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Tiger Army: Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 11-Oct-07 @ 04:22 PM|
The big time beckons, but Nick 13, the general of TIGER ARMY, has his own strategy. Story: Dan LeRoy Photos: Hristo Shindov For a decade, Nick 13 had been slowly assembling Tiger Army one recruit and one impassioned gig at a time. But quickly building a massive military wasn't a goal, nor did it even seem like a possibility for the leader of the three-man psychobilly shock force from Los Angeles. Leave the troop buildup to Nick 13's big-label buddies AFI; like the great Chinese strategist Lao Tzu, Nick understood the value of patience and was happy commanding a more manageable corps as Tiger Army's singer and guitarist. The first thing he did, like all great generals, was rally the troops. On the band's MySpace blog, the singer delivered a mini-manifesto declaring that the band's big radio break would change nothing. "Attention can come and it can go," he wrote, "but Tiger Army is forever." "I'm not worried about the haters," he muses from his home in L.A. "Because there are always people who have something negative to say. But people weren't writing to us to say, 'Fuck you, guys! You sold out.' It was more... concern. They were just saying, 'I've followed you guys. I've loved you guys. I really hope you don't let this change you.' More like you'd approach a friend you're worried about, just to make sure they're cool, y'know? "KROQ is huge," he continues, "and we were hoping they might spin our song a few times. But last week, it was the most-requested song on the station. To me, that's just nuts-the idea that we would be getting more play than Linkin Park or Nine Inch Nails, bands who've sold millions of records. "It's a lot to take in. It's a strange situation for everybody." The devotion of the Tiger Army cadre is well-known, extending to the amazing collection of TA tattoos displayed by the group's MySpace friends. But the concern of veteran fans was heightened by the buildup to Music From Regions Beyond, named after a line uttered by the headless fortune teller in Disney's Haunted Mansion ride. Sure, the band were still signed to Hellcat Records, the label founded by Rancid's Tim Armstrong. But the fiercely independent Nick 13 agreed to use an outside producer (Jerry Finn, well-known for his work with AFI, Blink-182 and Morrissey) for the first time. And some of the new songs sound like they traveled a looong way from the standup bass thump and sweaty rockabilly swing that convinced old-timers to sign on in the first place. "Where The Moss Slowly Grows" might be the sweet, straight-up country tune Tiger Army have always threatened, but the sprightly "As The Cold Rain Falls," with its four-on-the-floor dance beat, could practically be a New Order offering. "Some people view musical exploration as selling out," Nick opines. "But for me, selling out is playing what you think people wanna hear, instead of what you want to play. There are bands who think, 'This is what our fanbase wants to hear, so let's cater to it.' But that, to me, is artistically dishonest. There have been times in the past where I wrote a song and felt like, 'This is a cool song, but it's not really a Tiger Army song.'" But not anymore, he adds. Working with Finn-whom he met in the studio while contributing background vocals to AFI's Decemberunderground -encouraged Nick's sense of adventure. After self-producing Tiger Army's third album, 2004's III: Ghost Tigers Rise, he admits, "I felt like I'd taken it as far as I could go. If Jerry couldn't have done this record, I may or may not have tried to find someone else. Because for producers, it was really a list of one." However, he's quick to add that it wasn't Finn who dictated the stylistic experiments. "I remember when we put 'Outlaw Heart' on [1999's Tiger Army]. I thought, 'It's a country ballad. People are gonna fucking hate this song.' But I heard from a lot of people later that it was their favorite song on the record." That was eight years ago, when Tiger Army released their debut after spending a few years cutting their teeth at the revered Bay Area punk club 924 Gilman Street. Gilman was the venue where Green Day and Rancid got their starts, and Nick had played shows there alongside his friends in AFI, honing the patient, old-fashioned (pre- MySpace) approach to band-building. It's a philosophy that still comes through in Nick's conversation: He's not only thoughtful, but deliberate, carefully measuring each reply like the communication major he was at UC-Berkeley. Try to get him to dish dirt, and you'll be disappointed: Queries about Tiger Army's experience last year opening some shows for Morrissey (an icon Nick 13 has long admired) are met with a polite "no comment." Although rumor has it the concerts were a weird, if not rude awakening for the band, all Nick will offer is that "it was all...pretty mysterious." He's a bit more open about his life before becoming Nick 13. His father, a Brooklyn-to-Cali transplant who'd played in a folk-cum-doo-wop band in the '60s, turned the young Nick on to vintage tunes by Buddy Holly and Dion & The Belmonts. Both parents encouraged his spirit of independence; after college, he took a job at Berkeley's Amoeba Music record store and resolved to "do everything I could to make Tiger Army happen. I wasn't gonna quit until I was exhausted-whether that took five years, 10 years or whatever." As that statement suggests, Nick is not only judicious, he's a survivor. Tiger Army have weathered more than their share of turnover throughout the past decade, most dramatically when former drummer Fred Hell took four bullets to the head from robbers during a home invasion burglary attempt in 2003. Hell tried to return, but on the eve of Tiger Army's second Warped appearance the following summer, he collapsed after a show and was forced to leave the band. The current lineup-which features bassist Jeff Roffredo and drummer James Meza-has been intact for the past couple of years and represents a new era of stability for the group. "I'm definitely happy with the lineup we've got," Nick says, deeming it the best Tiger Army yet. But a note of steely pragmatism creeps into his optimism. "If my experiences have taught me anything, it's that nothing in life is permanent and that things you thought never change, will always change. "This is all hypothetical, but if the question is, 'if something changed in the lineup, would I continue,' then I would have to think the answer would be yes. I'm not looking to change anything, but that's a decision that life will make for me." In the meantime, one decision Nick 13 probably won't be making is to pursue a budding film career. He does have a cameo role in David Lynch's latest film, Inland Empire, but that was the result of a happy accident. "Someone I was dating at the time was contacted to be in a scene in the film, and I just happened to be there. So David and his production assistant called me over-I was about 30 feet away-and they asked me if I'd like to be in a scene. And I was stunned, but I managed to say, 'Yes!'" Nick's role in the surreal, improvisational movie is described as an archeologist, but "I was really just a guy in a chair," he says, laughing. "It was a really cool thing, to have David Lynch telling you what you ought to be doing!" He's noticeably more relaxed talking about the film (which he has yet to see), another clue that he views it as a mere diversion. No wonder: Back on the rock 'n' roll battlefield, he has an army to lead. And for Nick 13, the hearts-and-minds approach has proven to be the right one. "It sounds nice to come out of nowhere and be the biggest thing, but I'm really starting to see the downside of that," he says. "I look back at the bands who were big names the last time we did Warped, and we play to bigger crowds than some of them do now. "For us, it's always been, do it the hard way," adds the savvy general, "or don't do it at all." ALT |
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