even though none of it makes sense. I can definitely tell when people are experiencing it.

BRILLIANT MP3's by TEGAN AND SARA
(Click to download)

“Floorplan” (from The Con)
“The Con” (from The Con)
BONUS TERA MELOS MP3: "40 Rods To The Hogs Head" (from Drugs To The Dear Youth)

Mr. Reinhart is very right: The Con is an incredible album. Also, Youtubing Tegan And Sara is a rewarding experience, indeed. Perhaps my favorite discovery of the year has been the bands "Video Chapters." These chapters are making-of clips for every song on The Con, featuring in-studio footage with producer Chris Walla, drummer Jason McGerr (Death Cab For Cutie), bassists Matt Sharp (The Rentals) and Hunter Bergan (AFI), and guest guitarist Kaki King. These clips are charming, raw, and leave you feeling like these songs and people are real. Totally refreshing. I'll post as many as I can find.

For "Back In Your Head".


For "The Con".


For "Nineteen".


For "Burn Your Life Down".


For "Soil, Soil".


For "Floorplan". Kaki King, you are too cute.


For "I Was Married".


For "Are You Ten Years Ago".

TEGAN AND SARA's WEBSITE.
TEGAN AND SARA on MYSPACE.
TEGAN AND SARA on WIKIPEDIA.
TERA MELOS on MYSPACE.