A Chat with Tritonic (15.09.22)
Known for their provocative lyrics and memorable melodies, UK-based band Tritonic is taking on the, um, stuff people face living in a dystopian capitalist society. We speak with the lads about their latest release Algae Bloom, delivering bad news and future plans.
OSR: What inspired the album Algae Bloom?
Tritonic: Algae Bloom is much more of a jukebox than our other EPs and albums. Those weren’t exactly concept albums, but they certainly had more of a specific throughline, if not a direct narrative. The new EP is definitely more of a collection of songs than anything grand. The central Schoenberg-inspired combination of notes on ‘Roof to a Field’ has been kicking around my brain since 2007, so it was about time to get around to organising and recording it!
OSR: Is there a backstory or theme to Algae Bloom? What is the concept behind the music?
Tritonic: If most musicians were honest, they would say that the original idea was just a series of words or phrases that they smashed together and liked. They then retro-fitted the meaning after the fact. Algae Bloom would fit neatly into that idea. It was originally going to be called Eat the Rich but that was a little on the nose. The colour palette of the cover art is about the only thing that has remained a constant in all the EP’s permutations. There are definitely quasi-environmentalist themes bubbling away on the EP and there are some very clear political stances on the album, mainly being anti-Tory and pro-refugee. Growing older in a world that doesn’t seem to be getting any better is a perennial theme for Tritonic. Also, a song being called ‘Dead by Thirty’ written and recorded by people all easily over thirty just gets funnier with time.
OSR: What do you hope people will take from Algae Bloom and your music in general?
Tritonic: The aim was to be a little more direct, both lyrically and musically. That didn’t quite work as we ended up screaming a lot about London’s buried Roman Gods over noodly math-rock. There are however some lighter moments and there was a feeling that we shouldn’t be afraid of humour or witticisms. Not everything we do has to be obfuscatory or obtuse.
From a broader view of our music in general, my wish is that some of the gatekeepers of heavy music realise that the cracks are how the light gets in. I hope that people appreciate us trying to prize apart those genre boundaries a little further. Also, the song ‘Join a Union’ couldn’t be more didactic.
OSR: What was the most exciting aspect of creating Algae Bloom?
Tritonic: Seeing a song grow from a single kernel to an entire piece is always the best part of recording, but I think it was exciting to involve more people in the recording process. We used brass for the first time as a band, and despite it being a rough and ready punk EP, we definitely aimed to create a wider sonic palette and an individual feel for each song. It’s always the smaller surprising moments that stick out when recording, such as on ‘Roof to a Field’. We had a spoken word guide track for vocals that we liked so much we ended up using it on the final mix.
OSR: What is the most exciting and least exciting part of being a musician?
Tritonic: Recording music has always been the most exhilarating part. Seeing ideas being stacked up and thoughts coalescing into a whole track is the main motivator for being in a band. Playing live can be amazing, but by its nature, its joys are ephemeral. With recording music, the act of having a record as a piece of documentation is always fascinating as they can hold memories, thoughts and feelings as much as an old photo can.
The least exciting part is the minutiae of band organisation and administration. Corralling those around you to either help make your music or to even listen to it can sometimes feel exploitative, even when those people are your best and closest friends. On top of this, most of us in the band have real full-time jobs with little or no connection to the music industry, so everything we do as a band is a sacrificial moment, but hopefully a worthy one.
OSR: Who or what inspires you to make music?
Tritonic: Very occasionally when writing, recording or performing music, you might occasionally enter into a transcendental moment where you feel like a beam of light is about to burst out of your solar plexus. Those instances when the music feels deeply physical. It doesn’t happen particularly often. Conjuring those moments is the aim. Everyone in Tritonic has long moved on from the idea that we’ll ever make any money from being in the band, so the inspiration is that joy of creating music for its own sake.
OSR: What is your greatest achievement to date?
Tritonic: For the music video for our song ‘Hector’, we managed to convince the Tate Britain gallery to let us film after closing hours. Getting to wander around priceless works of Pre-Raphaelite art whilst dressed in Chinese air force high-altitude helmets was pretty special. I think our drummer Rob would probably say his children.
OSR: If you had to deliver bad news to someone, how would you do it – in person, on the phone or via carrier pigeon?
Tritonic: Semaphore or esoteric pamphlets. That, or a whisper on an ill wind.
OSR: Describe Tritonic in one sentence.
Tritonic: Like a shoal of mackerel trying to build a shed, you can’t fault our ambition.
OSR: What future plans do you have as Tritonic?
Tritonic: The semi-serious joke is that the next Tritonic album will be an improvised doom-jazz epic inspired by first-century Gnosticism. During what was probably a slow burn and extended breakdown, I converted several guitars into fretless ones. This was an attempt to access the infinite by doing away with frets. So armed with new instruments and with a few songs already demoed, the doom-jazz opus doesn’t seem that far-fetched.
Many thanks to Tritonic for speaking with us. For more from Tritonic check out their Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
