Tera Melos Talks About Layers, Limits and The Simpsons

Picture by Patricia Bruce

Tera Melos, a Sacremento-based rock band, played to a sold-out, enthusiastic crown at the Middle East on March 27. It took a little while for Tera Melos to set up, with wires everywhere and a multitude of effects pedals laid out over the small stage. It was well worth the effort.

It is hard to comprehend how they can transform sound in such an interesting way. Their sound is admirable and it is entertaining to watch the members of the band as they play, legs kicking and faces contorting. To the crowd’s delight, they extended certain songs. It was almost difficult to identify where one ended and another began. It created a great atmosphere for a concert. It is impossible to catch every  little thing the members of Tera Melos do as they play, but the outcome is incredible, a full sound and a memorable experience.

Tera Melos pushes music to the brink with a full layered sound that skims over a variety of genres but has more depth than any label allows for. While they’ve been defined as a math rock band due to their use of complex, atypical rhythms, staccato structure and angular melodies, they would rather bypass any genre and let the music speak for itself.

“[Math rock] seems very limiting. If you picture in your mind what a math rock band is I don’t think we sound anything like that,” explained bassist Nate Latona.

“We may share some similar elements with those bands, but when we get together and write its never about ‘Oh we need to do this crazy thing.’ We just care more about layers and how it all works and plays with each other, not how crazy a part can be,” Latona said.

Tera Melos has let the music guide their trajectory. They started out playing solely instrumental music, which makes sense considering how developed their songs are.

“We weren’t trying to be an instrumental band. It just worked out by default.  We were looking for a singer, but started playing shows and then just kept on playing more and more shows so we went to make a record,” said Latona. “Nick [Reinhart] did vocals on the first record, but they were really hidden and just used as another instrument; we started doing more, and it was just a matter of how can we do these and throw these in rank when we’ve already been playing shows without them. There was a lot of trial and error.”

Since then, their methods have changed a bit. It’s a more dynamic synthesis of instrumentals and vocals.

Nick Reinhart's effect pedals, photo by Patricia Bruce.

“Maybe now we write more with lyrics in mind but we’ve never come with a song that already has lyrics attached to it,” said Reinhart, explaining how lyrics affected their songwriting. “If I come up with a guitar riff and I say this seems like there should be a melodic element on top of it that could be vocals, then that affects how I’m writing the guitar parts…vocals definitely influence the writing I think.”

Their live performance makes it clear that they still stick to their instrumental tendencies. The band has fun with their songs, extending certain parts, improvising and just jamming together. That sense of fun provides a unique experience for both the audience and the band. Even their approach to recording songs has a layered structure that is evident.

“We spent a long time making [Patagonian Rats], months.” said Reinhart. “Let’s say we get the first layer of the cake on there, then we just let the cake sit around for a while and say ‘What could we add to make the cake even tastier?’ then we put another layer on top of it, then it just gets really deep and a few months later we just step away from it and say ,‘Ok, this is ready to eat.'”

After releasing their first full length album, “Patagonian Rats”, on a label through Sargent House in September, and an EP, “Zoo Weather”  in February, Tera Melos has plenty of material for their current North American tour with Marnie Stern. “It’s super appropriate for our bands to be playing together. In fact there’s probably not something currently that’s more perfect,” said Reinhart. “We met her two years ago at South By Southwest and our schedules finally lined up to where we could do it.”

They also have plenty of material that Sargent has re-released since their signing, including “Idioms, Vol. 1” which is a very unique collection of covers (The Beach Boys, Weezer, The Pixies, etc.) that shows their style and creative abilities. This was their first time recording with current drummer John Clardy.

“The ‘Idioms’ EP was when we had just lost our original drummer and hired our new drummer John and just wanted to release something.  So instead of wait another year for a new record, we said lets just cover a few songs,” said Reinhart. “It was just kind of like, not a test run to suggest we were trying out John still, but it was just like ‘Oh let’s just record and get the vibe going,’ to expedite the process of gelling with each other.”

A slightly quirky quality runs through their music, and not just in an auditory sense. The Simpsons have played a special part in the creative process of Tera Melos – appearing on t-shirts and in music videos – for no other reason than a common interest.

“In cartoons and just animation it’s infinite,” said Latona. “Anything can happen, you’re not limited to anything. That’s probably our fascination with The Simpsons and just the cartoon universe because anything goes there. I guess maybe we relate to that musically as well, we can just pop in a weird sound and go into a really bizarre part that might not make sense to anyone else but to us its natural,” Latona said.

The band definitely has a sense of humor, but they display serious talent, perform seriously awesome shows and have a important underlying message through their complex sound, even if its unintentional.

“A big thing that I always think about with our music and with music in general is that I don’t want people to think that they have to be limited,” Latona continued. “When I was growing up I felt very limited in music, like ‘Oh if you listen to punk music you cant listen to this music over here, they don’t mesh.’ I guess I want our band to represent being unlimited.”

In February, Tera Melos released Zoo Weather, a follow-up EP to their 2010 album, Patagonia Rats. To see more of Tera Melos, check them out on YouTube.

One Comment on “Tera Melos Talks About Layers, Limits and The Simpsons”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *