Tiny Moving Parts is a post-post-hardcore band from Minnesota that came by The Dial warehouse back in August. I had a quick conversation with them after their set, but due to my overwhelming sloth as of late its been trapped in my voice recorder until now. I did most of the transcribing while on the way to Gnarmageddon Fest III with Shane and Katelyn and finished it the next night in between bands at the warehouse.
This is the transcription of that talk we had, August 10 2013.
* Note: I might be getting the names of the speakers wrong; their 3 voices were all kinda similar but its probably pretty much right. I based my idea on who was talking on their introductions. It's whatever, you know?
Ian: Okay, I'm here with Tiny Moving Parts; you guys are on tour right now, correct?
Dylan: Yeah, we're on like a 45-day run, today is like the 32nd day I believe and it's been going great; so far it's probably the best tour we've ever done.
Billy: Yeah it has been the best tour we've ever done
Ian: I started that off wrong, I should at least get some introductions; what are your guys' names?
Matt: I'm Matt
Dylan: I'm Dylan, I play guitar and I sing
Billy: I'm Billy, I play drums
Ian: Where are you located out of?
Dylan: We live in Benson, MN, which is like a town of 3,000 people - like a farm community.
Ian: On your album, one of the first songs is "Dakota" and it's kinda talking about the Midwest, seemingly. What would you say, after being on tour, are some distinctions between the coasts [versus the Midwest]?
Billy: One thing that's really fun is when we tour the east coast, we just see like the difference in how bands sound and how the crowd's reaction is to our music. It's different on both sides [of the country.]
Ian: Is it more energetic [in one place versus another]?
Dylan: It's getting to the point where its more of the same [everywhere], like alot more people are knowing that the world's round. On the east coast the DIY venues are alot of like, basements and houses and small crowded rooms; out here, this is the second warehouse we've played. These DIY spaces [on the West Coast] seem more legit; its like, halfway-venue and halfway-house show.
Ian: So how would you characterize how shows go down out there where you're from?
Dylan: The Midwest - like where we're from, Benson MN - we don't play shows like all the time, just cuz we can't. We'll go to the Fargo, ND area, there there's like one DIY venue that we play...That's really fun though.
Billy: There's that one basement we play at too
Matt: People show up to the basement shows
Ian: Another thing I kinda noticed on the album - and I didn't notice this in the live set so much - was an almost spoken-word element to the lyrics; it was somewhat like - and I hate to cite such an obvious band here - La Dispute.
Tiny Moving Parts Collectively: Yeah, yeah, we've heard that.
Ian: But live, [that element wasn't as apparent]. Any comment on that?
Dylan: When we recorded, the songs were super fresh, we hadn't been playing them for so long, and like, by now - if we rerecorded the album now it'd be alot different. There's parts that are fast, there's parts that are slower, it's changed.
Ian: When I heard you I didn't realize you were a 3-piece; I thought you were gonna be like a 5-piece with a singer. You guys are very intricate, have you guys been playing together for a long time?
Dylan: Yeah, well, Matt & Billy are brothers and I'm their first cousin; we've been playing music since we were 10 or 11.
Billy: We'd play like Blink 182 and stuff like that; just learning covers.
Ian: You have a unique style that seems like its ... I feel like I can't represent what I'm trying to say in sentences right now - but what are some of the bands that may have brought you to where you are now?
Dylan: I mean, like, Tera Melos, maybe like Fall Of Troy, and then there's Thursday; we loved Thursday growing up; Brand New, stuff like that.
Billy: We like both sides of things; there's the technical side of things, and then there's emotional/heartfelt [side].
Dylan: Alot of the emotional parts come from, like, friends' bands that just kinda started up in the Midwest and ... [Cyndi Lauper's timeless hit single "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" started blaring out of the warehouse at this point and obscured my recording of this answer's conclusion. We can only wonder.]
Ian: So while you've been on tour, have you encountered anything particularly negative, like a venue that sucked or something?
Dylan: Well on previous tours...we a booked a tour several months ago, when we were like, nobody as a band but we wanted to go on tour. There were like 1 in 4 shows that were good that time. We'd book shows and we'd get to the venue and it'd be like a coffee shop [and they'd say] 'This is more of an acoustic setting, I don't know if you can play,' so we'd have to cancel shows like that.
Billy: One time we played a bar too, somewhere in Northern California; no one came except the band we were on tour with and even the bartender left, so we were literally just playing for that band.
Dylan: We had alot of practice shows
(laughter)
Ian: Alright, I'm gonna leave it here: what would you say is your favorite breakfast food?
Dylan: I like these questions.
Matt: I like the breakfast burritos from Sonic
Ian: Okay that's an easy one
Dylan: Anything with bacon on it literally makes it a good deal. It kinda sounds cliche, you know, but it's awesome
Billy: I'd say breakfast pizza. That's some good stuff right there.
Ian: What's funny is you're only the second person I've ever heard talk about breakfast pizza; Do you mean like pizza dough with breakfast stuff on it or is it a different thing?
Billy: It's like, pizza with alfredo sauce, eggs, ham, bacon, green peppers; I think that's about it.
Ian: Now I'm thinking about a question, before I leave: The Brett Favre samples [on the album], are they sincere or those kinda, like, undercutting?
Billy: They're however you wanna take it.
Ian: Cuz the first one seems so sincere and the other one is like, someone's downfall or something
Billy: Yeah, yeah, that's what it is.
Dylan: I was really hungover and I was just like, 'I'll just quit messing around with all this weird guitar stuff,' and we were all drunk and like, put on Brett Favre's farewell speech and it fit so perfectly
Billy or Matt: Especially the first one
Dylan: It's a good way to do an intro to a CD you know, instead of doing like [the reverb thing] it's like, Brett Favre is quitting football.
Ian: Are you guys Packers fans?
Billy: We're supposed to hate The Packers but we're not huge football fans
Dylan and/or Matt: But when Brett Favre came out...and he was like, crying...so fucking cool...it was the best
Billy: And then on Sundays [when he was with the Vikings] it was like you knew, everyone in Green Bay and everyone in Minnesota was losing their fucking minds
Ian: Okay I'm gonna wrap it up; I'm just gonna say "Go Chargers"
All: Go Chargers!! (laughter)
Ian: Thank you much for your time, I wish you luck on your tour; where are you guys headed from here?
Dylan: Phoenix!
Billy: We're already all sunburned and its like 115 degrees out there
Ian: No kidding. Alright well I'll send this your way when its done, should I email you guys or what's the best way [to contact you]?
Dylan: Probably on Facebook is the best way, we'll usually respond if you message us.
Ian: Alright cool.
Tiny Moving Parts
Facebook
Bandcamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra5k09oIiEI
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