Tiny Masters of Today : Interview

Tiny Masters of Today really are tiny.  And for some on sight alone, that could construe them as a novelty act.  But for all their youth this is a group who has a musical cv that could kick the proverbial behind of many a band their senior and who are now probably better connected musically speaking, than the entire Ronson family put together.

Ava and Ivan, or the Tiny Masters, formed as a brother and sister duo in 2005, at a pre-adolescent stage when most kids spend their free time playing Nintendo or dressing up Barbie’s and whose musical discovery probably hadn’t even begun.  But growing up surrounded by the sounds of their parents’ record collection had instilled an enthusiasm in these siblings to replicate the sounds they had become accustomed to by forming their own band.  

In fact the music of decades gone past and the choices of the generation of their parents, has been instrumental in influencing the Tiny Masters sound from the very beginning as they list 60s and 70s punk and rock as the building blocks of their recording careers.  And in doing so they have struck up friendships and made acquaintances with many of music’s true icons of the past and present, having been championed at length by Bowie and recording with rock royalty such as Karen O and Nick Zinner.

As well as their talent for writing and recording punkish sounding short blasts of explosive distortions and lo-fi rock music, MySpace has been cited as the main catalyst for the Tiny Masters being as heralded as they are today.  It was their use of the social networking bandwagon, which enabled their homemade demos to be heard by their first drummer Russell Simins, who on being so impressed by what he heard, introduced their sound to anyone who mattered on the New York music scene.  And now as they prepare to release album number 2 ‘Skeletons’ in June of this year, they have already toured the world, attracted a serious following back home and overseas and been dubbed punk rock heroes by the worlds music press.  A pretty mammoth achievement when you consider both are still under the legal age of drinking, smoking and pretty much doing anything that any other rock stars at their level would probably by now have been into rehab 6 times for.

Tiny Masters of Today have a youthful edge to what is inventive punk-rock and as their newer recordings suggest, they are intent on taking this formula further by introducing an experimental electronic element to their sophomore record.  New drummer Jackson Pollis has picked up the sticks from Simins and together as a trio they are reinforcing their thriving sound over here in the UK, with an anti-establishment edge and a charming, free from cynicism, childish abandonment which in this time of doom and gloom offers a form of escapism for anyone with a bit of fun to their person.

Ivan, Ada and Jackson spent some time with 4or The Record during a well earner break from their touring schedule in the UK and gave us an insight into their forthcoming record, touring and what it’s like to record with Karen O herself…

4TR: So for any people in the UK who might not have heard of you, can you introduce yourselves please?
Ivan: Well we are The Tiny Masters of Today from Brooklyn in New York, and I’m Ivan and I’m 15 years old.
Ada: I’m Ada and I’m 13
Jackson: And I’m Jackson and I’m 19.
4TR: And you formed the band in 2005 right?
Ivan: Yeah it was around then, so you do the math, we were pretty young when we started.

4TR: What was it that inspired you to start making music at such a young age?
Ada: I guess there was always music around the house when we were growing up and so my brother started playing guitar when he was about 7 I think and then I started playing keyboards and after that we just started writing songs together, it made sense to us.

4TR: What kind of music inspired The Tiny Masters sound?
Ivan: I don’t know really, I mean there was loads of like punk-rock records in the house and that was quite inspiring for us in a way.   I mean when I was 10 I was listening to the Clash and the Ramones all the time, [laughing] so I blame them for all this.

4TR: Your careers really started after you made some homemade demos and put them on your MySpace which were picked up by Russell Simins and subsequently by other legendary names.  Did you ever expect that kind of reaction? And does that put added pressure on you when you are recording new material?
Ivan: Well I don’t think it ever made us feel pressure, but it was really cool and definitely really surprising when someone like David Bowie started talking about us and other things like that happened.

4TR: Have you had the chance to meet him?
Ivan: No unfortunately not!

4TR: And how did Karen O and Nick Zinner come to record with you?
Ivan: Well Russell Simins became our first drummer after he got in touch with us and he was friends with Karen, I mean Russell was friends with everyone, so that’s how we met Karen and people like that and she liked us and so we went into the studio with her.

4TR: And with that kind of attention from the people that you have worked with so far, was it a dream come true scenario for you?
Ivan: Yeah definitely, I was a pretty big Yeah Yeah Yeahs fan at the time so working with them was a really big deal for me.
Ada: I was so young at the time that it was just what I wanted to do, it wasn’t really about being a star or anything it was just about playing music.  But it was so great that somebody appreciated our music and it was great to work with other people because hearing other peoples’ voices is an influence for me.  Like seeing Karen O record is incredible, she does it in like one take perfectly, and you are just watching thinking “wow that’s amazing” and its just really inspiring.

4TR: A lot of people have put labels on your sound, but how would you classify it, especially now that your new album is crossing into the realms of electronic soundscaping more than your debut?
Ivan: Yeah ‘Skeletons’ is definitely more experimental with electronic instruments and other kinds of weird instruments, but I thinks that’s probably because we’re older and wiser now than we were before.  We are though I mean if you think about the difference between like 15 and 12, that’s a big age difference.

