Meet Sally of Titan to Tachyons

Mathematical and totally radical to Titan to Tachyons will explode your brain. This supergroup pushes rock and metal into beautifully strange new places. Spacey places, swirly places, it doesn't matter they will go there. Throughout it, this band keeps it fast and heavy as heck. We had a chance to chat with Sally about the project, and some other fun stuff. Have a look and listen below.

A self-portrait by, Sally

Would You Rather

have the power to make things you touch turn invisible or shrink?

Shrink. Loading gear would be so much easier, and I could pick up a lot of jobs as a mover. Hopefully they would turn back to regular size on command though, or I might end up with some rather tiny amps.

Some questions with Glassio

With this project being a collective, does it inspire more risks and ideas that you would have not otherwise tried with previous bands?

Yes, definitely. The primary objective of this band was to explore areas of my musical tastes that I hadn't tapped into yet. My previous projects were all rooted in extreme metal, so to do away with any established genre and create regardless of whether something 'fit' or not was quite liberating. Kenny and Matt are totally inspiring to play with, and add valuable ideas and layers to what we do.

If your music was a sandwich, what would it be? Why?

A marmite and cheese toastie. An unexpected, weird combination from New Zealand, that's typically an acquired taste. Or you might just be completely put off by this odd, black substance, and question why someone would ruin perfectly good cheese with it.

How do you keep the momentum of the project going during quarantine?

Quarantine has opened up as many opportunities as it has closed. Having an open schedule to purely focus on writing and promoting the band has definitely been welcome and refreshing, despite the inability to play shows, or even practice together initially. It causes you to be more resourceful in creating content and building an audience without relying on live gigs. We've kept momentum going by filming a live set, which meant we were able to rehearse again, and work on some new material. We're currently exploring other avenues for performances, and have been feeding the social media machine with press, art, and studio videos.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

The notion that musicians shouldn't be adequately compensated for their work and performances. People have been conditioned to expect music for free, and companies like Spotify have run with this, and are profiting instead of the artists. We need a new paradigm where streaming generates the same kind of income for musicians as it does for other industries with digital content, such as film and TV. It doesn't even have to be crazy numbers like actors get, but it's such a shame that being able to make a comfortable living playing music is out of reach for most of us.

Do you write music together? Is the process more structured or improvised?

It's a mixture of structure and improv. I wrote all the songs on guitar first, leaving sections in the arrangement for improvising. Matt and Kenny would then add their own parts to the material, and we'd often come up with new ideas and layers by jamming things out in the studio. 'Earth, and Squidless' had the most full band involvement, as it was written after Matt had joined. We wrote the intro together, then took it to Kenny and fleshed out the rest of the song from the draft arrangement I had created.

Improvising was a fairly important tool during composition too. For example, I was struggling with the structure for 'Earth, and Squidless' before I took it to the band. Then one day, I tossed the structure out the window, and just jammed on the parts that I had with a looper pedal. This led to creating the solo sections, which form the last half of the song. 'Everybody's Dead, Dave', was also originally written for 20 minute solo guitar performances. I stripped it down into a four part piece to play with a full band, with only one section having a written part, that the rest of the band improvise around. The second section was based on some cool skronky parts that came up when playing a gig with Kenny and Trevor when I first moved to the city. We performed the piece for the first time in the studio, using cues and atmospheric descriptions to navigate the piece.

Do you miss playing live? What do you miss most about it?

Definitely! I guess what I miss most would be the human connection - making music with my band members, seeing the audience get into it, and interacting with friends and fans afterwards.

What was the creative inspiration behind your release "Cactides"?

Primarily visual works, such as 2001: A Space Odyssey, Twin Peaks, Red Dwarf, Dr. Who, etc. I wanted to express surreal, psychedelic, and sci fi storylines as music. Musically, it draws from all areas of my tastes and really taps into styles I hadn't previously expressed, having a background largely in extreme metal. I also wanted to throw the 4/4 time grid out the window, and play things how I felt they should sound, regardless if it 'fit' or not.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

First time I've drawn a self-portrait! That was a lot of fun... and thank you for the interview!