The lost decade of the roaring 1920s is brought to a new life thanks to the Brooklyn-based duo, Tiny Victories. Premiering their single “Scott & Zelda”, Greg Walters and Cason Kelly deliver an epic ballad ode to the Fitzgeralds off their upcoming album Haunts for The Sleepover Party. Following up their 2012 EP, Those Of Us Still Alive, Tiny Victories gets a production boost from Alex Aldi to create a pop sound that is Gatsby-esque in it's own lavish accord.
Like the opulent, excessive, and tragic lives of the author, spouse and subjects; the mix bursts with confidence beleaguered by the doubt of, “I just don't know myself any more.” Greg, Cason and Alex have molded a slick program of intertwining synths and percussion loops while raising a toast to the art of feeling alright while losing yourself. “You was Zelda, I was Scott and I all we ever did was drink champagne and fight, you said that's how it goes, yeah it's alright, that we just waste the best years of our lives. I said, well I don't know, yeah, maybe you're right, but if the good years are bad, the bad years are out of sight.” In the elaborate electronic make-up of “Scott & Zelda”, epic blow-outs and dissolution are placed and served on a dance pop pedestal. By taking on these doomed iconic roles, Tiny Victories mix ill-fated literary luminaries of woe with a celebrated spirit of optimism.
Tiny Victories' vocalist Greg Walters took the time to talk to us about drawing inspiration from F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda's misadventures, recording Haunts, and more. Stream “Scott & Zelda” below, and read on for our interview with Greg.
“Scott & Zelda” is a big amphitheater banger, was it inspired by old video game buds, or this kind of anthem pop take on the passing of time?
Well, it’s not about the game… I was reading a biography of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, while we were working on the record. The two of them would get crazy drunk and have these insane fights and drive home wasted and fall asleep on their front lawn. In the end they destroyed themselves, even though they started out so well. I’m kind of obsessed with the Lost Generation writers. They thought they could build a better world for themselves through art, but they burned it down. Scott and Zelda are the poster kids for that. Scott got famous and rich in his early 20’s when his first novel came out. The two of them were young and beautiful and successful, and then she went crazy and died in a fire in an insane asylum, and he drank himself to death. I guess perhaps you could say the song is about whether you can escape fate.
But yeah, the fact that the song has the word 'Zelda' in the title will probably make a lot of people think, “Is that guy singing about the Triforce?'
I mean, Ganon was a bad dude…
How did the two of you first start Tiny Victories?
My younger brother Doug was our connection, and when I moved back to America from Russia he introduced us. We’d both been working hard on other things and we both wanted to play more music. I had been a journalist in Moscow after college and Cason was doing social work with inner city kids in New York. We struck up a conversation about music, and that eventually led to the band.
How did the two of you creatively work with Alex Aldi on Haunts?
Alex is an amazing producer and mixing engineer. He’s a real pro. He was at the top of our list of guys to work with. We brought demos that we had been working on into the studio, and then we sat around and listened and talked about them. Then we’d break them apart and reinvent the songs. Alex has worked pretty closely with Passion Pit, and Michael Angelakos stored a bunch of synths and guitar pedals in Alex’s studio. So we got to use those to help us get the richer sound we were after.
What do you all feel that the tour circuits and festivals have impacted the song writing, once you get your self situated after so much geographical shifting?
Not everyone would agree with this, but I think live shows and studio albums are kind of different art forms. They resemble each other but they are basically separate. There are fewer limitations in the studio, so every band has to ask themselves whether they want to try to recreate their live show for an album, or use the extra tools that are available to build on that. We ended up doing a lot of overdubbing with Alex. We made a conscious decision never to say, 'Well, let’s not do such-and-such, because we could never pull that off live.' We would think of something, and then we’d just do it. Now we’re focused on the live show again, and we’ve added a couple touring members on bass guitar and keyboard, Zac Meyer and Austin Purnell, to help us pull off some of the things that we thought up in the studio. And they’ve brought their own input and energy, and it’s been great having them with us.
What's the summer post-release plan after Haunts drops after June 10?
We’re going to be doing a short, sweet tour on the east coast in early June, and we’ll be announcing dates for that soon. We’ll be playing more shows and making videos. After that, it’s Miller time. And then on to the next album I guess.
Haunts will be available June 10 from The Sleepover Party.
