Back on June 3, 2008, I sat down with The Republic Tigers for a chat. Okay, actually we all gathered around a dumpster behind State Theater in St. Pete. Ah, the glamour of rock n’ roll.

Anyway, this has been offline for several months and I thought it deserved to be brought back. To review, here are the members of Republic Tigers:

Kenn Jankowski – Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar
Adam McGill – Guitar, Vocals, Samples and Production Elements
Ryan Pinkston – Guitar, Keys, Vocals, Auxiliary percussion
Marc Pepperman – Bass, Keys, Accordion
Justin Tricomi – Drums

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Keath: Is this your first trip to Tampa? Have you been here before?

Kenn: Uh no.

Ryan: We haven’t before.

Kenn: First trip as a band. I used to live in Clearwater for a while.

Keath: Are you from Florida?

Kenn: No, my parents lived here so I lived with them for nine months. Wrote some of the lyrics to Feelin’ The Future on the beach.

Keath: Nice! It’s like the Jimmy Buffett way of writing [all laugh]. That’s Florida, man – they give you a driver’s license and a Jimmy Buffett album. “Welcome to the state!”

Adam: He played on Letterman the day before us.

Keath: What was Letterman like?

Justin: Very professional operation I have to say. Very straight.

Adam: We had to show up at 7 AM. We played a show the night before – a really cool, laid back show at a club in Boston called The Middle East and we didn’t get out of there until 2:30 or 3 maybe. It’s about a 4 hour drive so we went straight there from the venue – didn’t really sleep.

Keath: Oh, that’s brutal! [band voices agreement]

Justin: Slept a little bit in the van. It all happened really fast afterwards.

Keath: So do you just hang out there all day.

Ryan: Yeah – you can walk around a little bit. We played at 5:30.

Kenn: Sleep a couple hours in the van, outside the studio [band laughs]. You have to do multiple soundchecks – you wait a lot in between. Then they do a video check. It’s pretty surreal.

Adam: I think it’s more surreal because of the lack of sleep [all agree].

Kenn: Not only that, when you walk in the stage is so much smaller than what it looks like on TV. You kinda feel like you’re not seeing the real deal, so it makes it harder to believe. Harder to buy into.

Keath: That was your first big TV appearance wasn’t it? [all agree]. A good way to start!

Kenn: We had a song on Grey’s Anatomy and then a couple times on Gossip Girls but that was the first time we did a show.

Adam: We actually did have an appearance on CNN [band laughs].

Marc: Something on Alex.

Ryan: We’re all in the background.

Keath: Alexandra [Patsavas, founder of Chop Shop Records]?

Marc: Yeah. They had a story on her – it was a 5 or 6 minute clip.

Kenn: I got to see a picture of myself [band laughs].

Keath: You’re the first on her new label right? [all agree]. Any added pressure with that?

Kenn: I think it’s more confidence. [all agree] Because they support us so much.

Keath: She’s pretty well known – a big player. For her to come out and say “I want you guys to start up my new label” that must mean a lot.

Kenn: It’s a big deal. And if we thought about it too much there might be pressure. Their careers – maybe the pinkie of the career – if we say something ridiculous then it might effect them. [all laugh].

Keath: Most everyone who reads our site has already heard of you guys but for anyone who hasn’t, how would you describe your music?

Kenn: Epic! [all laugh]

Ryan: Dreamy, kinda pop-y, dreamy pop rock. [all laugh] Experimental too kind of.

Justin: It’s very melodic. There’s a consistency of an electronic sound and an acoustic sound. Kind of a raw band with drums, bass, acoustic guitar but there’s also a lot electronically so it’s kind of a hybrid. And it’s consistent throughout every song. So I think that’s a little different – most bands pop it in every now and then. It creates its own sound if you keep it consistent like that.

Kenn: Unlike those hardcore bands who through in a groovebox every now and then. [mimes DJ scratching records to the cheering of the rest of the band]

Keath: So do you think that’s the future? I love it when you bring in the electronic stuff.

Adam: I think it’ll go there for a little bit then it’ll revert back to the opposite. Music is cyclical so it’ll move on from one thing to the next. And probably we’ll move on too.

Kenn: I think it’s one of the only ways to be truly creative anymore – with a sampler. Any idea is available with a sampler.

Justin: I agree it’s reoccuring – one example is the first time period that was best for pop was the 50′s and they had huge bands with horn sections and live singers in the background – that’s essentially the same thing with different voices. Instead of different synth sounds you had different horn sounds. That was their resources – they didn’t have synthesizers. So it’s kinda going back to that now.

