TINY SHIPS started as a distance project between Kellene, Kenny and Mike. Over the course of the last few years they sent files back and forth until they had enough for an EP to record at TIMBER STUDIOS where they lived for 7 days and fine-tuned each of the tracks. The results reveal a polished album with attention to detail and emphasis on vocals/songwriting. You'll hear hints of MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA, BRAND NEW and MEWITHOUTYOU while you listen, but they sound like their own. Don't take my word for it though, watch their new video HERE. Kelly was kind enough to answer some questions for the page.
First off, thanks for doing this. I’m always excited about new projects you’re doing and TINY SHIPS is no different.
You and Mike are an unstoppable songwriting duo in TINY SHIPS and past bands. When did you realize you had this chemistry and has your process changed since past bands?
Thanks so much for always genuinely being interested in what your friends are doing and being so supportive all the time!
Interestingly enough with TinyShips Kenny Collette had all of the songs written as acoustic songs and he wanted to make them into full band songs. We wrote this whole record virtually, but it just clicked. I’ve never written drums to acoustic songs while trying to envision what they would sound like as a full band before. That was a crazy challenge and the drums sounded so freaking stupid against the acoustic tracks until Mike came in and laid his parts down haha. What made it easier for me was following Kennys vocal patterns and being so in tune with Mike that I knew the direction he was going to go in, so I was able to write to that even though it wasn’t there yet. Mike and I have known each other since we were 16/17 years old but weren’t in a band together until Comb The Desert. At that time we’d known how the other one plays for a while and when a drummer and bassist click it just works. It’s always just easy for us which is awesome! I wouldn’t say our process has changed, it just adapts to the situation we’re in. We do a lot of writing and re-writing as each others parts evolve until we’re both happy with it.
How did you start working with Kenny and how does him living in Florida fit into the process?
Kenny and Mike have been best friends forever and were in a previous band called Kenya together. They actually wrote the song “Tiny Ships” 10 years ago while they lived together haha. While me and Mike were between projects him and Kenny started a hardcore project called Deadrngr and asked me to rip on drums. That lasted about 2.5 songs and Kenny started talking about wanting to make some of his acoustic songs full band and when he sent them to Mike and I we were all in! A much different direction than either of us were currently in. Him living in Florida definitely has its challenges, but it also pushed us harder to work on the songs and actually get them to where they are now. Sometimes I feel like relying on live band practice once a week makes bands lazy and they don’t work as hard. When you have people waiting on your parts it makes you work harder and forces you to get more creative. I wanted to hold my own weight in the band and impress the guys as well so I put in more time than I ever have before. At least that’s how I felt, I can’t speak for them haha. So even though it sucks that we can’t hang with him everyday or jam live with him I think it’s a blessing that it forced us to really concentrate and fine tune this songs on this record.
I remember DEADRNGR and that lockdown period. The beginning of that seemed super inspirational for a lot of people. I think many learned to home record. It's so efficient to convey ideas by sending files back and forth. Building playlists after songs are recorded makes it so easy to practice too, that doesn't mean I don't enjoy getting in a room with people and writing. We are lucky. I totally agree with you stepping up and trying to impress. It definitely shows! You have a distinct drum style.
I love hearing how people end up playing together and the path they took to "find" each other. NJ is kind of incestuous in that way isn't it? Are there any NJ musicians big or small that you would like the opportunity to collaborate with who you haven't or maybe someone you've worked with but you want to do something else with that is totally different?
Yea haha, NJ is crazy but I love it. What an amazing scene we were lucky enough to have growing up! I'm always open to working with anyone so I can't really name anyone in particular that I would reach out too. Honestly most "bigger" musicians I've ended up meeting turned out to suck in person so I don't necessarily want to look to work with them haha. I don't normally go out and seek people, it's always just happened organically. That's not to say I haven't tried to start a million bands that fizzled out haha.
You're one of the 1st people I've seen play drums live during a very formative time. I may not be playing music totay had I not seen STILLWELLE when I did. Did you think you'd be playing music so many years later? What keeps you involved and motivated to keep moving on and have your feelings towards it changed through the years or are they the same?
That's such an honor to hear man, I really appreciate that :). I'm so glad you pursued music because you're so talented and literally every band you're currently in or have ever been in RIPS! When I was younger, I thought this was going to be my career like so many of us thought for sure so back then I always thought I'd play forever. After some reality checks and wake up calls and failed attempts I became a little jaded and kinda stopped playing for a few years. I lost a lot of my abilities in that time and it was super discouraging. After a long break my hardcore punk band Comb The Desert started and I fell in love with music all over again, but I would say for the right reasons this time. I had no intention behind it at all and it felt great! Then covid hit and everything fell apart again. About 6 months into Covid I grabbed an electronic kit and started the LONG tedious process of learning how to record drums and get them sorta decent sounding haha. CTD started writing another EP and about 4 songs in it kinda fizzled out and I was back at the drawing board AGAIN. Ugh, a few months later is when Kenny was reintroduced to me and DeadRNGR started. When we moved to the TinyShips stuff I had a feeling I haven't had since Stillwelle. I was back to my roots and truly writing for MYSELF, no intentions, no expectations except wanting to be a part of the best record in my career to date. I really wholeheartedly for the first time in my life don't give a FUCK what anyone thinks of this record. I'm so proud of it and how it pulled me way out of my comfort zone in drumming. The parts themselves are not hard to play at all, but the overall style of the record was challenging for me to write too and I loved it! Not so much the single you're hearing now, but the other songs you'll see what I mean. My wife keeps me involved and motivated, she's always been so supportive and pushed me to play and never stop because it makes me so happy. As you read above my feelings definitely changed. I went from writing for other people to writing for myself and it made a world of difference!
You're one of the few people I know who have been signed and played warped tour. Any stories? What was it like being signed to Fearless (was it fearless?) at the time? What did you learn?
We were signed to Hopeless records :). Yes, there are MANY tour stories! We were on Warped the year Fat Mike and Underoath were battling it out. It was amusing to say the least. Fat Mike would unplug their shit in the middle of their set and just totally shit on them on stage. I felt a little bad, but it was also funny haha. I was able to watch some of my favorite bands every night so that was the best part! This was the closest I'd ever felt to "making it". We were playing sold out tours (separate from warped) across the country back to back to back. I was so happy and thought that feeling would be irreplaceable so I soaked up every second! I joined a band that was already signed, Royden, so I had to adapt to their contract. I definitely learned how the industry worked on a deeper business level and we as a band were NOT in a business mindset and that was inevitably the downfall of the band. Before this I only knew the fun/writing part of music and had no clue about the business side. I ended up leaving after about a year and this is when I stopped playing music for a very long time. I felt defeated and I consistently was judging myself and my worth on the "good old days" and wanting that feeling again. I started to compare everything in my life to not making it big enough. This was very difficult for me and something most people don't even know about me. I've never really told people about it. This was a huge mental struggle and kept me from playing until Comb The Desert pretty much. I did have a few blips of playing here and there but nothing significant. A lesson I learned now is that I will never spend so much time trying to recreate the past and instead will always focus on creating a new feeling for the future.
Interesting you'd say that about the business side of things. I always saw you as super business savvy and successful in all your endeavors. Do you think, subconsciously, you picked up things from your small stint(g) in the music industry or is it the other way around: you apply your business from your career and entrepreneurship to your bands?
I became business savvy after all of that hahaha. I had no clue what I was doing before I started my first business. I'm sure I picked up things I didn't even realize from those interactions for sure, but now moving forward I'm very experienced and prepared in the event I need to negotiate a contract for my band. We each have our specific roles other than the creative parts of the band which is great! You need that in order to be successful. I'm definitely the negotiator/business person for the band, Mike Bell heads our Press and Bookings and Kenny heads our socials and PR so it works out perfectly.
Anything else you'd like to share or leave the readers with? Any further plans for TINY SHIPS?
No comments:
Post a Comment