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Interview by: Wes Leslie
Photo by: Demian Becerra
I found the answer to this one when I caught Tempo No Tempo killing it at the Depot at SF State right before they took off for South By Southwest. The three piece, typically a guitar/bass/drum combo, has been featuring singer-guitarist Tyler McCauley on keyboard since an unfortunate bicycle accident put his left arm out of commission and into a cast.
The band’s cracking African-influenced rhythms and tight bass lines work surprisingly well with the dirty guitars and reverb-drenched vocals. They take off today for a West Coast tour—check out the dates after the interview.
Being the cruel journalist I am (it’s hard for McCauley to type, you see), I emailed him to learn more about his injury and the band’s decision to keep playing shows.
Wes Leslie: How’d the big injury occur?
Tyler McCauley: I fell on my bike on Market Street. It’s as if Muni decided to make their tracks perfectly bike tire-sized, because they snagged my front wheel and I took the fall on my thumb. I keep hearing from my friends that it’s an SF rite of passage…
WL: I’m assuming those SXSW dates were already lined up—what was the back-up plan once the fractured thumb thing happened?
TM: After a few days of being super depressed about canceling shows, I decided that for my own sanity, we’d have to figure out a way to tour through the injury. We sat down and figured out what we could do, either with a new guitar player, keys, or other solutions, and we worked out a way to still to do it as a trio.
WL: How was it to re-learn your songs on keyboard?
TM: I’ve had some keyboard experience from when I played in Social Studies, another rad SF band, so I had a MicroKorg sitting around, which helped. But really, this tour is the payoff for getting a degree in music when I was at Berkeley — I really couldn’t have done it unless I had experience knowing notes and translating it to piano. So, I have a pile of Berkeley grad students to thank for this tour.
WL: Has this altered stage setup seemed to affect the crowd response, and how have the crowds been?
TM: In a complete surprise to me, people seem really into the keyboard set! My bandmates, Alex and Jason, also really like the sound of it. Maybe we sound more “chillwave” now? The crowds in Austin were rad, too — this is the first year we’ve had proper shows in the downtown madness of SXSW, and people were really cool about talking to us after the set. Honestly, the cast is more of a conversation piece than I really expected. I should probably break my hand for next year’s festival so I can meet a bunch of people again.
I will say that I do really hate not being able to jump around onstage with my instrument. Totally sucks. I know what you’re thinking: keytar [actually, I totally wasn't—Ed.]. But then I’d be straining my fractured thumb, and we’re back to square one. So I get to do the keyboard bob onstage, hunched over my MicroKorg.
WL: What’s next for the band? Aside from getting your hand back, that is.
TM: After this tour, we’re going to take some time to finish up our bank of 5-10 song bits that have been sitting around since October, and then we hit the road again with NY band Dinowalrus, which we’re really excited about! Hopefully, if all goes well, I’ll be back to full hand health and playing guitar again. Or who knows? Maybe this keyboard thing will stick. We’ll see.
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