Tiss and tHE vAGABONDS BY jAMIE hERBERT
I’ve always been most passionate about performance. It was the grainy videos of Iggy Pop gyrating above the crowd and the sleaze-soaked onstage antics of Lux Interior and Poison Ivy that sparked my insatiable craving for showmanship. The lack of inhibition and the strikingly taboo freedom of letting completely loose in a room full of strangers was enthralling. It’s a desire that’s followed me my whole life and led me to damp basements and grand theatres in the pursuit of that feeling I get from true performance. That feeling is one of overwhelming delirium. You lift your head towards the flashing lights and completely sacrifice yourself to the music. Your hands are shaking and a primal sense of unity washes over you. Nothing else matters in these moments.
I had this feeling when I saw Tiss Vampiric for the first time. I was speechless when they began to play, feeling as though something grand and undeniable had been achieved even in those first few moments. Frontman Tiss’s performance is beautifully authentic. Their overall presence on stage and their music just makes sense. It grabs you in and holds you in its intensity and raw magnitude. After that night in Belgrave Music Hall I couldn’t stop thinking about them. A couple of sweat-soaked summer months later, Tiss Vampiric announced they were opening for The Moonlandingz in my hometown.
Through divine alignment, I find myself walking through the quiet streets of my town towards The Trades Club. I’ve been instructed that I will find Tiss Vampiric near a yellow and leopard print van, and that I do. They’re a delightfully eye-catching group, as stylish as they are talented. I regard myself as someone not usually starstruck but sometimes we simply must submit. A quick walk through town and a cigarette stop leaves us sitting outside The White Lion. I drink a pint, Tiss sits beside me with a cappuccino.
Prior to our conversation there was a short-lived panic as the band referenced this Trades gig as their last show…as Tiss Vampiric. Relieved, I came to discover there were some secretive developments happening behind the scenes. I can now confirm to you all that Tiss Vampiric is over, but the band is just beginning. Tiss Vampiric originated as Tiss’s project and until this point, all writing and composing was led by him. The move into a new image is motivated by the desire to make the music together and share the process.
Tiss: ‘We’re ready to join forces. We’ve been writing collectively more and working through things together. It feels more like a full band rather than me with a backing band. We’re refreshed and ready to go with the new sound.’
The first inkling that there was a desire to join forces began with a song they wrote in their van on their way to Paris, where they were appearing at NOIZE’s issue 2 launch festival. They decided to play it that night, which didn’t completely render successful due to some impromptu key changes but despite that, it was something of a turning point. Alongside this was a change in attitude to Tiss Vampiric’s style. The name itself and early performances lent further into the gothic cabaret theatrics that still gets used to describe them now. If you’ve been to a recent show, you’ll know this isn’t entirely accurate. In fact, to try and categorize them at all would not be far from sinful.
Tiss: ‘When I first started with Tiss Vampiric, I was very much in my goth phase and now the change just feels like the natural progression of the band. We don’t feel like we’re restricted creatively. In terms of aesthetic and music we feel like we can go down any avenue we want now.’
This new freedom and collective involvement is being experienced fully as the band are preparing to record an album. The focus when defining this project is to capture their infamous live performance as accurately as possible on the album and share that with a wider audience. To help achieve this, they’re recording each track live in the studio together. A band always gains my respect a little more when they record live, there’s not a better way to kill an album than by recording it piece by piece as if it were nothing more than a chore. Tiss Vampiric’s past project was a four song EP titled ‘Songs of Paris’ which was almost entirely Tiss solo with a guitar. It’s an equally beautiful and soporific concept but is in stark contrast to their gigs.
Tiss: ‘Everything we’ve released already has been pretty much just me recording. No matter what phase we’ve been in as a band, it’s always been really live performance driven and ‘Songs of Paris’ was just lacking the energy of us live. What’s exciting now is recording as a band and capturing that raw energy. Just finally playing together and recording how we would sound on stage.’
