UTG INTERVIEW: The Hydrothermal Vents

To my knowledge, The Hydrothermal Vents are the one and only band I’ve encountered that are inspired by the works of David Attenborough, and as a huge fan of Planet Earth and The Blue Planet, this little factoid thrills me to no end. THV are all over the place genre-wise but the ocean themes run deep on their newest release. Secrets Of The Deep! is comprised of 9 tracks traversing the realms of classic pop, post-punk, indie rock, dance-y dream rock, new wave and beyond.

We had the chance to speak with the Montreal duo of John Tielli and Tessa Kautzman about Secrets, their various inspirations, and their touring plans for the remainder of the year. Follow us through the jump to get the scoop from The Hydrothermal Vents, then check out their video for “Neptune’s Grave” immediately afterwards.

Firstly, you guys have one of my favorite monikers I’ve seen in some time. How did you land on The Hydrothermal Vents and would you say that the idea behind the name relates to your music in any way?

JT: The name came to me in a flash of inspiration and it just felt right. I’d remembered the David Attenborough series The Blue Planet and the hydrothermal vents were particularly mysterious and fascinating. The fact that a whole ecosystem is thriving around the vents without sunlight is so surreal and otherworldy and that’s exactly what we were going for musically. Escapism and the subconscious are themes that come up often throughout the album, which also fit nicely with the deep sea theme.

How did the two of you originally come together to form the band?

TK: I put an ad up on Craigslist searching for collaborators and John happened to be browsing for the same thing. He searched “The Pixies” and my ad came up because I had them down as one of my main influences. We met up and really hit it off both as friends and musically.

I could sit here and try to pick influences out of your music all day, but I’d like to know from you which bands or artists were actually instrumental in the sound and style you’ve developed for this project.

JT: It’s hard to narrow down the influences because there are so many. There are definitely a lot of new wave era influences; bands like The Talking Heads and the B52s’ first album come to mind. I hear Andy Summers in my guitar parts and of course The Pixies are huge for us.

And how would you describe your overall sound to a potential listener that has yet to hear your music?

TK: I think the music manages to be nostalgic while still being new and unpredictable. It’s multi-layered and thoughtfully crafted. At times it’s heavy and driving, sporadic and jumpy or eerie and dream-like. It has a playful, child-like spirit but it also has sharp teeth.

Secrets Of The Deep! is out now with 9 tracks of an impressive variety of styles and sounds. You described it perfectly. Do you feel that there’s any specific demographic that would take to this record more so than others due to its unique display of traversing various genres?

JT and TK: Secrets of the Deep! seems to appeal to many generations and a diverse spectrum of listeners; 20-somethings can often hear ’90s grunge, while 30 and 40-somethings note ’70s and ’80s influences. There’s also bits of ’60s surf rock and a touch of Chuck Berry. There are references to different decades and genres, but it still sounds new so doesn’t feel out of place within the current indie rock climate.

There’s obviously an aquatic/ocean-type theme strewn through this band — from the name itself to the album, into the lyrics, and the fact that it was recorded at a place called Bioluminescence. So what is it about the ocean that has made it become such a prominent part of all of this?

JT: Most of the deep ocean is mysterious uncharted territory so it’s an exotic place to us as land-dwelling creatures. Underwater we move and see things differently, contributing to a surreal, dream-like quality. The deep ocean serves as a nice metaphor for an escape from reality by diving into the subconscious creative mind. It’s a joyous, child-like state to be in. It’s all about imagination.

Do you feel that that’s a theme you plan to stick with from here on out?

JT: It’s hard to say. I have a feeling references might pop in here and there, but it can’t be predicted. We have a lot of new musical ideas but the lyrics still need to be written. The themes will come out naturally; we can’t really force it too much. We like to write instictively.

You just had an album release show recently, right? But you have other launches coming up it looks like… Why the multiple release shows? Besides the fact that you can do what you want, of course.

TK: They’ll be our first shows in those cities since we released the album so we wanted to make them special (because we can!)

And how would you describe a THV live show to someone that’s never attended one?

TK: We try to put everything we have into our live show. We don’t want to hold back or just go through the motions, we want it to be an exciting performance. We want the audience to dance and feel involved. We play with backing tracks while both playing guitar and singing so we can’t jump around or do as much choreographed moves as we’d like, but we rock out as much as possible. We also love to experiment with different costumes, sets, props and video, so we’re hoping to incorporate those things more in the future.

Your recent video for “Neptune’s Grave” is really intriguing and looks great. Can you tell me about the ideas that went into the concept?

JT: A lot of it came together spontaneously. We knew we wanted a live performance and for it to be dark like the deep sea. We made a jellyfish out of a coffee filter and some yarn and danced around with it for the clips in between live shots. Tessa had the idea of asking a couple of dancers to come in and improvise as well. We made the strange creature costumes out of scraps of white and silver clothing, and constructed a hydrothermal vent that was supposed to shoot out smoke from a fog machine. It didn’t really work as planned for the actual shooting, but we worked with what we had. A lot of it came together in editing.

I read that you guys are set for a tour this Fall. What are you looking forward to the most with this outing?

TK: We’re really just excited to have this album out and to be able to share it with everyone. Touring as a duo is going to be great because we get along so well and we have a lot of fun playing live. We’ll be visiting a lot of new places so we’re hoping to have some free time to explore a bit. Playing in my hometown (Saskatoon, SK) will be a highlight for me, too.

Other than the touring, can we expect anything else from you guys for the rest of the year?

JT: We’re brainstorming ideas for a new video, so hopefully that will come together. We’ve also started on a batch of new songs for the next record, one of which we’ve added to our live show. We’ll just be taking it as it comes!

Brian Leak
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