Q&A: Tiny Moving Parts On The Road To Riot Fest
By Garrett Bower, Staff Writer
With deep-seated bonds and a charming zest for life, Tiny Moving Parts is devoting this fall to the road in pursuit of Pleasant Living, coincidentally the name of the band's new record. While they were on their way to blow out Riot Fest, frontman and general cool guy Dylan Mattheisen spoke with us of working with legends, figuring out the balance of weird lyrics, and the transcendental quest for the best burger.
How’s the tour been so far? You’re about done, right?
Yeah, dude, it’s been awesome! We’re about a week in on this 3-week tour that we’re doing and it’s been awesome! We all went to New York and played a festival in Virginia. Now we’re just trying to make our way back to the Midwest to do Riot Fest in Denver and Chicago, so it’s been good!
What’s it like playing large cities like New York being from a small Midwestern town?
It’s pretty sweet! It’s nice to get out of our small town since there’s absolutely nothing to do there! (laughs) We have a blast. The shows are really fun in the big cities and the down time's a lot more fun too. Like going out, there’s places to eat, places to get beer, it’s just a lot more fun.
What have been some of the prime cities you’ve hit on this tour?
Honestly, Philadelphia is really great. We have a lot of friends there-- a lot of our favorite band friends, like they’re in bands, are from there too.
Philly’s scene seems to really be picking up steam too.
Yeah, dude, it’s insane! It’s a hell of a city, I mean, just in general. This whole… scene, I guess you could call it, is doing really well and it’s a great thing. It’s awesome!
How does it feel being on a much grander scale with something like the Riot Fests?
When we first saw the flier, we were pretty mind-blown. I mean, that’s so many big names and to see our name, like, “Holy shit!” It’s a really cool thing. We are very excited and surprisingly not too nervous. We’ll see when we get there, we might be peeing our pants but it’s going to be a great time. We’re really looking forward to it.
Do you guys usually get nervous before shows?
Honestly, no. We don’t really get too nervous or anything. I worry about my guitar pedals a lot because they seem to screw up a lot but performance-wise, we practice all the time at home so we’re pretty confident and pretty happy!
Who are you most looking forward to playing at Riot Fest?
Well, the Chicago one has Tegan and Sara and that’s going to be really sweet. It’s going to be fun seeing our good friends Modern Baseball and The Hotelier, they’re both playing. Touché Amoré is gonna be cool. Honestly, there’s so many to name, it’s crazy! It’s amazing.
What has been the initial reception to Pleasant Living?
Dude, it’s been wild! The response has been great. A lot of people are digging it! We thought maybe since we’re singing a little bit more instead of yelling our notes out, that maybe it was going to be too big of a curveball for people but no, everybody’s been loving it more and we’re very satisfied with how everyone’s been enjoying the record.
How was the creation process for Pleasant Living different?
Lyrically, I love doing abstract things but we definitely made it more apparent what we were singing about. I just like to find the balance of both, you know? I love being abstract but-- like when you listen to At the Drive In, we love At the Drive In but sometimes it’s like, “I have no idea what he’s singing about, but it sounds really cool [laughs].” Music-wise and lyric-wise, we just try to find a balance on everything we like about music in general.
There was a pretty quick turnaround between This Couch is Long and Full of Friendship and Pleasant Living. Was working out Pleasant Living more immediate than "Couch"?
The writing process was a lot better than the previous album, "This Couch". With This Couch is Long and Full of Friendship, some songs we actually weren’t 100 percent on. There were still some parts that needed improved and fixed and we actually just did it last minute in the studio. So with Pleasant Living we had a lot more free time, we didn’t really have any jobs or school or anything so the band was the main thing to focus on. So the process was a lot more easy going just because there was so much free time.
What was it like working with producer J. Robbins (Dismemberment Plan, Jawbreaker) creating Pleasant Living?
He was extremely beneficial. He’s the man. He would speak his opinions about certain parts and he would flat out say, “It’s your band, you can do whatever you want, but for this part I would recommend doing this over this,” and certain little things. We would practice songs countless times in the studio and we’d try it his way, we’d try it our way and we’d go back and forth. He was just overall very beneficial and a great guy to work with.
Are there plans for a more expansive tour in the future?
We’re going back out, we’re doing a full U.S. tour in late October with this band called Dads and it’s gonna be a good time. Next year we really want to go to the U.K. and go to Australia and go to some new territories. We’ve played Canada, and Canada is sick but that’s the farthest we’ve ever been so we’re really excited to fly out there.
Because I haven’t had lunch yet and I’m always curious to ask, what’s a favorite spot you guys like to eat on tour?
(After some van discussion)
Dude! There’s this place in Nashville called The Pharmacy and it was voted best burger in Nashville and we tried it out and it was literally the best burger we all ever had [laughs]!
