The beautiful sound fetish – TESA

Photo: Vladislavs Punculs.

 ‘’A person wants to play music all the time. You just have to find the right people to play with. And if it’s going to work out fine you will understand immediately. You just have to start playing.’’ 

TESA are three guys who play loud, heavy and contrasting instrumental music. The vocals that they use actually work more as an instrument rather than a story teller. TESA was founded in late 2005 by the bassist Kārlis Tone and two brothers Jānis Burmeistars – drums and Dāvis Burmeistars – guitar. Before TESA they all were playing in other well known underground bands. Kārlis played bass in the Saldus hardcore/ punk band Kriegopfer. Jānis played drums in the band When My Authorities Fall. Both brothers Jānis and Dāvis also played in the legendary Latvian hardcore band In.Stora. And Davis also played in the band Les Corte together with Kārlis.

At the time when underground music clubs weren’t found in each big city, gigs were held in rather unsuitable locations like the Riga School of Crafts or the restaurant ‘’Ciecere’’ in the city of Saldus. Nowdays TESA choose unusual of locations like these to play with different people for their gigs, too. TESA have a massive concert experience. It would be too long to name all the places they have played not only in Latvia, but in many other countries too. The most emotional experience for TESA was when they opened for Neurosis in Latvia and later in Germany. One of the greatest gigs I recall was the presentation of their album ‘’IV’’ which was held in the fall of 2012 at the ‘’Totaldobže’’ concert hall in the former VEF territory. TESA has a very big fanbase. It doesn’t matter how big the gig’s place is, every concert is well crowded. 

This Autumn TESA  will release their newest 5th full length record ‘’Ghost’’ by the local company ‘’SKYR’’. For the interview we meet early this year at the bands rehearsal space in the old industrial club ‘’Elektra’’. The room is massive, but the band has occupied only 1/3 of the place. We sit down in the middle of the room. When Kārlis, Dāvis and Jānis speak to me, they compliment each other so naturally that all I have to do is just sit there and listen to TESA’s monologue:

Photo: Vladislavs Punculs.

In TESA everybody creates everything.

The sound of the new album is loud, rough and dirty. Many people think that if your band’s sound is dirty you can’t play. But it’s quite the opposite. To create a dirty, rough sound it takes some skills. For example, Nirvana – nothing special, right? They had to rehearse three times a week to get their sound. We play post rock. That style of music is pretty ‘’in frames’’ you know. So we are trying now to break out of it.

We don’t have to prove anything to anyone. We are pretty self critical when it comes to the music creating process. It is crazy wanting to change your parts when all the music is recorded. If some little mistake is done while recording, and the musician is the the only one to notice it, it doesn’t change the quality of the whole record. The record is perceived as whole piece – nobody is listening to a specific second of the bass part. Self-criticism is everyone’s self responsibility. If you are a member of the band then respect your other colleagues and be as good in your playing as you can, so that no one has to wait for you.

No one in the band comes to the rehearsal place with ready material like – here is my song, let’s play it. That’s why we don’t have any problems with new material when someone loves it and someone just plays it without any emotions. Enough criticism occures when writing music, so we all talk it over. In TESA everybody creates everything. One musical motive can be created by different people, but every time the sound will be different. That is why it is important for the band to create their music together. This is how all ideas are filtered and become even greater. These ideas sound best for the specific band.

Through the years we have definitely become louder. The loudness is very important for our music. Of course, not as high level as the band Sunn O ))). In our concerts the power and loudness of the sound affect people physically. We are more comfortable playing loud, not quiet. But you have to know how to play loud. When you get new equipment and the sound gets more power at first you think it’s fantastic, but you learn to control it later. Roger Waters in the Pink Floyd movie ‘’Pompeii’’ mentions a golden rule in music. ‘’Everything depends on either you control your gear, or the gear controls you.’’

Communication is what reflects TESA’s song writing process. Someone may think that we play with our backs to the crowd intentionally. Actually there are some parts in our songs that we need to see and follow drummer Jānis. Are we a live band? Yes, we do like live shows! There are enough bands who wouldn’t agree to play three shows a month being afraid that the crowd would get bored of their music. We usually look at the location factor and why we play there. The people factor doesn’t affect us much.

The manifesto of brutality

TESA will always be the three of us, but it is interesting to jam with other people too. For example, a very interesting collaboration was with the local noise musicians Antireality and Edgars Rubenis. Another great project is the ‘’Bigband’’ which was formed in Kuldiga underground club ‘’Zabadaks’’. We had this dream for a while, to gather several drums, basses and many guitars together. That’s why we collabarated with Soundarcade to mutate both bands songs together. But to do a rehearsal for ten people is very hard nowadays. You know how hard it was for the three of us to come together. That’s why with the ‘’Bigband’’ when we have a gig on thursday it would be good to do a rehearsal on wednesday. Those who can make it to the rehearsal come together and jam. Those who can’t make, will be told about. If there is no rehearsal previosly held with ‘’Bigband’’, playing is very interesting. Because we all know only the guidelines. However it is rather a thin margin between that everything comes out fine and that you don’t know how the whole harmony will evolve. And actually two drums without any reahearsal sound pretty lame.

Photo: Vladislavs Punculs.

A friend invited us to open for Neurosis in Germany. He had been on tour with them. When we opened for them in Riga the gig was less stressful, because we knew more or less the Riga crowd. In most cases you have to say that your friend will never be an objective listener. You can play the gig well or badly, but you won’t get a direct rating. But in Germany we had to open up for one of our favorite bands, and the crowd was people who we saw for the first time. In such situations outside your unsual environment you know how good or bad as a musician you actually are. If you do a bad gig, people will go to the bar for a beer. But in our case the gig was great. Everything worked out just as we had planned. That was unforgettable – to do a gig with a band you had listened to in the same day, and even more – with a band that you’ve been listening to all the time for the past two, three years!

If we had the chance we would tour more. That is one of the best things being in a band. Physically tours are pretty tiring, but it is worth all the effort when you are on a tour and the only thing that exists is the next gig. It is a fascinating moment when you do a gig in Lithuania but rather driving back home you head to the next stop on your tour. And then we get to Poland, and you can always drive to Russia, too.

(Translation by Lauris Polis.)