4TR: Obviously you have grown up, but when you sat down with the conceptual ideas for making the 2nd record, did you have it in you head that you were going to take it that step further and bring in the electronic influences or did that just happen over the course of recording?
Ada: I think it’s because of the differences of what kind of music we now like.  I think my brother started listening more to stuff like Animal Collective and to just different things and that really affected the record in a sense.  So there is a lot more experimental stuff going on and its different, but I think it’s also still partly the same as our previous sound.
Jackson: Yeah I think its still pretty poppy, its like experimental but with pop songs underneath.

4TR: Do you write the lyrics for your songs collectively as a band?
Ivan: Ada does the majority of the writing actually, I do all the music and she does the lyrics.

4TR: And does it all stem from an autobiographical aspect Ada, or is it just about anything and everything?
Ada: Oh its just stuff really.  People always ask me that and I feel bad because I don’t really have an answer ‘cos its like all from just really random stuff. 

4TR: For any band, especially one your age, it’s a big deal to be on your 2nd record and having had toured the world, so how does that feel? And does anyone treat you differently?
Ivan: I feel that people think its actually a bigger deal than it is to us you know.  The only time age has ever been a problem was one time when we weren’t allowed into the club we were playing because it was a 21+ age restriction, [laughing] and obviously we are not 21.
Jackson: And people are probably nicer to us, ‘cos they say it’s the kids.
Ada: And they will curse or something and then go ‘oh I’m sorry’ to us.  And we’re like we don’t care, we’re in bars all the time, of course we hear that don’t worry about it.  But Jackson’s like ‘what, what did you say, that’s a bad word’
Jackson: [laughing] Yeah I hate it, it makes me cry.

4TR: What are your audiences generally like? Is it a real mix of ages?
Ivan: Well there’s definitely more of a response over here than in America, and there’s definitely more press and people who are interested in what we are doing for sure.  Actually its like 2 different worlds between the UK and Europe and then America in terms of music, because in the UK there’s so much more new music going on.
Jackson: Yeah in America it’s much harder, especially because a lot of the venues are 18 or 21 plus.
Ada: Yeah so there’s not the whole underage thing there like there is here.  That’s really helped us actually, doing things like the Underage Festival here and stuff means that a lot of kids have more exposure to different bands and to different kinds of music, whereas most kids in America don’t really get to see bands, they only really get to hear things on TV which is mostly pop music and not a lot more than that.
Jackson: But New York’s good now because this guy puts on a lot of all ages underground shows, which are under 10 dollars and for everyone, so that is really awesome because growing up in Brooklyn its good to have an ally like that you know.  When I was these guys’ age, there wasn’t anything like that going on, so I couldn’t go to any shows and discover new music, but now I feel more kids are going to check out new music which is cool because it introduces them to really out there bands as well. There’s like a show every night now to go to if you want.
Ada: And sometimes that’s good, just knowing that you can go if you want to, its there for you.

4TR: You went and played at your 3rd SXSWS conference this year. Did you preview any of your new album there?
Jackson: Well we’ve been playing a lot of those songs for a year now, but actually that was the first American show where we played a lot of them to people.
Ivan:  Yeah we have been sitting on this album forever.  But we only did one show there this time; in previous years we did like 4 shows in 2 days. 

4TR: Was the response good?
Ivan: It was good yeah, but it’s always hard to tell, I mean even if someone thinks that’s good, do they really think that its good, I don’t know?

4TR: Do you read much of your press?
Jackson: Their dad does I think.
Ivan: [laughing] yeah and we read some, like there’s a couple of album reviews coming out and single reviews and we read those.  I mean I like to read the reviews because it’s interesting to see things from an outside perspective you know.

4TR: The Internet is the platform that has brought you to peoples attention, by giving your music a wider scope and making music in general more accessible.  Do you think in that case without MySpace you would be doing what you are doing now?
Ivan: I honestly think if there was no MySpace we would not be here now and probably never would be, which is kind of lame to think, but I’m not going to lie.  It was our MySpace that got us our first show, and that got us our first article, and without it we probably wouldn’t have met Russell in the first place which was when things really took off.

4TR: ‘Skeletons’ the album is finally out in June.  From the idea stage to the finished recording and package are you pleased with your work?
Ivan: Yeah I’m pleased with it, I think actually I’m definitely more pleased with it that the first record we did.
Ada: We had a lot more fun with it this time and we did a bunch of new stuff and I think we were much more experienced when we came to do it so the overall outcome was good.
Jackson: And you did most of it yourselves which is really cool.
Ivan: Yeah right, ‘cos with the last one we were like 10 years old, so we didn’t really have that much of a creative input.  I mean obviously it was our songs and our music, but we witnessed the producing and just helped out a bit, but this time we were more involved with our ideas for the production.


Interview: Francesca Strange

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