This month I sat down with Tim Hills and Chris Collins of Tai Tai alibi to discuss everything from eating the Manic Street Preachers cheese board, to how many takes it took for the guitar solos on their recent EP release : "The Old Bailey Sessions" Here is the interview transcript:
Tai Tai Alibi Interview.
TAI TAI ALIBI, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
No real meaning, it's just catchy. Initially it had some thing to do with Hong Kong. We're Hong Kong kids I guess.
SO DID YOU ALL GROW UP IN HONG KONG?
Yes, everyone in the band now all went to Island School.
(Chris to Tim) - Well I grew up , what? three buildings away from you? in Pok Fu Lam.
WHO ACTUALLY IS IN THE BAND? YOU'RE TIM HILLS..
Ya I play guitar and vocals. I also write most of the songs.
I'm Chris Collins, I'm the other guitarist/backing vocalist/slacker.
And then we got Matt Cartwright whose the drummer. And our new bassist Rafe D'Aquino.
I DID SEE ON YOUR WEBSITE THAT YOU HAVE A NEW BASSIST. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?
Priorities with certain players, weren't as high as we would have liked.
HOW LONG HAS TAI TAI ALIBI BEEN GOING?
Since ... October 2007
DO YOU GUYS HAVE OTHER JOBS OR IS IT JUST TAI TAI ALIBI?
I don't think anyone is full time.
I (Tim Hills) teach English to undergraduate students at Hong Kong U. It's pretty flexible, it gives me time to work on other things like Tai Tai Alibi.
DO YOU GET THE SAME BREAKS AS ALL THE OTHER STUDENTS AS WELL?
Yes haha... I've been on a summer holiday all my life.
I'm (Chris Collins) a professional musician so I'm
pretty much a bum!
HaHa, SO DO YOU DO ANY SESSION WORK OR ANYTHING LIKE
THAT?
I do session work yes, been playing a couple gigs with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra recently. Apart from that my bread and butter is mostly teaching guitar. I've got a studio in "Old Bailey Street" which is in fact where the album was recorded. Apart from the drums.
Rafe is in the diamond business. So he sells and stuff like that. And Matt is a Hedge fund Investment Banker.
SO GROWING UP IN HONG KONG, I DON'T KNOW IF ITS THE SAME WITH YOU GUYS, BUT I GREW UP IN SINGAPORE WHERE THE ONLY MUSIC YOU WOULD GET WAS THAT PLAYED ON MTV AND RADIO, WHICH I GUESS WAS SLIGHTLY BETTER THAN HERE AS I HAVE NOTICED A LACK OF ENGLISH SPEAKING RADIO STATIONS.
Apart from RTHK who we are big fans of, who recently interviewed us and played our music haha.
There's obviously limited hours in the day where they do play music.
RIGHT BASICALLY THAT'S WHAT I WAS GOING TO ASK, HOW DID YOU GUYS GET YOUR HANDS ON THE MUSIC THAT INFLUENCED YOU
WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER?
MTV .. while the music was still good, when it wasn't always R&B and stuff like that. Family, friends and school.
THE INTERNET?
The Internet wasn't as big when we were still in school. We're old! haha. INTERNET? Napster was around when we were in 6th form though.
WE'VE ALL HEARD OF SAY THE SEATTLE GRUNGE SOUND, OR THE BOSTON PUNK SOUND. WOULD YOU SAY THERE WAS SOMETHING SIMILAR HERE IN HK OR IS IT ALL PRETTY ECLECTIC?
Very eclectic. A bit of everything. There isn't really the one sound here ... apart from not being able to hear the vocals haha.
A lot of the local bands seem to have really caught on to the Brit Rock influence. You see that in a lot of the bands now.
Growing up there wasn't many local bands to go and see, but that's mainly because there wasn't many venues. There's more places these days.
SO , TALKING ABOUT THE EP "THE OLD BAILEY SESSIONS" THE NAME COMES FROM A ROAD NAME YOU WERE SAYING?
Ya it's a road in SOHO where I (Chris Collins) have my studio CMC , where I teach at. So we decided to call it "The Old Bailey Sessions EP" CMC are my initials.
AND IS THIS YOUR FIRST EP RELEASE?
Yes
I NOTICED ON THE ALBUM SLEEVE THAT YOU RECORDED IT ALL YOURSELVES?
