Tellison Interview

Tellison Interview

09 June, 2009
by: Simon827

Tellison are a band. A rather good one at that, and some of their fans would argue that that haven't had the exposure that they deserve. Apparently gleaming reviews from NME and Kerrang! and a week as MySpace's featured band aren't good enough for some people... But just to satisfy their adoring fans and partly my own curiosity, I dragged their lead singer Stephen Davidson and drummer Henry Danowski  from the studio on one fine, slightly hung-over Tuesday morning and asked the jolly old chaps just how the devil it was going...

How did you feel about your first album?

I think at the time we loved it, we put a lot of effort into it and it took a long time to make... and a lot of suffering. But the songs on there were old, even by the time we came to making the records. But we think we can make a better record than that one.

Are you changing your sound? I've heard some of the new songs live and they're sounding... different...

We're being more considerate about the approach and I'm pushing myself to be a bit more intelligent. To try and write something that can stand up to analysis a bit more. The songs we made before were a bit... obvious.

What themes are running through the album?

Initially, just off the top of my head, just me finishing my degree and wondering what I'm doing studying literature. I think thematically we don't sit down and think let's do the record about X or Y. With the last record it was only afterwards that people pointed out to me all the hospital imagery running through it.

What's your writing process? *I ask, looking at Henry who hasn't spoken yet. Henry dreamily stares into the distance and Stephen bursts out laughing...*

HD (slightly bewildered): What? I was still thinking about the last question...

SD (saving Henry): Initially I tend to write songs on my own, write the bare bones, just me and a guitar and a drum loop and then bring it to Henry and he's kind of my quality metre. Over the next couple of weeks we're really going to go for it and the plan's to have the record ready by the end of the summer with maybe an EP before it.

You've had a lot of positive reviews, surely someone's said something bad about you?

HD: I think people that like that sort of music love us, but if you're not into it, then you just think it's shit. People either just love Tellison or don't care.

SD: I don't like how these things work. It's almost as if people can buy their reputation and this happens every day. People like the NME and Zane Lowe, they can give their stamp of approval to something and that's it. I know it's ease of consumption, you don't want to have to trawl through hundreds of blogs but at the same time you've got these small bands just hitting their heads against brick walls.

When you started you were heavily involved in Banquet Records, do you feel it was them that kicked you off?

Well, we've been quite lucky as a band. But Banquet have worked their asses off for us for a long time, we'd definitely not be where we are without them. They're good people doing hard and brave work and don't get any reward for what they do.

I was watching The Inbetweeners the other day and was surprised when one of your songs popped up. How did you get that?

Well, again, this is us being lucky. Marsha Shandaw from X-fm somehow got a copy of the record, I think through Sam Issac and she was asked to be music consultant for the show and put us on it. So she used Gallery on season 1 and Wasp Nest in season 2.

Who writes your blogs? Because they're kind of strange...

Oh, I do. I love that about the modern industry, the connection and communication now between bands. It's a development of what people like the Clash were thinking about, in that there's no difference between us and fans. We're just normal people. I think it's great that bands can have Twitter.

You have a fifth guy, Matt, who plays with you live. Do you just lock him in a cupboard and get him out for shows?

Matt was just someone I knew at Cambridge and he can play a lot of instruments. I can see him doing more. We come up with parts all together anyway. He used to play in a lot of ska bands and in some of the new songs he's played sax which is really interesting for us. He's not an official card-carrying Tellison member, but increasingly I can see him joining in the writing side even more.

Your guitarist Peter seems to be singing more?

He's got a really great voice. He wrote Gallery. He's really shy about writing songs. He'll come up with songs on his own, record a whole bad version of it and I'll just get an e-mail from him, no writing, and then he'll never mention it. He used to be in another band and they were stunningly good so we essentially stole him. He's wonderful and we're trying to encourage him to do more. We're grooming him so he'll evolve into a beautiful butterfly.

The end of your song Architects you sing ‘John Keats, John Keats, John Keats, John, John Keats, John please put a scarf on.' Please do explain!

Oh, that's not me, that's J D Salinger, he wrote Catcher in the Rye. I had one of his books with me when I was writing that song and it was open on that page and just used those words while I was writing, but really liked it. I like using literature, because at least I know it's good. I don't know if we're actually allowed to do that, we didn't get permission obviously because he's living in a bunker somewhere in the mid-west.

So it turns out Tellison are a strange group of lads slightly detached from reality. Or maybe that's just Henry. It's also quite clear that they're thieves of people and words. But we'll let them off because they did wonderful things with them. So we'll look forward to some form of record coming towards the end of the year and until then, keep an eye on their festival dates over the summer.

Tellison will be playing Y-Not Festival on the 1st of August

Click here for indie music around London
Click here for live music around London

Simon827