Concert and interview series, Kitchen Sink, welcomes its second round of performers, SoCal alt-rock band, Graphic Tease.
The band is made up of singer Roman Lagi, singer/bassist Andrea “Ander” McDonald, guitarist Dylan Brott-Hunter and drummer Susanna Cantrell.
For the performance, the band did an acoustic set featuring four of their original songs, “The Feelings Mutual,” “Sympathy,” “Words,” and “ATV.”
After playing each song, the band dove into describing what each one is about.
The first song they played, “The Feelings Mutual,” was written by the band’s guitarist.
Brott-Hunter, who wrote the song describes it as both a “cheesy love song” and a “smooth punk song.”
The song was inspired by midwest emo bands such as Joyce Manor.
He also refers to the song “Awkward,” by Australian indie pop band, San Cisco.
“I listened to this song called ‘Awkward’ by San Cisco, which is basically a dual perspective of a guy liking someone and then the girl, her verse is ‘leave me alone you creep kinda thing’, so that’s kinda how the song happened.”
After creating the song and recording a demo, he passed the reins over to Tiedemann and McDonald who added to it.
The track ended up being one of Brott-Hunter’s favorites.
“They added a whole ‘nother verse and kind of a whole ‘nother meaning which kinda bloomed into my favorite song, probably, on the ep that we’re gonna work on,” said Brott-Hunter.
On “Sympathy,” McDonald mentioned that this was a song that meant a lot to her.
“It’s basically just about not receiving the same love that you’re giving and wanting better for yourself but not really knowing where to seek it out at, I don’t know, it just means alot to me.”
She also gives a shout to drummer Susanna Cantrell for having an integral role and for writing the instrumental for the track.
Cantrell couldn’t be there because she attends school in Santa Cruz.
“Words,” the third song, is a duet featuring both Tiedemann and McDonald, highlighting both voices.
“A lot of my inspiration would typically come when I was in the shower, so I would just be like soaking wet typing on my phone or like doing a voice note, whispering, because I was scared of my parents hearing me in the house,” mentioned Tiedemann, on the creation of the track.
He then sent it to McDonald, leading to the further production of the song.
The track was created in the early days of Graphic Tease, when Tiedemann was only 17, which is referenced in the song.
One of their most upbeat songs, “ATV” is a song reminiscent of a 2000’s alt rock sound, tied together with strong vocals and a catchy riff.
“I wanted this song to be fun because we’re so depressing,” Tiedemann remarks with a laugh.
The track was one of the most collaborative of theirs, starting with a bass riff, then adding guitar, and lyrics.
According to the band, this song uses imagery from an Arizona trip.
They use a lot of references such as “stop and shop” referring to gas stations and also in the line, “a scorpion sting from my lollipop,” which refers to the scorpion lollipops that one would find while driving around Arizona.
“It was very like, rebel like, mad max, but emo, super desert, fun, kinda song,” described McDonald.
Graphic Tease revealed that they have big plans for the future and they plan on gigging more locally and recording new music.
“You can expect maybe one of two of these songs that we just did to be on that EP, but for sure on the album,” said Tiedemann.
The whole band is very eager to release new music.
“The songs that we have are like cemented into our brain from how much we play them, so we just kinda need a place to record them, play them, and put them out,” added Brott-Hunter.
“Yeah, definitely,” agreed McDonald, “We’ve been sitting on these songs for so long, we’re just ready to actually put them out into the world.”
The songs that they played will be featured on their upcoming ep and debut album that they are currently in the process of working on.
To learn more about Graphic Tease, view the full-length interview featured on both the LBCC Viking News and Kitchen Sink Concerts Youtube channels.
