Crouching Tiger, Marching Army

It’s 11 AM, an ungodly hour of the morning in punk-rock time. But one punk is awake, and struggling to remain so as he holds up his end of the phone conversation. He is Nick 13, guitarist and frontman of LA-based, NorCal-spawned psychobilly punk band Tiger Army, and he has a long day of work ahead of him.
The band is currently in the studio recording its third album, III: Ghost Tigers Rise, to be released on Epitaph Records, and noon is the scheduled time for everyone to be at the studio — an almost equally ungodly hour of the morning. But sarcasm aside, it is hard work.
“It’s been pretty intensive; we’ve been in there almost every day,” Nick said, the sleep still present in his voice. “We pretty much go from about noon to midnight, and we do it six days a week.”
Today will be mostly guitar and bass work — going over one song again and again until it comes out right, ad tedium. Relief comes only in the breaks the band takes a few times a day, including the one real break for dinner, and of course, the frequent injections of off-the-wall, stir-crazy humor that only a band in captivity can understand.
“When you’re in there for 12 hours a day, you gotta have fun, too,” Nick said. “We spend a lot of time laughing about stupid jokes that absolutely nobody would think were funny.”
But Nick prophesizes good things for this recording, working through the long hours and looking forward to the finished product.
“There’s a sound that I’ve always heard in my head, and I think this is the closest that I’ve gotten to capturing it,” he said. The album will stylistically touch base with parts of the first album, he said, while progressing slightly in other areas. But overall, the sound will stay the same.
The band’s tenure in the studio has not been without hitch, though. Drummer Fred “Hell” Telles has been dealing with residual problems stemming from his shooting incident earlier this year, Nick said.
“We’d been practicing five days a week for three months before we went in the studio, and we thought everything was fine, and then we learned that there were some aspects of his recovery that weren’t as complete as we’d thought,” he explained.
Telles’ left hand was still acting up, Nick said, causing miniscule timing problems that went unnoticed while the band practiced. But when the drums were recorded for the album, the tiny glitches became very apparent.
“They’re not things you’d notice in a live setting,” Nick said. “We weren’t aware of it, he wasn’t aware of it, and after about three days of tracking we had to face the fact that it really wasn’t coming together.”
The band had to enlist the help of drum tech Mike Fasano to replace Telles on the drum kit. As a result, it is Fasano, not Telles, who will be drumming on the third album.
“That was kind of a tough thing for all of us,” Nick said, though he explained that Telles will not be completely left out of the process. Though he is not actually playing the drums, Telles will coach Fasano on his playing style, allowing Fasano to replicate Telles’ drumming. This will ensure Telles’ mark, and the band’s genuine sound, on the new album.
Aside from the album, another opportunity to kick teeth will be seen in Tiger Army’s upcoming tour with Rancid, due to take off in November, Nick said. The band jumped on the opportunity to take a break from the stress of recording, as well as to tour with the juggernaut punk band.
“We had kind of planned on just being in the studio straight until the record was done, but when we got the call we all kind of agreed that it’s not a tour you turn down,” he said. “We’ve never had a chance to do a direct support tour with a band that’s really pretty big.”
Nick foresees intense, high-energy stage shows and, hopefully, crowds that can get into Tiger Army.
“I think we sound better right now in terms of tightness and everyone’s playing better than we ever have,” he said.
Tiger Army will follow Rancid’s trail of destruction through Davis, California, and San Francisco in early November, returning to the studio at a later date to finish recording. As expected, Telles will play on the tour, Nick said, kicking in heads with the rest of the band. His wayward hand in no way threatens his status as a soldier in the Tiger Army.
“We hope he’s on the next record,” Nick said.

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