Dying Scene had the chance to talk with Edward Barakauskas of Teen Mortgage to talk about his other band, Tired all the Time, an alternative synth rock, post-punk trio from Washington, D.C. that just released their new LP SOMEWHERE ELSE on January 23rd. Check it out!
Tired all the Time (TATT) formed in 2017 with their current lineup consisting of Michael Talley (vocals/synth), Brian Miller (bass guitar), and Edward Barakauskas also of Teen Mortgage (drums). Their songs explore themes of existential stress, dystopian anxiety and social isolation juxtaposed with danceable melodies and tongue-in-cheek humor. While appropriating language and aesthetics from the corporate medical and pharmaceutical industries alongside the occult, they are known for extending their performances off stage by creating alternate reality art around them.
TATT has toured throughout the US and shared stages with notable acts such as FEEDER, MAN ON MAN (feat. Roddy Bottom of Faith No More), Empath, New Translations and Tigercub. Their album, BE WELL, garnered a Harmony Award for Best Music Video for “Bone Dry,” and received finalist nominations for the 2019 Washington Area Music Awards for Best Punk (Post-Punk) Band and Best Punk (Post-Punk) Album categories. Shortly after, the band was forced into a hard reset when they parted ways with founding member, Daniel Euphrat. In the following years, TATT chose to exclusively release singles while reimagining their identity as a trio. The next album, SOMEWHERE ELSE, is the opus of that stage of creative metamorphosis.
The album was self-produced by the band and mastered by Jesse Keeler (Death from Above 1979 / MSTRKRFT) and will be TATT’s vinyl debut on D.C.-based boutique label Scattered Records. Following the release TATT will have regional show dates including a release show at the Atlantic DC with a tour through the East Coast of the US this Spring.
SOMEWHERE ELSE explores the experience of existing in a society unraveling into a dystopian hellscape. Humans have unlocked technological pandoras box. Now we’re faced with staring at our empire collapsing at the hands of creations and our own flawed nature. Is there a better life on the other side or is our future or will we all go mad as it evolves into Lovecraftian proportions?
Dying Scene (Mary): What other bands would you say if someone likes would be into TATT?
TATT (Ed): We’ve drawn influence from bands like Interpol, IDLES, St. Vincent, Devo, Faith No More, Husker Du, Radiohead and The Mountain Goats. TATT originated as an absurdist satire of pop music and has continued to evolve into our current sound. We’ve never sought out particular bands we wanted to imitate but there are two lesser known bands I think we’ve converged on sonically. Mexican experimental rock group, Descartes A Kant, shares a similar tone of post-punk instrumentation embracing quirkier structures, timbres and noise. The other is MAN ON MAN, a project by partners Joey Holman and Roddy Bottom (Faith No More, Imperial Teen, Crickets, Nastie Band) that makes anthemic, gay proud, synth-heavy, indie rock.
Do you feel like there are any parallels between TATT and Teen Mortgage?
Tired all the Time and Teen Mortgage contain frequent lyrical anticapitalist and antifascist themes but conveyed in vastly different manner. Teen Mortgage leans more directly into anger and frustrations. TATT’s lyrics are more reflective of the spectrum of emotions we feel existing in modern society while holding hopes and fears towards the future.
How do your own experiences within the medical industry (you personally or TATT) play into your use of “language and aesthetics from the corporate medical and pharmaceutical industries alongside the occult”?
Each member held some level of occupation affiliated with these fields. I worked in emergency medicine, Mike works in mental health and Brian works in corporate settings. We are all experiencing reality in our own way. Thus we prefer our audience to form their own interpretation of the art. I won’t go too deep but I can provide some context on how these experiences informed us conceptually.
In the beginning, we were satirizing the absurdity of how industries project an image to the public that’s disingenuous to their nature. It’s like that feeling you get watching a commercial for a new drug or a bank that wants you to believe, “We care about you.” You know behind the mask beats the heart of an intangible entity that’s diluted the human experience down to a number. Mike referenced the concept “Capital has Agency,” summarized as “under the right conditions, a pile of money develops its own gravity and continues to grow, regardless of what values stand in its way.” It acts as an autonomous force shaping human behavior and relationships. Some of these rituals like conference calls, corporate speak, casual Friday and pizza parties resonate analogous to religious observance. This led us to connecting these patterns with the occult.
What can one expect from a TATT show?
TATT likes to bunk expectations and invite audiences into a showcase that’s both familiar and odd. As an emerging artist, we love performing for people that aren’t sure what to make from a guitar-less rock band. You’re still going to get all that raw punk energy but with danceable grooves, noise and dry humor. You might also get our vocalist giving you a crash course in Gray Goo Theory with slow blinking cats projecting behind him.
What’s working with Jesse Keeler like/what made you choose him to master SOMEWHERE ELSE?
Jesse and I became friends during the time Teen Mortgage had the honor of supporting Death From Above 1979 across several legs of their YOU’RE A WOMAN, I’M A MACHINE 20th anniversary tour. Death From Above 1979’s last record had been completely produced and recorded by the band itself, with Jesse having handled most of the mastering. Asking him to master our record made so much sense. The core of their instrumentation setup is essentially the same as TATT’s: bass, drums, vocals, synths and NO GUITAR. Of course the aspect of working with one of the band’s influences on the record was surreal but he really was the best person for the job. He returned the greatest glow up from mixing to mastering of any record I’ve worked on, specifically using some “psycho-acoustic” trick to highlight and balance the thick synth layers acting often as a lead instrument.
Last one…what kind of Lego set would be appropriate to build using your new record as the backing soundtrack?
I asked Mike for help on this one. He said, “There is an official lego kit for the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure located in Dubai. It’s been retired but is available for resale. Build it with the knowledge that this will be our world if we fail.” He offered an alternative to lego, “There’s also a model of The Motherland Calls. She commemorates the sacrifices made to defeat Hitler at the height of his cruelty and arrogance in Stalingrad.”
Tired all the Time’s new album SOMEWHERE ELSE is available now!
