Q&A with Tenement: “The pop punk genre is just such an inbred mess”

Wisconsin punk band Tenement have seemingly made it their mission to defy easy categorization. The band, consisting of songwriter / frontman Amos Pitsch, bassist Jesse Ponkamo, and drummer Eric Mayer, have been steadily releasing records since 2008, including their debut LP, 2011’s Napalm Dream, a glorious burst of hook-filled pop-punk, a genre the band generally feel little affinity with.

Tenement’s live shows are as throttling as the hardcore bands they often tour with, with the band throwing their all into sets that almost never surpass the 20-minute mark. That brevity is intentional; for Tenement, recording is the primary goal– the live show is simply a means to continue being able to release the constant stream of music they’ve become known for.

This past June, the band released Predatory Headlights (Don Giovanni), a startling double LP featuring a whopping 80 minutes of new music. For a band that have primarily released music on 7″s, trickling out a few minutes of new music at a time, Predatory Headlights was a welcome flood. The new record finds the band expanding from their melodic punk roots, embracing elements of classic rock, country, jazz, and noise, including “A Frightening Place for Normal People,” a 9-minute sonic journey that sounds unlike anything Tenement have released before.

We caught up with Amos and Eric to discuss the inspiration behind Predatory Headlights, the band’s early days in Wisconsin, and why you’ll never see them play for more than 20 minutes.

Predatory Headlights is available now via Don Giovanni records. For more info, visit facebook.com/tenement. 

BAD FEELING: Congratulations on the new record! What’s it been like seeing this album discussed in places like the New York Times?

AMOS: It was exciting that someone at The Times liked the record enough to write about it – someone who writes about Jazz music for a living no less – but I think it was more like a trophy or a feather in our cap more than anything. Will anyone that reads it actually care enough to buy a record or attend a show? Time will tell I guess. Media exposure like that doesn’t quite have the same power as it once had, I think.

ERIC: Every time someone would ask me if I saw Tenement was written about in the New York times, I would just simply ask “Is that a big deal?” I feel honored, but it’s had no long lasting impact on me.

BF: What’s the reaction to the album been like so far?

A: People haven’t exactly been lining up to write about it, but the folks that have written about it have seemed anywhere from elated to even overwhelmed. It took several years to make so it surely can’t be something that can just be skimmed over. It doesn’t go down like a greatest hits collection. It’s a really curvy, bumpy ride in that you’ve got to take it slow and really pay attention; not necessarily something that lends itself to music criticism.

E: I know a lot of my friends really like it. Other people on tour have told me the same. I have noticed that once in a while on tour people were singing alone to new songs.

BF: How much stock do you put in to reviews of your work?

A: I enjoy reading opinions on our work. Particularly the really good ones and the really bad ones. Any strong opinion tells me that it affected the listener on an emotional level and it fascinates me. However, reviews still mostly just hold the function of promotion and I take none of it personally.

BF: Was it always the plan to release this material as a double LP?

A: Yes. Joe Steinhardt from Don Giovanni Records proposed the idea of a double LP from the beginning and we of course went along with it.

BF: Is releasing a double LP a sort of statement of intent for the band? Most of your released material has been on 7″s, and now there’s 80 minutes of new music for people to digest.

A: I think it’s more of just the result of us always choosing to do whatever we’d like to do, regardless of current trends.

BF: You touch on so many different genres with this album; did you feel limited by the sound of the band’s earlier work?

A: I haven’t ever felt limited by our sound. The push in other genre-defying directions is really just a product of our growing knowledge of music and how to approach it. We probably couldn’t have written some of the material on this record five or six years ago.

BF: Did you approach this album with a concept in mind? Are the songs linked thematically?

A: There’s really no concept. I feel like there’s a lot of allusions to themes of light and dark in the music and in the artwork. There are some subtle politics and there are a lot of vague and ambiguous images drawn up that are designed to encourage the listener to create their own narrative.

BF: When you sing “We belong somewhere else,” on “Crop Circle Nation,” what are you looking to escape?

A: That line is referring to an idea of whether humans are native to this Earth – due to the dissonance of our relationship to it and our insistence as a society to destroy it and destroy each other.

BF: A lot of people are struck by “A Frightening Place for Normal People,” a 9-minute jazz track towards the end of “Predatory Headlights”; what’s the origin of that track?

