By Cannon Deringer
For those unfamiliar, Tigers Jaw is an Emo and Pop-Punk band from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Formed in 2005, the band has created a name for themselves for their unique sound and influence in the modern music scene, cementing themselves as an essential band in many music circles. Long-time followers of the station may remember their In-Studio session with the station in 2018. The band recently released their 7th studio album, Lost on You, and we had the opportunity to sit down and catch up with lead vocalist and guitarist Ben Walsh before their April 9th show at The Masquerade in Atlanta.
Cannon: It’s been 5 years since the last Tigers Jaw release, what’s new?
Ben: I became a father; I have a nearly two-year-old now. That’s been really awesome; it’s been taking up my time in the best possible way. We just did a bunch of touring on the last record and wanted to take some time off and figure out what our next move was. When it felt right, we just started writing and demoing songs and getting together and working on new material. We would take a lot of time off and listen and reflect on what we wrote together, then we would get back together and refine the ideas, and before we knew it, we had a bunch of song ideas that we felt super strongly about, so we scheduled studio time and went in.
Cannon: You stayed with the same producer you’ve been with for the past two records, correct?
Ben: That’s right! Our friend Will Yip at Studio 4 Recording in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. He’s done our last few records, and he’s just the best. We love working with him. He understands the ins and outs of our band, and he pushes us to get the best takes that we can get. He has great ideas, and overall, he’s just a super positive person with great energy, and he helps us to keep things flowing creatively.
Cannon: What was the recording process like on this record?
Ben: It was pretty collaborative. In previous records, I would kind of just finish up a lot of my ideas in my own demos before bringing them to the rest of the band. This time around, we collaborated a lot earlier in the writing process, we worked through a lot more of the songs together. Everybody in the band brought song ideas to the table for this record. We ended up with 11 songs, and there’s at least one song from each person in the band. Everybody is represented by at least one of the songs.
Cannon: Were there any songs on the record that stuck out to you on the record?
Ben: There were a couple of ideas that we maybe wouldn’t have approached on previous records, songs like “Baptized on a Redwood Drive”, which is longer than a lot of other songs we’ve put out. A couple of records ago, I would’ve opted to make it shorter or faster, to make it more punk-like, but we decided the song needed to breathe. It’s also a super fun one to play live.
Cannon: Speaking of Redwood trees, what was the inspiration behind the album cover?
Ben: Brianna Collins did the artwork for this album. It’s from a photo taken when we were on tour, and we had a day off, and we drove into the Redwoods and did some hiking, and we came upon this little creek. We sort of took a little dip, and we kind of joked about how we were “being baptized” in the creek. When we were looking for ideas for approaching the artwork for this record, Brianna looked through the photos we took that day, and that one stuck out, so she made a painting out of it. It’s awesome, I love how it came out.
Cannon: Speaking of hikes, is there a dream trail that you hope to hike one day?
Ben: We haven’t done Big Sur in Northern California, that’s big on the list. It’s never really worked out on our tour routing. Another one is up in Maine at Acadia National Park.
Cannon: Are there any specific pastimes on tour that the band enjoys?
Ben: We enjoy a little bit of light gambling, after shows we unwind by playing dice games and games like Left Center Right. We like karaoke, being outside, going on hikes, and swimming.
Cannon: Do you have a go-to karaoke song?
Ben: It changes from time to time. The last time I did “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot. You have to sort of go in and figure out the crowd, or sometimes it’s fun to pick out a song that you know will go over very poorly.
Cannon: Do you have any fun tour memories from years passed that you want to share?
Ben: I have a lot of memories from past tours, especially early tours. No one was coming out to the shows, but we were going out to all these places for the first time. Before playing in a band, I never really traveled much outside the area I grew up in. On one of our early tours, we were in Massachusetts somewhere, and we snuck into this abandoned amusement park. It was late at night and kind of creepy; it was as if it just closed one day and nobody ever came back, like it was stuck in time. We were climbing up on rides and exploring the park; it was super fun. It definitely felt a little freaky.
Cannon: What has the evolution of emo and pop punk looked like in your eyes, since the inception of the band?
Ben: It seems very cyclical to me, a lot of the bands that are largely influential get rediscovered, and in recent years it’s expanded quite a bit on all fronts, pop-punk and math rock all the way to the midwest emo style of things. The mainstream blew up a certain side of things, and there are all these more underground versions of it. The term of emo has broadened to include a wide variety of different varieties of music. There is kinship in the overall energy and authenticity of it that transcends what the actual sounds of bands are, and loosens the idea of what the genre is. I feel like most music is innately emotional, and as long as it comes from a real place, it doesn’t necessarily matter what the arrangements are; tapping, noodling guitar riffs, or if you’re taking a more pop-punk or indie rock approach. There are a lot of bands that have a lot of different types of sounds that would fall under this umbrella of “emo”. I think that’s a good thing, sometimes people like to have those labels and genres to kind of categorize things and to help it make more sense to them, and if that leads people to these bands, then I think that’s a cool thing.
Cannon: Before we wrap up, are there any bands that have wowed you recently?
Ben: The band Graham Hunt has been a band that we’ve all been enjoying. There’s a band called Dirt Buyer that’s pretty awesome as well. First Day Back, we did a few shows with the band February, they were awesome. I’m blanking on some others right now, but it’s a really good time for up-and-coming music, all of these bands are killing it.
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