Tereu Tereu's Ryan Little: The New Gay Interview

Brought to you by your friendly, neighborhood music editor, Rocky...

Props to Ryan Little (far left) and Tereu Tereu.

Tonight, Fredericksburg, Virginia's own Tereu Tereu will be tearing up the stage in Arlington at the Iota Club and Cafe. What started a few years ago as a collaboration between former University of Mary Washington classmates Ryan Little (vocals) and Ross Marshall (drums) has since grown to include longtime friends Adam Bray (bass), and Matt Bradshaw (trumpet/keyboards). Since then, they've released an EP with The Light Footwork called Split, and have toured all up and down the East coast with D.C. favorites like Georgie James, Ra Ra Riot and Jukebox The Ghost. Of course, I'm sure you'd probably like to know what they sound like. Well, that's a bit tougher. First, mix the D.C. Dischord/hardcore/punk scene, with The Specials, and Jack Kerouac, then drop in a dash of Beyonce. It sounds like it could make for a strange concoction, but, in fact, what you get is ebullient, intelligent rock that totally makes you want to shake your ass.

Queer frontman, Ryan Little, was kind enough to chat with me last weekend about their upcoming album, All That Keeps Us Together, life on the road, and being the only gay in the village. Check out our conversation and, of course, the mixtape below the fold...

Tereu Tereu plays tonight @ Iota Club and Cafe. 8:30 PM. Free! Free! Free!



The New Gay Rocky: OK, I don’t mean to sound like an asshole right of the bat, but for everyone out there, what is the official pronunciation of your band’s name?

Ryan Little: Well, I say “Tar-oo Tar-oo,” but I mean as long as people are saying it, I’m happy.

TNG: It’s an unusual name. Where did it come from?

RL: I was an English major in college and I studied some T.S. Eliot, and so I was reading The Wasteland and stumbled on that phrase and it really just stuck out for me, the way that it sounded. So I ran it by Ross, who also liked it, and we both appreciated the fact that it had some history to it, so we stuck with it as a name.

TNG: A lot of people have described your music as catchy, bouncy indie pop. How would you describe it?

RL: That’s always a tough question, but I think it’s pretty upbeat. We’ve all listened to a lot of D.C. music, so there’s definitely that influence. But we’re all big fans of pop music in general, so we try to keep it catchy.

TNG: Yeah, I noticed on your MySpace that you listed Beyonce as an influence.

RL: Did we? [Laughs] We listen to all sorts of things, but I mean I like pop music. I like occasionally what’s on the radio. Not often, but occasionally. And I listen to all kinds of out-there stuff. I ended up really falling love with the new Animal Collective album.

TNG: Oh god! That album’s awesome! Now do you have any sort of specific songwriting process or a routine?

RL: I generally write the songs and then bring them to the band and then we work through them. I’ll write the lyrics and the general structure of the song and then when we take it to the rest of the guys, then Ross will suggest changing a time signature here or… I don’t know, but that‘s where it gets really interesting. I’ll write the core of it and the rest of the band helps make it a little crazier.

TNG: You guys just played a show at James Madison University, yes?

RL: Yeah, we played a small festival at JMU yesterday called Cool-Aid. Hot Lava was there and some other bands. It was fun. It was kind of strange. JMU apparently owns a former high school and we played in the auditorium of that. So that was a little bizarre...

TNG: Yeah, I think I’ve been there before for MACRoCk last year. It was definitely strange. There are a lot of people who didn’t grow up around this area, or in Virginia, who, unfortunately, don’t know about this big art and music scene around Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Richmond, and Fredericksburg. Do you guys consider yourself part of that?

RL: I guess we consider ourselves as having kind of a dual citizenship. Most of our musical peers are in D.C. and we play there quite often. We recorded our albums in D.C. But we also have a lot of friends in Fredericksburg, and we play here quite regularly as well.

TNG: And now I guess we’ll get to some gay questions.

RL: I am the gay…

TNG: So what is it like to be the only one in the band?

RL: Oh, it’s never really been an issue. Everyone in our band is pretty progressive.

TNG: Would you say that you have a queer following?

RL: Not that I’m aware of, but I wouldn’t mind having one!

TNG: Yeah, me too! Have you ever felt any pressure to play it a bit gayer or straighter to gain attention or a larger following?

RL: I don’t think any of my songs would make anyone explicitly realize “Oh, he must be a queer songwriter!” That’s never really been something that I’ve intentionally avoided, but a product of the music I’ve listened to and the songs I’m familiar with. But I wouldn’t be opposed to writing a queer song; it just hasn’t happened yet. So I haven’t really experienced any backlash, because there hasn’t been much to lash against.

TNG: Are you guys touring right now?

RL: We went on tour in January, but we’re just playing a couple of shows this month. I don’t know if I’d call it a tour, but we played JMU yesterday and we’ll be playing D.C. on Tuesday and Fredericksburg on Thursday.

TNG: Where did you go in January?

RL: It was just an East coast trip. It was a lot of fun. Started up in Delaware, and went all the way down to Charlotte and then stopped in Lexington and Indiana.

TNG: Do have a favorite part of going on tour? Or a favorite memory from this last one?

RL: Well, Charlotte was a blast. We drank a little too much, but it was a lot of fun. Lexington was actually one of our smaller shows, but we played this place called Al’s Bar and that was actually recommended to me by Jesse from These United States. It’s just a really great place. They have this small-batch Kentucky whiskey and the jukebox has both George Jones and Sharon Jones on it. And they gave us free nachos. You can’t really complain about free nachos.

TNG: That sounds cool, but what do you miss most about home when you’re out on the road?

RL: I can’t say that we’re gone so terribly long that we have much to miss. It all kind of goes pretty quickly. It’s nice to sleep in your own bed, but also nice to see other places.

TNG: So when does the new album come out?

RL: In April. It might get pushed back to May depending on a few things. We’re getting the details worked out of pressing it on vinyl. We’ll probably have some sort of D.C. release show. But I think April… or May. [Laughs]

TNG: How do you think this album differs from some of your earlier work?

RL: We have an EP out of what we did before. That was fun, but this is a lot more of kind of what I think I wanted the band to sound like. It’s a real raucous rock record. I think there are a lot of hooks, but we tried to stretch them in places. And working with Devin was really fantastic. He produced the record and he was really great to work with from start to finish.

TNG: Devin…?

RL: Devin Ocampo. He played in the band Faraquet and he plays in a band called Medications. And sometimes he plays drums in Beauty Pill. So he’s kind of been in DC for a while, and in a lot of Dischord bands. He recorded and mixed and mastered the record, and really helped us get the best performances we could on it, and then take it to the next level in the mixing process.

TNG: That’s awesome. So you guys are playing at Iota this Tuesday?

RL: Yes! We're playing at Iota this Tuesday and it’s actually a free show, so it’s recession-friendly!

TNG: Well, we’ll definitely get the word out. Thank you so much for talking with me.

RL: Oh, definitely. I really appreciate the interview. Take care!

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