Web Exclusive: A conversation with Tilly And The Wall's Jamie Pressnall

Posted by Scott Heisel on 18-Jun-08 @ 01:27 PM

Omaha, Nebraska's TILLY AND THE WALL employ one of the more unique percussionists in indie pop. Is that a euphemism for Jamie Pressnall simply being a weird woman? Nah; it's because Pressnall doesn't reside behind a standard drum kit, but rather leads Tilly's songs through that fanciful footwork known simply as tap. Brian Shultz recently had an in-depth conversation with her, discussing her flexible phalanges, but also the recording of their new album, O, and what happens when the lines between Big Bird and copyright law collide.

What did you want to change on O compared to past material like Wild Like Children and Bottoms Of Barrels?
We experimented more with the percussion. We had a stop troupe and a tap dance trio on one of the songs. Just kinda stuff that I'd been thinking about wanting to do but it didn't really fit in with the songs from Bottoms Of Barrels, which is when I started the idea of doing a stop troupe -- which is fun. We were able to record in a gymnasium. [Keyboardist] Nick [White] also used a tack piano. He used a grand piano. We had all these different kinds of amazing instruments for him to play as well. The songs were a little bit more open as far as style, so we had a little bit more room to be like, "Oh, this would be cool to try this there." It was [us] more open to experimentation. [Having] more resources, it made it easier to experiment.

You recorded Wild Like Children with Stephen Pedersen. He has a basement studio that he works in, right?
Yeah, he does.

I can imagine recording in a gymnasium was pretty much the complete opposite [experience]...
[Laughs.] It was. It was just the stop troupe, but it was funny because it was actually the very first day of recording, and we had to leave by 11 in the morning every day. So we did that for two days. We had to basically start at like 5:30 [a.m.]. So there was all the stoppers, and we had to get up really, really early... [They had] full-time jobs and it was just really funny. But it was so fun. It was really cool hearing the recording of it. [Producer] Mike [Mogis] would record it, and he's like, "Come listen to this!" It was so exciting to start off the record that way.

Did you use any other weird rooms to record?
Yeah. Mike had a lot of his own ideas as far as how to mic things, and where to mic things... As far as the percussion, which is what I recorded -- from my perspective -- I would just be like, "I want the tapping to sound like classic. I want it to sound like punk rock. I want it to sound distorted." So he would listen to my ideas and try to interpret that sonically.

We recorded in a hallway of the studio. We recorded it in [the] gym. I recorded next to a drum kit, like a kick drum for one of the songs, which was kinda cool. He did something where he would distort some of the sounds for a couple songs. Like in "Pot Kettle Black," he had amplifiers.. He had me hooked up to amps in a different room, and then had those amps mic'ed. And then had mics inside the walls. So he just had tons of great ideas and it was really fun. I just kind of sat back and watched. He was really fun to work with.

Have you found it challenging to find new and inventive ways of incorporating the tapping on each subsequent album?
It's challenging... Mostly the challenging part is just writing the part, 'cause once the part is written, I kind of know how I want it to sound. I'm always...not trying to think of new ways, but I'm trying to think of a way that are gonna fit the song, that are gonna add to the song. And if it's not gonna do that, then I'm not gonna be on the song, basically. [Laughs.] So I'm like, "What's appropriate for the song? Would this be cool? Would [that] be cool?" If none of that's working, then I don't feel like I have to do anything. I feel like if I do have any ideas, my band is really supportive.

I like to actually hear the skeleton of the song, and I'll just listen to that for maybe a few weeks before I even tap or try anything. Because once I start to work on it... Once you get one idea, it's really hard to let that idea go -- at least for me. Like, I can't think of anything else. So I try to think of a bunch of different stuff and then start working on it physically.

Does that mean you track your records the opposite way a normal band does? [As in], a normal band tracks the drums first, but you'll track the tapping last?
You know, some songs are like that. It kinda depends on who's writing it, because I actually write songs as well, on guitar. [Laughs.] A couple of the songs started with the beat. Guitarist/vocalist Derek [Pressnall] wrote a couple songs where he was like, "I want it to have this beat." And, "I want it to sound like this. I want it to have this vibe." Or he gave me a backbeat, start from there, then he'd write around the beat that I wrote. It really just depends on the song and the songwriter.

It's sort of weird how it works. When [vocalist/percussionist/bassist] Kianna [Alarid] would work on [songs] at home with an electronic beat, I would add the very last thing. Sometimes it wouldn't always be appropriate, wouldn't work, so I would see if there was something I thought would be good with the song or whatever. It's kind of different with every song.

Do you use various surfaces for the tapping?
I don't anymore, which is really nice. I actually have a--it's called my tap instrument. [Laughs.] I did not give it that name but...let's just leave it at that. I had it built by [this guy]...he basically builds tap surfaces. His name's Rob. He toured with Gregory Hines, and with Savion [Glover], and basically built their stages for them. It's a 4-foot by 4-foot surface that I travel with, and I have different lengths of legs, like drum risers, so I can be taller or shorter. But it's just one surface and it's mic'ed up. Then the sound engineer kind of changes the sound when we play live. I just use that one surface for recording as well. But on the previous record, I had tapped on different surfaces to try and get that different sound. But because we have this new instrument, it made it [so] I didn't have to do that, which is awesome, 'cause tapping on metal is really hard. [Laughs.] What I tap on now is this really soft, bouncy wood; it's awesome. It's so much easier for me. I really like it a lot more.