Ya apart from drums, which was recorded by a friend or ours at a studio in Causeway Bay. A guy called Hubert So.
HAVE YOU GUYS HAD EXPERIENCE BEFORE IN RECORDING?
Ya, mostly home stuff.
SO THERE ARE 6 SONGS ON THE EP , DID YOU WRITE MORE FOR THE EP OR ARE THEY FROM A COLLECTION OF SONGS OVER THE YEARS?
There were others, but these were the more finished ones. Autocrat was wrote in about 06, so then we re-worked it a lot with the band and finished it off. I (Tim Hills) have a problem with finishing songs. The rest of the band will usually go "Ok there's enough time spent on that, let move on" , (Chris Collins) Hence the choice to not have a last chorus in "Strawman" by the way. (Tim Hills) Thats 'cause I couldn't sing it without killing myself!
HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO RECORD THE OLD BAILEY SESSIONS?
Most of it in two months. It was a bit of a complicated process. Initially the way we were gonna record it, was to have us all play in my (Chris Collins) studio using V (virtual) drums. Our drummer bought some top of the line ones. So we did that initially, then we layered on more guitars and more vocals. We ended up noticing that the drums were still the weakest element. So we then got rid of the V drums and stuck real drums on top. Which for any kids that are reading this, is the WRONG way of doing it. So that required a fair bit of editing. We could have done it probably in a month. It was just a lengthy process.
It wasn't like two months none stop. We only had a couple of days here and there to work on it. Initially, in the beginning it was to try to get more of a general idea of what we were doing. I think we had a go at "Cycle" then said, "Ok let's keep going." Obviously that's not the right way to go about it, we didn't plan it out or anything.
It was a big learning experience as well. Our full album will be very different.
OBVIOUSLY WHEN LISTENING TO THE EP YOU CAN TELL ITS VERY GUITAR DRIVEN. I NOTICED ON THE SLEEVE YOU CREDIT THE DIFFERENT SOLOS. MY QUESTION IS, HOW MANY TAKES DOES IT TAKE TO NAIL A SOLO?
One take! haha, Once it's written, one take.
NICE! OK GOING BACK TO WHAT YOU SAID EARLIER. TIM WRITES MOST OF THE SONGS, SO HOW DOES THE PROCESS WORK? DO YOU COME UP WITH THE CHORDS FIRST THEN PASS IT TO THE REST OF THE GUYS, OR DO YOU START OFF WITH SOME LYRICS?
It never starts with the lyrics, It always starts with the music. I try and have as much idea of the song as possible, usually before recording a demo. The main sections and vocals, the drums always go on drum machines -DO YOU DO THE DRUMS YOURSELF? - Ya but I can't do all the fills and stuff like that, its just the main bits to get the structure worked out.
(Chris Collins) It's the core of the song, the rest of us will work on
the fine details.
SO YOU DON'T HAVE THAT DICTATORIAL ROLL OF SAYING "PLAY THIS! PLAY THAT!"
...Sometimes! haha
(Chris Collins) If we're acting up haha.
(Tim Hills) I mean you write songs with "key parts" and if you don't have that in there, its not the same song.
RIGHT, LYRIC MATTER, DO YOU GUYS TALK ABOUT
CERTAIN TOPICS OR?
Try to! haha. The lyrics are the last thing that come to me. You write the music, then the melody and then the words to fit the melody. Then make sense of the words. Some of the songs make sense haha ... which is good. Like "A Little More Empty" which is about materialism. Then "Autocrat" is about an oppressive government, It can also be about a certain person. "Cycle" is just about relationships."A Million Miles Away" is just about partying.
(Chris Collins) Strawman is about a man made of straw...
(Tim Hills) haha no it isn't. All my metaphors! gone! What's the last one? ... "Lost in You" ... take from that what you will :).
ALRIGHT FOR ANY GUITAR TECHIES READING, DO YOU WANT TO TAKE US THROUGH YOUR RIG?
(Chris Collins) - I've got a PRS custom 24. Running into a BOSS TU-2 tuner. Into a FULLTONE standard wah. Into a RADIAL TONEBONE distortion box ... which is awesome! Goes through some other stuff ... A volume pedal, amp which is a small little Fender blues junior. It was also used for the EP.
