Jesse Tabish is a soft-spoken man. It's probably just a result of his people scheduling him a relatively early phoner, but I can barely make out the words that he is uttering into his end of the receiver. No matter, though, because as you read this, his band — Other Lives — are embarking on the biggest tour of their relatively short existence. They’re opening for Radiohead on a massive U.S. trek, which comes to the Tampa Bay Times Forum on Wednesday night.
So while warming up the crowd for Thom Yorke & co. may seem like a daunting task, Tabish is intent on harnessing the nervous energy into something positive. "It's kind of like a big game," he says of the high-pressure show, "there's this thrill I really like."
The Oklahoma natives have a rather thrilling album to present to the early crowd as well. Their latest, Tamer Animals, (out now on TBD Records), is a sprawling sonic journey oaded with the eerie atmospherics and arenaceous imagery of the dustbowl region that inspired it. Check out my short conversation with Tabish, where we talk about the inspiration for Tamer Animals, SOPA/PIPA legislation, and that Radiohead show, too.
CL: So, you're back home for now.
Jesse Tabish of Other Lives: Yeah, I’m in Oklahoma right now. We were in the city the past few days playing shows, and we get back to rehearsing tomorrow, I think.
You’ll be on a headlining tour for about the next four weeks, then you join Radiohead for 13 dates. Are there any kind of nerves that start kicking in as the Radiohead tour gets closer?
I think so, you know. I've said this before. It's one of these things that I think that nervous energy can really kind of be harnessed into a really positive thing, you know — a really focused kind of high-pressure show. It's kind of like a big game. I look forward to that. There's this thrill that I really like.
How will your live set change when you transition to arenas? There's always some kind of disconnect between the audience and the artist when arenas are involved. Will you guys be trying to bridge that gap on the Radiohead tour, or is it just about playing the best set you can given the cavernous setting?
I think that's the big challenge for us. We're adding another violin player to give it some larger sound, but I think that what we need to focus on is … we play well as a band together, but to be able to take that and outwardly express it to a large crowd.
I think it's going to be a really growing experience for the band. It's going to be very healthy for us to almost learn how to do that.
Any visuals?
We've been pretty straight as far as production. We play our instruments. We've thought about it, but I guess we've never really had the time.
Where do these melodies live? Do they come to you first or after an arrangement has begun to unfold?
Usually melody kind of comes with the chord progression, so that can be the first thing, but with Tamer Animals, a lot of the songs, we kind of started with an experiment or a drone or something, then the chord progressions and the melody kind of formed on top of those drones or swells, so those two are synonymous with each other — the melody and the chord progression.
Do you pull your influence from more contemporary stuff? I know you like classical compositions; do you hear anything in particular when you listen back on Tamer Animals?
A lot of contemporary classical. Composition is something I aspire to work more on and bring that element of composition closer to the band.
I would imagine that returning home to Stillwater is a welcome break from the repetitive, yet often unpredictable nature of being on the road. How important is it for you to be based there, and do you think that you'd ever relocate?
Well, for now, you know, I think that it's been important for the last 10 years — it's been very important. It's built certain ideals and fundamentals that I think will stay with me wherever I go.
I'm a grown man now, and I feel like wherever I go, I'm an Oklahoman. I have that patience that's been installed in me, and that independence as well, but it is important for me to live in Oklahoma. It's hard for me to see me living anywhere else, but that's not to say that things won't change.
Did you find anything disgusting when you guys cleaned out the studio a few weeks ago?
Haha, well, I don't know about anything disgusting, but it was quite a mess, actually. A friend's band had moved in there, and it was quite the ordeal.
You don't want to call that band out?
Cult of Music.
No half-eaten sandwiches?
No, just a lot of old, crusty coffee cups.
Without treading to heavy on the politics topic, what's your take on the whole SOPA/PIPA things and how it will affect the livelihoods of artists — especially musicians — as we move forward in crafting legislation that pertains to our lives in the digital age?
You know, I really don’t know enough about it to really comment on it. I've been kind of out of the loop — I've heard briefly about, but I’m never on the Internet. You've got to keep ideas free, but I don't know the details of it — sorry.
You obviously end up doing a lot of writing on the road. There are a lot of songs with the Dust Bowl theme on Tamer Animals, but are there any songs on the new record that you specifically remember writing on the road and remind you of regions besides Oklahoma?
Yeah, I think I remember writing "For 12" as we were driving into Chicago on a really gloomy day, and we were stuck under this bridge for, I don't know, too long. I just kind of get this idea in my head, I remember writing that tune. I think that a lot of the songs were written looking out of the window. "Heading East" for example, we just happened to be heading towards Boston, it's us trying to just capture the scenery.
Is there anything that you hope the Florida crowds get out of your set when you arrive in late February?
Um, yeah, they’ll find something positive about our music, and I hope that it puts them in a good place.
Radiohead with Other Lives, Wed., Feb. 29, 7:30 p.m., Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa, $42.25 & $62.25
This article appears in Feb 23-29, 2012.