The pointwhere an artist ends and the person begins isn’t always obvious. Prince onstage, for example, is the same Princeyou’d expect to get if you somehow managed to bump into him offstage. Rappers (unfairly) get flack for not being about what they rap about — for representing themselves differently as an artist than they are as a person. Butthis divide is almost always there. (As amazing as it would be to see Kanye wear all day everyday, his life is . But not much.)
For ’ Jesse Cohen, the gapis significant. On of their 2012 album “Mixed Emotions,” he and bandmate Eric Emm look timid and sour respectively, as if they’ve been trapped in a corner by someone who’s spoiling the endings to all of their favorite books and TV shows rapid fire. But one glance at the duo’s Twitter account, and resolves.
As it turns out, thisdeparture isn’t totally incidental. “Our whole thing is a balance between light and dark,” Cohen said in a recent phone interview. “Thatap why we’re called Tanlines. So having all these things like Twitter and humor around helps—it lets us get away with the darker stuff without turning people away.”
Their music—off-kilter, mid-tempo and playful—follows through with this theme. Single sounds airy thanks to a driving beat and a fanciful synth patch probably called something like “Moonbeams.” But thelyrics are ambiguous and lonely, hardly the sort of easy mantras your used to pairing with dance music. Emm sings trying to convince somebody that the “I” of the song has changed—maybe themselves: “You might think I’m still that way / itap only natural / it was a past-life thing.”
Druingour time on the phone, Cohen wasrarely as serious. His willingness to riff on near any subject made for an almost free-association conversation, which is probably owed in part to the podcast he’s hostedin the quiet since the band’s lastalbum. “The idea of the podcast is to let musicians show who they are and where they’re coming from,” Cohen says of the podcast, which he does mainly by relating to them as a professional musician himself. He’sinterviewed the likes of established artistslike Sleigh Bells’ Derek Miller and How To Dress Well’s Tom Krell as well as up-and-comers, like the newest episode featuring 22-year-old producer Jim-E Stack. “I joke that itap my solo album.”
The podcast features unused snippets from Tanlines song throughout, making it a good tide-over until the duo releases new material. But fans won’t have to live off scraps for much longer: they’re putting the finishing touches on their third album, which showgoerswill get a taste of at the band’s show . Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor helped produce the LP, but otherwise, Cohen kept details scarce. “With the theme of Tanlines, the darks are a little darker and the lights are a little lighter.”
“High Contrast”—that could be a good album title.
“It could also be a good Wiz Khalifa song,” Cohen said, not missing a beat. “Or maybe,‘Trees Company.’”
Catch Tanlines on Friday night at the Underground Music Showcase. You can buy tickets on the festival’s website .
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Dylan Owens is Reverb’s all-purpose news blogger and album reviewer. You can read more from him in Relix magazineand the comment sections ofWORLDSTARHIPHOP.
