In this interview spotlight, I chat with Tanner Mackey about his recent projects, motivations, challenges, music consumption preferences and more.
In this rare instance, I have two versions of my interview with Tanner. The text interview below is more recent and includes more questions.
However, a few months ago I connected with Tanner for a video interview for our Mid Tenn Listens podcast. Due to technical difficulties and system failures, the video interview was lost. When I went to save Tanner’s photos for this latest (text interview) feature, I found a folder in my archives full of photos…AND Tanner’s original video from our initial efforts!
You can find the older video interview below. Scroll down a little further for the more recent text interview feature (with links and music embeds).
You can also listen to the interview in audio by clicking play below or subscribing to our podcast.
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Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I am from Springdale, Arkansas. I was actually born in a different part of the state, but I’ve lived here since I was 6 months old. I used to be kind of ashamed of being from Arkansas, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown sort of fond of recognizing it as my place of origin. I still live here, but I definitely don’t plan to forever. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some touring going in the near future that will allow me to explore and venture.
As for my music, I like to say I make indie avant-garde music. Maybe, avant-indie if you will? Either way it’s quite an umbrella term and within that I’ve delved into a lot of different sounds. Some of those fall into niche micro-genres that already exist and possess massive discographies such as psychedelic, DreamPop, Lo-Fi, and Beach Goth and sometimes others that I’ve decided to name myself (such as SurfWave music, which I defined with my Summer EP). Occasionally I try to reproduce and manipulate the instrumentations and song structures of other songs I hear and enjoy. These songs tend to sound like whichever particular genre the source material I’m gleaming inspiration from is classified as. Then, other times I just make up something that doesn’t even sound remotely familiar. It gets hard to define such a broad sound, so I stick to indie avant-garde. The only active artists I can think of that classify as a similar type of thing are Ariel Pink, Animal Collective, and Her’s. I’m sure there are others, but those are the only ones that I have found.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
I’ve always had a natural passion for music. When I was really small and I would stay at my grandma’s house, she had this old out of tune piano that I would tinker around with. I’d mash on the keys in different octaves and tap out different melodies with my pointer fingers like someone with zero tech ability typing on a keyboard. I always had different stories to accompany these musings and I think that early attraction to expression through music never really ever went away. I’ve always been an artist, even before I knew what an artist was. There are scribblings on the wall of an old house I used to live in that I created as a 3 years old, covertly leaning my hand over the side of the bed in the middle of the night in the dark. I cannot remember any stage of my life where I didn’t feel a deep burning need to create.
Eventually once I got to middle school, we took this musical aptitude test to see if we could get into band or choir when we entered 7th grade. I got a perfect score and was allowed to play any instrument in band. I had no interest in choir or even many of the instruments the band offered, but I thought percussion seemed cool and my dad said it would help get girls, so I decided I’d give it a try. I turned out to be quite talented and I often held first or second chair throughout the rest of my schooling. I was even drill captain once.
I ended up loathing band however. There’s a lot of reasoning behind this that I’m not going to detail out, just know I had an absolutely awful band director and by my junior year I actively despaired even entering the band room. Around that same time, I started learning drum set (at 16) and guitar (at 17) so I decided to stick with band for the rest of high school for the skills I could acquire in those areas. While band was slowly becoming a unique torture method for me, the burning desire for creation never left, and I recognized the assistance my growing technical rhythmic abilities would offer in the future should I decide to pursue music would be invaluable. I toughed it out through the rest of high school and even participated in jazz band my senior year (I was the only one who could play drum set).
I went to college at Belmont for a couple of years after that, which really introduced me to audio engineering. I had always wanted to make my own songs, but recognized my capabilities to do so were severely lacking when I could only play one instrument at a time. I also had no idea what the life of a musician was like or how they earned any money. I mean, I still don’t really know, but that’s why I went to Belmont in the first place… for a music business degree. The knowledge I got there was invaluable, but not a lot of it came from the professors, and not a lot of it was about the business side of music. I was feeling sort of scammed by the whole thing, so I ended up quitting before my junior year to just focus on music.
Since then I’ve made three albums and a lot of singles. I would hardly say I have much to show for it monetarily, but I’m only 22 and I still have plenty of time. Honestly, that’s not even what I really care about anyways. Money is money. Every day I can feel myself getting better, and honestly I’d say that’s what motivates me more than anything else. The song I make today is better than the one I made yesterday, and the one I make tomorrow will be even better. Not to mention how gratifying it is to watch your ideas form from nothing into a song that not only you, but others can enjoy. I’ve had people tell me they have cried listening to my music and I’ve done it myself. Being able to capture the essence of an emotion or aesthetic and relate to people through the lens of music is also way up there on motivators. I can’t think of many things more fulfilling than that. I do it because I love it.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Well, my newest release was the single The True King Of Pain which came out October 28th, 2018. It’s pretty different from a lot of my previous music because of the instrumentation and musical environment I was trying to create. I was looking to make something really dark that still kept a melodic undercurrent and a dreamy atmosphere. To accomplish this, I used two bass guitars and a lot of washed out vocal harmonies. The dual bass guitar instrumentation I’ve only used in one previously released song; The End Of Summer. The dreamy vocals are reminiscent of the vocal mix I created for my Surfer’s Of The Omniverse debut single Cruiser . I enjoy experimenting with new sounds and ideas and instrumentations, so my songs tend to sound quite different from each other pretty naturally.