Ivy: ‘I think there’s something to be said about actually having fun. I think it got to the point with Tiss Vampiric that we weren’t really having fun. Offstage we’re all such good friends and have been for ages and then we’d get on stage and it would just be doom and gloom. It’s really nice to just be friends and also play music. It’s a joy now.’
Ben: ‘We’re taking what we find fun about the whole experience and then also just playing to our strengths, making that the important part. It feels more natural.’
Following on from Tiss taking out his silver tooth to eat a Biscoff, we get a little deeper into exactly what to expect in the album. They’re recording it at Lamigo Bay Studios on Scotland’s north coast, a week in isolation to perfect a new sound.
Tiss: ‘Every song that gets written is just influenced by what I’m listening to at that point. Everyone always just called us a goth cabaret outfit but we’re just not that anymore. We’ve found the middle ground of Tiss Vampric’s goth rock and the calmness of ‘Songs of Paris’, we’re between the chaos and the calm now.’
Ben: ‘We’re just going for something that’s fun and that we all enjoy playing, anything goes.’
One of my favourite traits of Tiss Vampiric is how unapologetically rock n’ roll it is. It’s easy to find a band messing about with synths and heavy effects which makes a group like this stand out so much. With the blues guitar and stripped-back drums it’s a deliciously rejuvenated classic sound that is also incredibly difficult to define. It’s all over the shop, from mellow 70s heroin rock, morbid country grit and sleazy rock n’ roll jive. The new sound is raw, honest and most importantly - made with love and the genius of Ivy’s signature two-piece drum kit.
Tiss: ‘We’re going back to basics, back to being a guitar band. Two or three guitars, organ, drums, vocals and that’s it. Balls to the wall rock n’ roll. It’s all more honest, we’re not pretending to be cool. The performance now is the best it’s been because we’re in love with what we’re playing. It makes the show what it should be.’
Ivy: ‘You can overcomplicate it until the cows come home but it is just rock n’ roll, and that’s such a massive genre.’
Tiss and the vagabonds by jamie herbert
I’ve encountered many different types of bands. There are the ones that come together for a gig then swiftly disperse and there are ones that really do live their lives together. It’s evident through our conversation that Tiss Vampiric are mates first before being a band, which is why what they do feels so harmonious. Although they are marking this as the point they become a collective, this energy is already felt at their gigs. You’ll note when watching them that there is a deep understanding of their motive, vision and most importantly, of each other. You can’t help but think it must have been destiny for this group of people to find each other and decide to make music.
Originally, the band met either as teenagers or through the Leeds music scene, one that has always been held close to my heart. The city has some of my favourite venues and evidently some of my favourite bands. They now share their time between Leeds and London but Yorkshire’s city is still as important, a constant support in an otherwise divisive industry. In fact, as soon as we start talking about Leeds there’s an immediate sense of admiration and love towards the city. It’s refreshing to hear about creativity in a place other than London, which has grown to be a sort of assumption for artists.
Ivy: ‘All the bands in Leeds are so supportive of each other, there’s no rivalry. There’s so many amazingly talented people.’
Tiss: ‘There’s no bullshit. Everyone’s in it together and you all go to each other's gigs, some bands are intimidated if they see a good show but there’s none of that in Leeds. London is so competitive and it’s just not a friendly scene to be in.’
It’s then, in almost a blur, I’m stood back in The Trades Club and the thudding drums have begun to fill the room. The relentless, guttural melodies Tiss sings combined with the biting guitars acts as a siren song. Quickly people clamber out of the bar, out of their seats and towards the light of the band. I look around and see eyes wide open, hips beginning to find rhythm and grins of pure desperate desire to understand what’s occurring in front of their very eyes. It’s a sound and performance so matchless it will leave you bewildered and grasping for more.
Tiss and the band are an endeavour so unrivaled in their excellence it would be blasphemous to imagine a world without them. So, I can tell you with tender relief that Tiss Vampiric is in fact over, but you will soon be able to feast on Tiss and the Vagabonds. What a time to be alive.
tiss and the vagabonds by jamie Herbert