Adam: I think the less creative laptop bands are, the quicker it’ll go back. Once it turns into some kind of the pop aspects of Radiohead everyone started to apply to their music, it’s too much of that.

Justin: To make a Motown reference, Stevie Wonder wrote everything, all the arrangements. So that’s original, it never got old. But as soon as they had an artist and just brought in the filler musicians to write around the song just to fill it in because that’s what everyone else was doing, that’s when it got trite. As long as it’s original it won’t get old.

Keath: What I’m most interested in seeing tonight is to see how you play the songs live – they’re so delicate on the album. Do you do any different arrangements?

Kenn: It’s more aggressive. There’s little changes here and there.

Justin: Less changes with the arrangement and more with feel.

Adam: We try to deliver what’s on the album, only deliver it with a little more intensity. We try to be true enough to the record so people won’t be confused about what song they’re listening to. [all laugh]

Kenn: It’s like Keep Colour mixed with the Clash [all laugh]

Keath: Do you guys get to see many shows, being on the road?

Adam: We see the ones we play [all laugh]

Justin: We get lucky now and then but honestly there are a lot of bands who skip Kansas City. It’s not on a lot of people’s To Do list.

Kenn: It really should be. Lawrence used to be the place to go if people came to our area but now it’s changed and people don’t know.

Justin: I think that’s effected us – Lawrence used to be the place and it used to be great, but that scene went down as far as live shows and word went out that booking wasn’t so hot there. It’s just as well as it used to be in Lawrence in Kansas City, downtown – they just need to find out. So many awesome venues. We’ve talked to a couple bands we’ve been on the road with and they say “Oh, Kansas City, they have so many great sounding rooms.” There’s a lot of people who would go see the shows – part of the problem with people not going is there aren’t consistently a lot of shows to check out. I mean, if there’s not a good show for two or three months why bother checking the weekly magazine.

Kenn: There’s usually always a local show that’s kick ass. [all agree]

Keath: One thing I liked about the album is the cinematic feel of it. Do you guys have any interest in scoring for films?

[The whole band cheers]

Kenn: Oh yeah, we ALL write our own songs in that recurring element [laughs].

Keath: Any favorite composers?

Justin: Philip Glass.

Marc: Danny Elfman.

Keath: Oh yeah, I love all Danny Elfman’s stuff. Especially Oingo Boingo.

Justin: I love the Boingo album.

Adam: I like Bartok a lot, Beethoven, Mauhler

Keath: I often wonder if Beethoven could come back what he would think of rock.

Adam: He’s probably be way into it – he was the rock n’ roll of the Romantic era. He started the whole Romantic classical period. He was a lot more raw and emotion based, whereas Mozart was more math based.

Justin: It sounds cheesy but I think he’d be into metal.

Kenn: I think he’d be cool too – he’d like Dream Theater but not tell anyone [all laugh].

Adam: I think Mozart might like metal because he was much more mathematic, even though his songs are happier than Beethoven, who had a much darker side.

Justin: I think they’d be disappointed to, given the lack thereof in a lot of bands doing rock and trying to write so intensely.

Keath: You guys have the reputation for being real disciplined, is the world of Republic Tigers all practice, practice, practice?

Adam: Depends – when we have time off we really have time off. For instance, after this tour I know we’ll take a week off. Then we’ll probably wind up taking a second week off even though we shouldn’t [all laugh]. Then we’re going to get back together and practice and be like “Holy shit – we’ve got to play these songs again!” because we’ll get way out of it and forget how to play them halfway.

Justin: The practice is a necessity for sure but I think the regimented part of us is directly towards the writing. We’re very intense about it – there’s not one part of it that doesn’t get doublechecked. I hear bands all the time that I’m like “oh, they didn’t check that part because it’s not in the same key.” We’re the opposite of that – it’s down to the smallest detail.

Kenn: Yeah, we’re not a jam band.

Adam: It kinda sucks for live because honestly it’s brave when bands break out and are “yeah, we’re freeballin’ it now!”

Keath: But you have much more complexity to your songwriting than those bands do. They can break out because there’s not much going on.

Justin: I tell you what, the closest we come to doing that is when we’re screwing around at practice and it ends up fake Christian rock or metal [all laugh].

Ryan: It’s all messing around but it’s fun. We should do a metal album!

Kenn: A metal album with Bowie type vocals! Black metal!

Keath: You could put it as an Easter Egg on your website: Find The Metal Songs!

Kenn: Hey – I kinda like that idea!

The David Letterman appearance referred to above: