INTERVIEW: Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun

Over the past several years you would be hard-pushed to find a band in the US that works harder than Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun. Since their inception the band has gigged tirelessly, recorded multiple EP’s, and even released their first full-length last year. The band is playing a few more select US dates this year, and this Thursday they will return to Greenville to play their final Upstate show of 2012. We caught up with the group to see what exactly is in store for them during their much-deserved breather, and talk about the future even beyond that. The show is at The Radio Room in Greenville with The Sour Notes and Joie, doors are at 9pm.

Wes Gilliam: In addition to being a non-stop touring machine for most of the year, we saw that you contributed to the Moonlight Bride remix album, what was that like? Had the band had any experience remixing before this ?
Today The Moon Tomorrow The Sun: It was a blast. It’s always fun to take someone else’s music or even your own to a different place, giving it your own interpretation. Especially with Moonlight Bride’s music, they have such an epic and ambient sound, to turn them into more of a machine sound with the electronic drums and synths was a treat. Cregg and Jeremy have done several remixes for TTM,TTS on some of the older EP’s and Jeremy has done a remix for our friends in the band Jungol.

WG: We all know how stressing touring can be on equipment, and I saw something about you guys installing a manual windshield wiper on your van that required two people to operate… can you please delve a little more into this process? Inquiring minds want to know!
TTMTTS: Well, we had only 1 windshield wiper working for the last 6 months now. On our last run during a pretty bad storm our driver’s side wiper decided to retire as well. We stopped at a gas station and Jeremy bought some rope and tied it to the wipers and each end of the rope goes into the van. So, when it rains the front passenger and driver can pull the rope back and forth and the wiper will do it’s job!

WG: You’ve stated that is the last Greenville show of the year and I saw that you also played your last Atlanta of the show of the year just last week or so ago. What is going on in the TTMTTS camp that you would be leaving us for so long?
TTMTTS: We can’t really say for sure. We have been touring 15-20 dates a month since August 2009. Even while recording WILDFIRE we still managed to tour. So, It’s time for us to be artist again. Write and record and sleep in our own bed’s for a while. We’ll play again when we have something amazing and exciting to share!

WG: You’ve mentioned wanting to work on a new album for a little bit now, anything you can hint to us towards the direction? Or is it still too much up for grabs at this point?
TTMTTS: At this point it’s kinda up for grabs. We haven’t even really started the process. We’ve thrown out some ideas to each other and I think each of us have an idea in our heads of where we would like to go sonically. The process has not started yet,it’s still in it’s infancy. Even when you have an idea in your head of where you want to go, you never truly know until you get in the rehearsal space and everyone gets behind an instrument.

WG: Over the past several months we’ve seen the band filming their live shows with a flip cam for a new music video, any idea when should we expect to see that? I thought I heard it was for “Right Left Right” ?
TTMTTS: The footage has been for a Single-Hearted video. We’re hoping to take all this footage we’ve got of our band friends and fans dancing and have a super fun DIY music video. Our guess is we’ll be able to get it all together after our last tour in September.

WG: Speaking of videos I noticed that Altpress.com premiered your last video for “We Were Wild” which is, well, wild haha. How has the reception been to the video? It’s definitely got an artistic edge and I really enjoyed it quite a bit.
TTMTTS: Well thanks! We’ve gotten some sweet kudos on the video, & aside from the views on Altpress.com, we’re almost at 5500 views on YouTube, so we’re very happy to have had that amount of eyeballs check it out thus far. Parker Davidson filmed this video beautifully. And running around in the woods with masks on wasn’t too shabby of a time for us! Especially when we shot with the kids…The meaning behind the song was so present & electric that day.

WG:You guys have always done us a solid and brought other great regional bands with you when passing through (Novakord, Moonlight Bride, Octopus Jones, I Was Totally Destroying It, Sunbears! etc) what can you tell us about the band you’re bringing with you this time, The Sour Notes?
TTMTTS: This is possibly our favorite thing about touring– meeting these amazing bands that you become friends (and sometimes more like “brothers & sisters”) with. And when you form these connections & when you thoroughly enjoy watching these bands play, everyone wants to share these experiences with each other. We love Greenville so much that we want to share it with every band we love, & vice versa–we think the bands we love need to be heard by Greenville. As is the case w/The Sour Notes from Austin, TX. We got to play with them for the 1st time at SXSW earlier this year, & although they had the house packed to the brim, we squeezed up to the front row to get the full effect, & man, is it good! I remember being amazed at the dynamics they are able to achieve while still creating such cool, catchy, indie pop tunes….they can go from a huge, glorious noise-filled wall of sound to a delicate moment where the music is breathing, all while leaving traces of a hook in the back of your mind. You will likey.

WG: One of the best things about running the site is seeing bands you really admire do great things and keep on prospering, so it’s always been awesome to see you guys do well. Any other bands/artists on your radar doing big things that we should know about?
TTMTTS: Bands have you to thank for lots of said prosper, so thank you for supporting music in so many ways. There are so many bands on our radar that we think are worthy of huge success! We always fear answering this question, then immediately thinking of 5 other bands we should have named (it always happens!). Hank & Cupcakes (Brooklyn) with their mind-blowing live show just released their new album Naked, which is full of great music. Royal Teeth (New Orleans) is a band we enjoyed a lot & they are playing huge next-level shows right now (recently signed to Dangerbird Records). The Cusses (Savannah) continue to do wonderful things & capture crowds wherever they are…love them. I Was Totally Destroying It just released their new album, which is fantastic, & are embarking on a big tour (w/some dates opening for Motion City Soundtrack). The Winter Sounds partnering with New Granada Records & releasing their awesome new album after a really successful Kickstarter campaign….that’s huge. Junior Astronomers (Charlotte) are about to head out on a Favorite Gentlemen tour which should be pretty epic. So many great bands doing great things.

WG: And since this is the last Greenville show for 2012, any idea on when we should see you up this way after this Thursdays show or too soon to tell?
TTMTTS: Nope, no idea! It feels so weird to say that after so many years of regularly touring through town! But it is indeed too soon to tell. What we will say though is that after this week, the next time we do come to Greenville, it will be a new us.