Lessons on Love and Cicadas with Hearts & Tigers
“put a cicada in your ear, and you could die from it”
Officially dubbed 2013's “Cutest and most awesome new band in P-town,” (see my Top Ten of Last Year), catchy, twee-rock band, Hearts & Tigers is obviously a NAILED favorite. After spending time sitting in a big circle formation, cross-legged, with the group on the thinly carpeted floor of their practice space, I can say that they also win the title of “Sweetest, friendliest, and most genuine new band in P-town.”
Here are the band members and their roles in the band (in random order):
Zach plays Guitar
Nathan plays Bass
Ian plays Drums
Johnny (Sarah) plays Guitar
Graye sings back up vocals, plays keyboard
Anna writes the lyrics and sings
I met up with H & T at their practice space in Southeast Portland. Shared some casual conversation about sharting experiences, over cigarettes on the outside deck before heading in to begin the interview. (For the record: I have never sharted--at least not as a non-baby. It's confusing to me why so many people have so many sharting tales to tell.) Anna had been helping Graye bind her breasts down in the bathroom. Later that night Graye was to take part in a Michael Jackson Drag show.
Throughout the interview, Anna and Graye occasionally bust out into 90s R & B-type ditties, or harmonies about Lime-a-Ritas in the style of Elton John. There's one jam that asks, “Why you gotta be so nasty?”
ZACK: They just break out into musical numbers.
NATHAN: We'll just be talking about something and I'll look over and they'll be dancing and singing, and I'm like, “What is going on?”
GRAYE: Is it annoying?
NATHAN: No, it's not annoying, it's fascinating. It's like walking in on something secret.
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There's an uncanny chemistry between the band members, especially considering that several of them came together as strangers through Craigslist. As we sat on the ground talking about things related to their band, and things totally unrelated, I noticed that all of the members seemed to like each other. They made each other laugh, and truly seemed to enjoy each others company.
Some bullet points on how the band came together:
Johnny had an ad up on craigslist that listed 400 bands she's into, hoping to find like-minded musicians.
Nathan had an ad up at the same time looking for people to play music with.
Zach had posted an ad, but found Johnny's, and Nathan found both Zach and Johnny's.
Later, Zach “tracked Anna down by casually showing up to places I knew she would be” and asking her if she would be in his band.
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NAILED MAGAZINE: There was another singer at the beginning, right?
ZACH: Yeah.
NAILED: But the songs you play now are all new songs?
ZACH: Well, there are a few that aren't...
[Everyone begins slowly remembering the names of these cross-over songs.]
JOHNNY: We played "Cicada" before. But it was called something different.
NATHAN: I'm trying to imagine a Frank Zappa version of that song...
NAILED: Frank Zappa?
ZACH: Yeah, she's a Frank Zappa type of musician. You know there's that thing where 99% of people in the world don't like Frank Zappa, and there's that 1% who does?
[Everyone (including myself) quietly admits that they are a part of that 1%.]
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The story of the current, twee-pop, non-Zappa version of "Cicada" goes like this: Anna had agreed to join the band shortly before leaving town to spend some time on the East Coast. Zach sent along instrumental versions of some songs, thinking that Anna might be inspired to come up with lyrics/vocals for the songs while she was away. She was visiting friends on Long Island and listening to the songs in the dark of their back yard.
ANNA: All the cicadas were coming out and it was really creepy sounding like weird electricity. I had read earlier that you could put a cicada in your ear, and you could die from it. So, I was thinking “Maybe I could do that. It would be so nice to die here, 'cause I'm so happy,” and I didn't want to leave. But I didn't want to write the song about dying, 'cause that's so depressing, so I decided to write the song about their life cycle. It just so happened that the year I was there was a year they emerged from underground, which only happens every seventeen years.
ZACH: It's educational.
NAILED: Are all of your songs educational?
ANNA: Not all of them.
GRAYE: Yeah they are. Some of them are lessons on love.
[That was sort of a segue into something I'd really wanted to ask.]
NAILED: How do you guys feel about the idea of cuddle parties?
JOHNNY: No not for me.
ANNA: It'd be nice if they were called something else, like, Therapeutic Touch Facilities. Something more clinical. Or, like, Touch for Positive Existing.
NATHAN: That sounds very intimidating. Like, I want to go to a Unicorn Cuddle Party.
ANNA: Cuddle party sounds dirty.
[Everyone agrees.]
ZACH: I mean, I like cuddling, I just don't like cuddling with strangers.
IAN: It seems like this regulated social event that people go to weekly to get their quota of human contact. I'd rather it be more organic.
JOHNNY: I think it's more socially acceptable to pay a prostitute than to pay someone for just being cuddled, which is kinda weird.
ZACH: Do you remember that large lady downtown who would violently hug people and hurt them? They would taze her and take her away. She really needed that physical connection.
ANNA: I want to cuddle with a big fat mom.
NATHAN: I would love to cuddle with a big fat mom.
NAILED: Oh, hey, when was the last time you NAILED it?
ZACH: I feel like when my socks match, I nailed it, 'cause that's a good day for me.
NATHAN: I think in a band with six people, when things work together, it's really cool.
IAN: Yeah, like that last song you wrote, when we finally fucking nailed it for the first time.
JOHNNY: Everyone in this band is nice. It's one of the first experiences I've had in a band where everyone is nice to each other and you can feel open playing and trying out new stuff without feeling like you're being judged or that you aren't good enough.
ZACH: And everyone's ideas are welcome. We're also friends.
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Hearts & Tigers have a 7” coming out soon, and are playing at The Foggy Notion in Portland, this Saturday night (4/12/2014).
