“We needed to pivot and take a risk”
Sometimes the world of music can seem a bit stagnant. You have copycat bands, or you hear the same endless loop of chart-toppers on the radio, and you think if there is any way to break the cycle. But every so often a breath of fresh air comes along and blows out the cobwebs and opens up music in a new and interesting way. To do this, risks need to be taken, and that is exactly what Brighton three-piece Tigercub are all about taking risks.
Their latest EP, ‘Evolve or Die’ could not be any further removed from their debut record, ‘Abstract Figures in The Dark’, that being said if it wasn’t such a curveball, maybe it wouldn’t be getting all the attention it is so rightly getting since its release.
“We wanted to do something that would be a bit of a risk sonically, and we are very ambitious and we want to find that larger audience,” vocalist and guitarist Jamie Hall told Already Heard. “The music industry is in recovery now, it is really difficult to exist with all the radio play and the big tours, it’s tough. So I think we got to a point where we eventually thought what is cool is selling records, and getting your art out to as many people as possible.”
What makes this left field release even more of a surprise, is that Tigercub are very much a band on the up, having just played Reading and Leeds Festival and toured with the likes of Royal Blood and Pulled Apart By Horses, the trio could easily have been forgiven for resting on their laurels and ride the wave of momentum. Instead Hall, along with bandmates James Allix and Jimi Wheelwright, decided not to dwell on the past and push into the future, experimenting with sounds as a marker for the direction the band wishes to go in.
Hall added: “Punk rock is essential a conservative movement now, which is obsessed with its past. So I thought we are going to be dead in the water if we don’t find out own sound and progress. We needed to pivot and take a risk. We had two weeks off between tours and that’s when we wrote and recorded the EP. We were really fatigued and smelt really bad, but we got it done.”
With the introduction of more electronic elements to their music, and stepping away from the “neo-grunge” tag which has followed them, has split Tigercub’s fan base, but that is something which Hall has embraced and taken on the chin. “It was a real leap of faith with some of the songs not being fully formed,” continued the vocalist. “It does sound like we are throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, but I think that works as it allows us to explore different options later on down the line.
"It has split our current fan base a little bit, but that is quite cool and it has been a bit polarising and I quite like the idea of having eras in our music.”
It is clear that Tigercub aren’t afraid to push the envelope and with all four tracks on ‘Evolve or Die’ sounding different from the last, it leaves the door wide open for the next chapter of the trio.
‘Evolve Or Die’ EP by Tigercub is out now on Alcopop! Records.
Tigercub will be touring the UK later this month:
October
16 Southampton, Joiners &
17 Exeter, Cavern &
18 Oxford, The Cellar
20 Milton Keynes, Craufurd Arms ^
21 Birmingham, Flapper ^
23 Huddersfield, The Parish ^
24 Newcastle, The Cluny ^
25 Edinburgh, Mash House ^
26 Manchester, Star & Garter *
27 Norwich, The Waterfront Studio *
^ w/ WEIRDS
* w/ Husky Loops
& w/ Cassels
Tigercub links: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Tim Birkbeck (@tim_birkbeck)
