Q + A with Tiny Masters of Today
Tiny Masters of Today (pictured left to right: Ada, Ivan)
The Tiny Masters of Today are Ada (13) and Ivan (15), siblings from Brooklyn who have benefited from heaps of praise from the likes of David Bowie, Kimya Dawson and Karen O. Joined by Jackson Pollis (18) on drums, the band recently released sophomore album Skeletons. The album clocks in at 26 minutes and it is chock full of pop/punk songs. They are not of the Disney generation where acts such as Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus or the Jonas Brothers topple charts and are loved by prepubescent girls. Instead, they’ve schooled themselves with mentors like The Moldy Peaches and embraced the DIY lo-fi sound. On Skeletons, “Drop the Bomb” makes an impressive opening track and “Abercrombie Zombie” has TMoT mocking their teenage peers. The overall effect of Skeletons perfectly captures their punk rock sound and displays a new level of maturity. We can only hope for fresh and new things from Tiny Masters before they reach legal drinking age.
IN*TANDEM caught up with Ada days before their show at the Village Voice’s 9th Annual Siren Music Festival where they performed.
Q: Your first album received dozens of accolades and David Bowie even called it “genius” did you expect that kind of reaction when you started the process of the album?
Um. It was really surprising, you know, because no one really thought it was going to happen.
Q: What was it that inspired you to start making music at such a young age?
I think that, you know, we’re all just been really into music. We listen to all different types of music. My brother got a guitar one Christmas and I got a keyboard a few years later and we just started playing.
Q: Do you have any role models in music right now?
I think Karen O. is really great. I think she’s just a really nice person. She’s really talented. She’s a big role model for us.
Q: What do you think of New York City’s current music scene?
[Laughs] Well I mean. I think there’s a lot of hipster bands. Not that there’s anything wrong with hipsters but you know, there’s so much music it’s hard to listen to all of it. It’s just great because there is enough for everyone.
Q: Let’s talk about your writing. How is it different this time around?
Um… I think I’ve obviously gotten older. The songs from the last albums were written when I was like eight. Even some of the songs written on this album are pretty old. Just some stuff I’ve written and forgotten about and then founded. And then said, “Oh this could be a song!” and then change it a little bit. I think I’ve matured a little bit. My interests have definitely changed.
Q: With this record you went the DIY route. I read that you recorded this using Apple’s Garageband? Why the change?
I wouldn’t say that we’re pros at it but we know more about recording. So we decided to take the upper hand in it and kind of got into the whole process of engineering, exploring more sound and having more fun with it.
Q: Your last album featured Karen O. What was it like working with her?
She’s great. She comes in and records it in one track and it’s perfect.
Q: Would you say you learned a few things from her?
She’s such a great performer. We had seen them played live a bunch of time. She just seems like she’s having so much fun. If you’re not having fun then why do it, you know.
Q: What’s the song you enjoy playing live?
Well it’s hard to say. I think it’s probably between two songs, “Skeleton,” and “Go Star”. I think we have more fun with “Go Star”.
Q: What do you think about the difference between the work you do in the studio and what you do live?
I think if you actually compared what we play live and how we play in the studio it’s so different. I feel like you play it in the studio and sometimes you speed it up when you play live. You get that whole moment and energy when you play live on stage. It’s just different. I don’t know how to describe it.
Q: Obviously your music has taken you far and wide, what was the best place you played so far?
I liked playing in France.
Q: To new listeners, what would you say your songs are about?
[laughs] I’d say it’s about a bunch of different things. We don’t really have a theme. They’re all completely different.
Q: What are your audiences generally like?
It’s funny because they range from like little kids, like toddlers at shows to middle aged people just looking at us. Sometimes we’ll have crowds of a lot of teenagers and in the back there are a bunch of adults that are like thinking about it and observing the music. It’s completely bizarre.
Q: Are they bopping their heads?
Nope. No, they don’t. They just stand there and watch. They’re really solemn about it.
Q: After this summer, what do you plan to do on your downtime?
I’m just going to like stay home and hang out with my friends. Read.
Q: Are you into Harry Potter at all?
Yes, I am a big Harry Potter fan!
Q: Did you see the film yet?
I did last night!
Q: What did you think of the movie compared to the book?
I know it’s hard for them to adapt books into movies. I felt that they added things sometimes that kinda didn’t really make sense if you haven’t read the book. I wonder what people who haven’t read the book thought about it because it was pretty vague with important details. I feel like there were certain parts that were really key parts to the whole story and I don’t know if I really got that from it. It was cool. It was visually interesting looking. Very artsy.
OFFICIAL: www.tinymasters.net
MYSPACE: www.myspace.com/tinymasters
Tour Dates:
8/14 F*cking Awesome Fest @ Detroit MI
8/15 Metro @ Chicago IL*
8/16 Skully’s @ Columbus OH
8/23 Sunset Junction Festival @ Los Angeles CA
9/11 Making Time @ Pure @ Philadelphia PA**
* Opening for and backing Daniel Johnston
** Opening for Free Energy
- August 4th
3 Responses to “Q + A with Tiny Masters of Today”
August 5th, 2009 at 12:17 am
That’s so cool that you interviewed them! They actually played at my stage at SXSW. I had no clue who they were, but I couldn’t stop listening to them. Pretty talented for being so young… and definitely lots of potential. It’ll be interesting to see where they go.
August 6th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
They are so cute!
July 30th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I received 1 st personal loans when I was 20 and that helped my family a lot. Nevertheless, I require the consolidation loans once again.