By Crimson Cat

CC:  Tiger and Me started out as a duo with Jane Hendry and Ade Vincent. Who is the tiger and why?
TM:  Jane is the tiger.  The band formed roughly at the same time as Jane and Ade started seeing each other, and Ade affectionately referred to her as ‘Tiger’, possibly because she is stripey, but probably not.

CC:  How did you meet the rest of your band?
TM:  Well, we have share-housed with most of them!  We currently live with Tobes, Fez used to live with us and our first drummer Paul also lived in the same house.  It makes rehearsal pretty easy… We hunted and gathered Tim Keegan and Sarah Galdes from the world of VCA awesomeness.  
When would you say was your big break?
Being accepted into North by Northeast in Toronto and having a belter of a festival is the first thing that comes to mind. Those Canadians sure know how to cook a waffle.
You have been featured as one of ‘six of the best’ unearthed roots bands in Australia in Triple J's 'Jmag'. What was your reaction when you found that out?
Naturally we were pretty happy about that, although it’s funny now thinking of us as a roots band.  As a duo we were still experimenting and finding our sound, so we dabbled in folk, country, roots, electronic and Camille-esque human beatbox.  And although the EP was pretty eclectic, we got a great response from community radio and Triple J, which was very encouraging.  
Not only have you conquered Australia, but you also toured Canada. What was it like performing over there?
Conquered is flattering, possibly overly so, but we’ll take it. Playing in Canada was a great experience – we were involved in two festivals (in Vancouver and Toronto) and so got to see and meet a huge range of other bands, musicians, and industry reps.  We got a great response over there too, particularly in Toronto at our last gig, which was reviewed favorably in the Toronto streetpress.  Not a bad result, given Ade had broken his left hand the day before the gig and was doped up on hardcore painkillers and wine.  I’m pretty sure he couldn’t feel his legs by the end of the gig.  Hardcore.

CC:  What was the most bizarre thing you experienced there?
TM:  Bizarre and GREAT: flying in a sea plane to Victoria in BC.  It was like being in a James Bond film.  At least, it was in my mind.

CC:  You are supporting Frankie Wants Out at Red Bennies. Have you met the boys yet?
TM:  Jane and Andy met a while ago and struck up a ridiculous and drunken conversation at the Wesley Anne one night after Jane had performed with her other band The Nymphs.  Our bass player Tim Keegan has played with FWO a few times too, so there’s some cross over there.  

CC:  You recently launched your debut album ‘From a Liar to a Thief’ at the Toff in Town. What was the highlight of the night?
TM:  I guess finding out that the show was a sell-out before the first act, Aluka, took to the stage was a pretty great highlight – it was such a fantastic crowd!  A real highlight too was having the choir on board (Jane LOVED having the choir).

CC:  What was it like recording that album?
TM:  Recording was brilliant – it really pays to have high quality musos in your band!  And working with Cal Barter from Solid Sounds was effortless, partly because of his awesomeness with all things sound, and partly because of his excellent moustache.
We gave ourselves time with this album to make sure that we were happy with all of the performances and arrangements, and I think it’s paid off – we’re very happy with the result.

CC:  Where do you get inspiration for your music from?
TM:  Well, we have three principal songwriters in the band, all with different influences.  Major influences for Ade are Ed Harcourt, Ben Folds and The Beatles; for Tobes, all pretty obscure bands – The Beatles, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan; and Jane only supports artists who start with the same letter as she does: Jolie Holland, Joni Mitchell and Janis Joplin (double points!) are among her influences.  On top of all this we share a penchant for Hungarian waltzes, klezmer music and Amelie-style piano accordion, which I suppose is lucky, given what we do…

Tiger and Me performs at Red Bennies on 23rd of July.