Is the creative direction of the tapping all on you or does everyone contribute?
I like people's ideas when I start... I kinda leave it up to the songwriter. I mean, I write the part. They might describe how they want the song to sound. Like "Oh, I want it to sound driving." "I want it to sound really quick." Then they might give me some direction and I'll try and take that when I'm writing it. I'll basically write a part for a while, then I'll bring it back to the person who wrote the song: "Do you like this? Is this going the direction you want?" And they'll say yes or no, or "I like this part; I don't like this part," and then I'll go back and rework it. Usually that takes, sometimes four or five times of me reworking the song based on what they want. Usually if I start it and they're like, "I really like that part," then I can kind of take that one part and build on that. Sometimes it happens really quickly and sometimes it takes two months. [Laughs.] The tapping, I'm pretty much in charge. But if people have ideas, that's awesome. I try to work [with] that.

Do you think you and Derek's marriage changed the dynamic of the band at all?
I don't really think so, because we basically have been dating the entire time the band's been around. I think it would've changed [had] we stopped dating. [Laughs.] But we've always been a couple within the band. I mean, now we're married, [and] it hasn't really changed the dynamic of the band. In [the] band, we always disagree on everything with music. So we're basically constantly arguing about songs and we've been doing that since we started. I mean, not really arguing but like "Oh, you should try this." "[But] I like this idea more." We have really different ideas about songs...which is kind of fun. But it's always been that way. [Laughs.]

The band recently recorded their version of the alphabet song for Sesame Street. How did that come about?
They approached us, so we were just really honored and excited to do it. I used to teach pre-kindergarten [before we] started touring, so for me I was so excited because that's something I never thought I would be able to do in my life. I could have that in my classroom when they're done with it.

But yeah, they just approached us and we were fuckin' stoked. I guess that's maybe not the most appropriate word choice to describe a Sesame Street song [Laughs], but... We tried to make it our own. They wanted it to be kind of modern. It was kinda fun, because I had a lot of ideas and Kianna had a lot of ideas, and the alphabet's not that complicated. So it was kinda fun to try different stuff.

[When] we recorded it--we green-screened it. It was really funny because there's a part of the song where we sing the alphabet song and I have this stop-beat that we did with it, and then there's this breakdown where we're all saying, [basically singing] "'A' is for apple! Will you sing it with me? 1-2-3 apple!" And we go through a few of the letters.

They had me alone pointing to the air...[Laughs]... I was the first person to film and it was 8:30 or 9 in the morning and I'm thinking I'm gonna go down, they're gonna check the lights, it's gonna be a little while... And I literally walk on the stage and they're like "Okay, go! Now!" So I'm pointing at the air and there's 30 people watching me and it was so funny. I was thinking of how silly I must've looked [Laughs], but it was fun.

What did they use the song for? Did they just play the video on an episode?
They're gonna animate it, then it's gonna air in the fall. They're hoping that it will be used as something they re-run because it's the alphabet song, which hopefully can be incorporated into how they have things... Like they run them over and over. So we're hoping they're happy with it. The director was hoping that would be the case -- that they're happy with it and gonna re-run it for a few years. So we're hoping that as well.

Do you think they'd let you do a 7-inch version of it?
I don't know. They own the rights to the song. [Laughs.] That would be awesome, though. [It would] definitely be something worth maybe trying to do at some point.

Although it is kind of funny, the idea that Sesame Street owns the rights to the alphabet song.
I know! I was like, "That's sort of weird, but, whatever..." [Laughs.] I can't imagine they would give us a hard time if we were like, "We wanna put it out on a 7-inch." Yeah...you never know. [Laughs.]

Did they mention approaching other bands about doing [the song]?
They did one with Feist, I know that. I think they were talking about doing one with Kimya Dawson as well. I'm not sure if that's actually happened yet. That would be great.

Working with Mike Mogis for the second time in a row, did that make for a less stressful environment recording?
It was awesome, because [for] Bottoms Of Barrels, he just recorded/produced it. So this was the first time we were able to record and mix, and he produced it... I loved it. He was awesome. I think he's so great, what he does.

[Also], I would literally record my parts and then leave the studio, because we were recording in our hometown in Omaha...just come back, check in at night, check in a few hours later... I had never done that before when we worked on a record. [I'd] been [in the studio] the entire time. [Laughs.]

I'm a total perfectionist. Everything he did I thought sounded awesome. [He's] really open to your ideas. We'll be like, "Oh, that's really cool, let's do that, but let's build on it." He made it really fun. It was great. His new studio, ARC Studios, is amazing and in our hometown. It was just really really nice to be able do to that, because before we'd always recorded outside of Omaha and slept on the studio floor and not showered for a week at a time. So it was really nice to be home.

You have a headlining tour coming up. Is that your biggest yet?
It is. We're really excited. We'll try to make some armbands to wear onstage. [Laughs.]

How else are you going to take advantage of the set length and creative freedom?
We want this to be different than every other tour, because it is our biggest tour so far. We have a really great sound engineer that we're excited about. We're gonna be working with him. We're gonna be bringing a lighting person, which is the first time we've worked with a lighting person... It's fun, too, to play new songs, and we're just gonna try to make it a really special tour and try to do it better than we've ever done it before. [We'll] just slowly add more people; we have touring musicians now.

It's definitely still gonna be a Tilly show, but [we're] gonna try and make it more of an intense Tilly show. [Laughs.] alt

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