Tilly and The Wall's Jamie Pressnall: The New Gay Interview

Stay warm, Tilly and The Wall. Numb feet know no rhythm. (photo from MySpace.)

Tilly and The Wall play The Black Cat on Saturday, July 26. Doors open at 9. $13.

I refuse to believe that Tilly and The Wall are as cheery as they seem. A band from Omaha with a tap dancer instead of a drummer and choruses of "Let us be free" must surely have a dark side. Did they have group sex with a muppet? Snort lucky charms off an old copy of "Free to Be You and Me?" Alas, if such scandals exist I was unable to find them.

I was assured of this minutes into my interview with said tap dancer, Jamie Pressnall. I called while she was packing up the tour van, and she excused herself to ask another band member where her apple and her water bottle was. (I eventually overheard that these items were next to Pressnall's fanny pack, and that she would get her pillow later.) But it is refreshing to find a live-action version of "Hurray for Everything," a band utterly unapologetic about its own happiness.

The truly daring can take a shot every time Jamie says the word "support."

The New Gay Zack: Let’s just get this out of the way: Instead of a drummer, your bands percussion comes from you tap dancing. Why don’t you have a more traditional instrument, like a drum?

Jamie Pressnall: I had tap danced in earlier bands, like one called Park Avenue. I used to play guitar and sing, and I would just tap on a couple songs with drums for fun. With Tilly we didn’t have a drummer in the beginning, so I said I’ll tap to keep a beat and that was it. We didn’t look for a drummer for four or five years after.


TNG: Are there advantages to tapping over drumming?

JP: It’s a totally different sound than drumming. With the new record we combine tap with drums, they can play off each other. They can do their own thing, they both have such a different life, but its fun now because we can go back and forth. We have a lot of options open to us.

TNG: Besides the drummer, has your sound changed in your new album O?

JP: As songwriters we’ve matured, for we’ve been working together as songwriters for a while. We know each other more. We always write what we’re feeling at the time, that's the energy. We’re always up for trying something new. As a band we try and support each other. If someone has something new that they want to bring to the table we support each other and try to make it our own.

TNG: That supportive energy definitely makes it into your songs. Is it hard being being sincere songwriters in a generally ironic genre?

JP: We get that label a lot because write pop songs, but I feel like the lyrics have a darker side. We do have other things happening. There’s a lot of emotions happening at once and I think people take different things from it. We try to write music we love and don’t worry about labels we’re given.

TNG: You’re on Conor Obersts’ label, Saddle Creek. Has that influenced your sound at all?

JP: We’re on Team Love, a sister label to Saddle Creek, but we’re recently now going on different distributor because Saddle Creek is no longer distributing. But the musicians on it have all been so supportive. We live in such a community of talented people, a lot of us have different styles of writing, but we all help each other. They give us great ideas. We live in a really great, supportive community.

TNG: Are there any aspects of you bands experience that aren’t sunny? Are there any evil backstories to the Tilly and The Wall experience?

JP: We have our ups and downs. We put our friendships before the band. I’m married to the guitar player and we put marriage before the band, thats more important to us. All friendships have ups and owns, and when that happens we try to put in perspective. Our friendship is more important than the band, we work it out.

TNG: Has your marriage changed the band dynamic?

JP: We’ve been dating whole time we’ve been a band. What would’ve changed it is if we broke up, but that didn’t happen so it’s pretty much been the same dynamic. I feel like it would only change if we weren’t together anymore. It’s been this way from the get-go.

TNG: Where are you all living these days?

JP: We all live in Omaha, except our keyboarder Nick who lives in L.A. We all have things we do outside the band when we’re home outside the band. It’s good to go home and have other things going on.

TNG: Is there any kind of independent music scene in Omaha?

JP: Yeah, there’s a pretty big scene. Saddle Creek is there’s a lot of up and and coming bands. And there’s other bands as well in the music community. Also in the Kansas City area, there’s a lot of great music coming out of there.

TNG: Were is the band headed musically after "O?"

JP: We don’t really know, we don’t try to head in a specific direction. We’re just going to keep doing what we love and as long as we love it we’ll keep doing it.TNG