I very intentionally don’t have a process. I am so sick and tired of listening to artists on the radio who all sound the same. Then, whenever an artist finally creates a new and interesting sound they beat it into the dirt by making multiple singles and albums that sound the same. Of course there are the copycat artists that inevitably follow, and then suddenly you’re bored with this artist and everything they make immediately can’t capture your interest. I will never let myself be like that or else I will outright quit music and move on, and you have my word. For me, doing that would be completely missing the point of music anyways. Why create something you or someone else has already created dozens of time? By always changing and challenging myself I find new, creative, and exciting ways to do things I thought I already knew how to do. I learn new things on the way too of course. There’s no wrong way to make music, and more importantly, there is no right way either. Keep mixing it up.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Honestly, the biggest challenges I’ve faced have been decentralization and getting exposure. In order to do relatively simple tasks related to my musical career/music making, I often have to spend a ridiculous amount of time switching between programs, waiting for buffering or loading, typing things over and over again, emailing someone repeatedly, clicking links, reading articles, and the list goes on and on. It’s so easy to get disorganized or forget something. Things aren’t nearly as straightforward as they were “back in the day” when you just signed to a label and you made it or you didn’t, and either way there were people who took care of a lot of the financial and publicity busywork so the artist could focus on the art. Today, there are just so many things to do that you lose sight of, and none of it is guaranteed to help you in any way either. I’m so constantly scared of wasting my time, energy, and money on marketing the wrong way. What even is successful marketing in the digital age for an indie musician? It gets overwhelming just to post to Instagram regularly, much less mount a whole from-scratch marketing campaign. I don’t even know where to begin! Plenty of companies are out there claiming to “help musicians succeed” but they’ve never actually helped anyone, they just want money. With the seemingly ever expansive nature of the internet, it just gets intimidating to even attempt to make a dent.
That being said, technology has helped me in a lot of ways as well. I mean, a lot of what I do wouldn’t be really possible at all without technology. I love to use MIDI keyboards, even though I also have an analog UltraNova synthesizer. Like I said before, keep it mixed up. I also have to use a DAW in order to create my own music, which just wouldn’t be possible without a computer and technology. It requires tons of sophisticated hardware including interfaces, mics, cables, instruments, MIDI controllers, and not to mention software as well. Do you know how much processing power two DAWs and a bunch of VST plug-ins take up? A lot. All of this has gotten cheaper and more accessible in just my lifetime and I’m extremely thankful for that. That’s the biggest way technology has helped; it has really opened the door to allow anyone to create music if they have enough ambition and are willing to put in the time.
What was the last song you listened to?
In all seriousness, The True King Of Pain, the single I mentioned above. I sort of ritualistically play my music right after release time. But in the spirit of avoiding clichés I’d say Gathering by The Horrors was a song I’ve listened to recently that’s been sitting with me. Wave by Antonio Carlos Jobim is also a song I sort of have on repeat right now. My friend introduced me to it, and it really captures this island jazz sound that has an energy sort of similar to Walter Wanderley’s Summer Samba (so nice), which is also an amazing and soulful song.
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I’d say I tend to listen to CDs the most if I’m not streaming something, but that being said, Vinyls hold a lot of nostalgic value and the crackle of a vinyl is something I enjoy hearing emulated on other mediums such as MP3 and CDs. I often use a mixture of a select few vinyl VST plugins when I’m making music, because I find the sound of a vinyl record so interesting. I don’t think that technically counts as listening to a song on vinyl though.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I definitely prefer Spotify, and it’s often where I try to push listens on my own music. That being said, I’m not the greatest at doing that, so as of right now only one of my songs has over 1000 listens. That song is a joke ad-libbed song about wanting to be friends with Bo Burnham that I produced in less than an hour. So, I think that just goes to show how much more there is to learn about the new streaming climate we find ourselves in. I like Spotify because of the ease of ability to find songs you want to hear and the fact I don’t have to pay to listen to my own playlists. Granted, they’re on shuffle and ads play, but the other streaming options just don’t seem better in my opinion.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
The best places to connect with me online would be…
On Instagram @Tmack523
On my website at http://tannermackey.com/
Or by following me on Spotify
Anything else before we sign off?
Uh, hedonism is bad, make sure you stay politically active and informed, and it’s okay to take a break sometimes if you need to.
Thanks for everything!