A: I don’t consider it jazz – perhaps influenced by jazz though – and have been a little surprised by some folks dismissal of it as a “jazz odyssey” or an excessive afterthought. It was certainly influenced by everything from Sun Ra to Martin Denny to Harry Partch to traditional music of Bali. I wanted to create a mood piece that would link the two tracks on the record that were built on acoustic guitar and string arrangements. Side three was designed to flow together as a single act and “A Frightening Place For Normal People” is really the bridge that you must cross to get from one side of it to the other.

BF: Most bands now seem to release music to direct people to the live show, but Tenement seems to do the opposite – are the recordings more important to you than the live show?

A: Personally, the recordings have always been more important. I’m fascinated with the idea of creating a permanent historical document of our creativity as a band. Touring, for me, is more of a necessity in order to keep making records.

E: I think Amos likes the recording process more than Jesse and myself. He is the main songwriter and most of the time plays all the instruments on the recordings. I find that our live show is where I bring a creative aspect to the band.

BF: I don’t think I’ve ever seen you guys play more than 20 minutes live, even after releasing a double LP- why are you drawn to such short sets?

A: I’ve always been attracted to the idea of leaving an audience hanging and showing defiance to concert-goers that insist on showing up late.

E: Shit- even I don’t like watching a band (even if I really really like them) play for more than 20 minutes; better to leave them wanting more rather than less.

BF: What was your earliest exposure to music in Wisconsin? Was there any kind of scene to latch on to before you started booking your own shows?

A: My earliest exposure to music in Wisconsin was probably the Polka bands I would see at church picnics as a child. Once we were teenagers and discovered punk, we met the folks in Holy Shit! and The Modern Machines and they really showed us what DIY punk was all about. It was a really eye opening experience. They invited us to play in their basements in Milwaukee and turned us onto every aspect of punk DIY culture. We’re really thankful that we were lucky enough to have mentors like these – most people and bands aren’t.

E: When I was 15, I saw Modern Machines in a basement in Milwaukee. It was an eye opening experience. I knew right then and there that I wanted in, wanted to know everyone. Even though they all seemed a million years older than me. It wasn’t until a few years later that I found myself going down to Milwaukee constantly from where I grew up (in a small town called Hartford) to see bands like Holy Shit! They were a band that always grabbed my attention.

BF: I first heard of Tenement years ago via your association with the pop-punk scene, which I know is a moniker you hate – what is it about that term that you dislike?

A: Pop punk has become a genre that regurgitates itself and is perpetually bland and running on tired gimmicks. I was introduced to punk through bands that many would label pop punk – The Ramones, The Descendents, ALL, The Mr. T Experience, Groovie Ghoulies, etc… To me, these bands all had their own way of pushing the genre of punk and avoided the tag, at least in my mind, as “pop punk”. The pop punk genre is just such an inbred mess, man I don’t know…

E: I think Tenement is pop punk. It’s pop music and it’s punk music. But so much extra baggage comes alone with that title- we just want to distance ourselves from cookie cutter Ramones worship bands.

BF: You’ve often toured with hardcore bands- is having a diverse bill important for the band?

A: It’s not completely necessary, but I do like to collaborate with like-minded musicians, and the genre of hardcore punk often breeds a number bands that push the genre in new directions. Those are usually the bands we like to associate with. It’s also important to me to expose people to something that perhaps they wouldn’t typically see if it were their own choice. Force feeding the punkys!

E: I think we just want to tour with bands we like; bands that are on the same page. Having a diverse bill is good in the sense that all different types of music fans might come together and experience something they weren’t expecting. If you have four hardcore bands on a show, only people that like hardcore are gonna come…..duh, right?

BF: Do you have plans to keep releasing records with Don Giovanni? Do you feel a kinship with any of the bands on the label?

A: Right now there’re no plans for another record but it is open ended and we could possibly collaborate on another release. We’ve been good friends with many of the label’s bands for years – Screaming Females, Waxahatchee, Vacation, Shellshag, etc…

BF: What’s coming up next for the band?

E: The big time.

A: We’re working on a new LP for Deranged Records right now (who are also re-issuing The Blind Wink), Grave Mistake and Toxic Pop are releasing a “Bruised Music, Vol. 2” singles collection soon. Perhaps some international touring? Who knows what the future holds.

Predatory Headlights is out now via Don Giovanni Records. For upcoming tour dates, head to facebook.com/tenement.