(Tim Hills) - Do you wanna hear about my gear?
YES PLEASE
It's a Telecaster. That's about it haha. It's a Japanese Fender Telecaster custom. I like how it plays.
(Chris Collins) - Super Slinky strings haha.
SO YOU GUYS PLAYED THE BATTLE OF THE BANDS LAST YEAR AS WELL WHAT WAS THAT LIKE?
(Chris Collins) One of my bands came third (Joves)
WILL YOU BE ENTERING THE COMPETITION THIS YEAR?
Ya, the format is challenging to say the least. You've got two songs to give it your all.
SO YOU GUYS RECENTLY OPENED FOR THE MANIC STREET PREACHERS. HOW DID YOU GET THAT GIG?
Our drummer got it for us. Me (Tim Hills) and Matt were drinking in a bar and met a couple of guys who are in a production company. They were talking about how they brought the Stereophonics to Hong Kong and then Matt gave them our contact details. We put together a little compilation of some of the songs off our EP. So then they became interested and came to see one of our gigs. It was the UNDERGROUND COMPILATION release party and they said they liked it. Then we didn't hear anything from them for a while, it was about two months. Then Matt suddenly got a call from them saying that they were bringing the Manic Street Preachers to Hong Kong, and asked if we would like to open for them. So then we were like "Hmm? Fuck ya!"
SO HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE AT THAT SHOW?
Just under 2000 i think. Biggest crowd yet.
I WANNA ASK WHAT WENT THROUGH YOUR HEAD JUST BEFORE
TAKING THE STAGE?
(Tim Hills) Hmm, don't forget the lyrics?
(Chris Collins) Do I have my pick?
(Tim Hills) You had like 500 guitar picks.
(Tim Hills) Just to have a good time, and make the most
of it.
AND WHAT HAPPENED AFTER YOU CAME OFF THE STAGE?
We went back to our dressing room to hang out for a bit. Had a couple of beers, then the lead singer of the Manic Street Preachers, James Dean Bradfield came in to congratulate us. He saw us play and said he liked it. We chatted about stuff to do in Hong Kong ... very Rock'n'Roll. We invited him out for a drink after but he said he was too old haha. Then we went to the back of the show to sell our EP. We got it ready just for this gig. We actually were still packaging them in the dressing room after our set. Then we went into the Manic Street Preachers dressing room and ate all their food haha. We sat on their sofas and drank their penny-royal tea.
They have an impressive selection of cheeses actually. Their rider was interesting. Boddingtons - which we drank and a lot of mustard. Which we devoured.
WAS THAT YOUR BEST GIG SO FAR?
Yup! Everything came together, there was a great crowd,good feedback. Great pictures. PROOF!
Nice ladies ... our girlfriends. We got an all access pass, you know the important stuff.
DO YOU HAVE A WORST GIG THAT COMES TO MIND?
Worst? It would probably be just because of the venue's sound.
We're a bit anal about sound,if the sound isn't very good, we don't feel very comfortable on stage. But the sound is usually perfect so everyone should come and see our gigs :) It used to bother us , now we're UBER professionals haha nah.
DO YOU HAVE ANY BANDS YOU RECKON WE SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR IN 2009?
The Sinister Left, very good, they are old friends as well. I (Tim Hills) was in another band with the lead singer. And I (Chris Collins) was in a band with the bass player.
So there's a lot of inbreeding with Hong Kong bands. Matt's been in another band with Chris B from the UNDERGROUND (Thinking Out Loud).
I (Tim Hills) Like the David Bowie Knives, Hungry Ghosts, Killer Soap, Qui Hong, who are very professional. Solar are good.
(Chris Collins) Qasar, though I've never seen them play. Whats the sleeveless band called? Gong Wu! An old friend of ours called Andy Bautista has just joined them on guitar. So I'm sure they are very good.
LASTLY WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM TAI TAI ALIBI in 2009?
A full length album, 12 songs. We've written most of them now.
(Tim Hills) That was quick!
So probably to start and finish recording in the summer. We'll start with real drums this time haha!We're gonna sell it and have it available in HMV and other major outlets.
ANY LAST WORDS?
Thanks very much for the interview. Which is your favourite song?
I LIKE TRACK 2, LOST IN YOU. HEARD IT PLAYING AT AN
UNDERGROUND GIG AND THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT.
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