Nov 08 2018 13 mins
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.
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.