A Dirty Dozen with RUSS TIPPINS from TANITH – May 2023
According to a recent press release: “New York City’s Tanith – Russ Tippins (guitars, vocals), Cindy Maynard (bass, vocals), and Keith Robinson (drums) – have released their new album Voyage, out April 21 via Metal Blade. The album was recorded and mastered on 24-track analog tape and has never been digitized from recording to pressing. Also, fans will recognize Tippins from NWOBHM legend Satan. There is perhaps no band keeping the spirit and sound of ’70s hard rock and heavy metal alive more so than Tanith. Formed in 2017, the band embraced that era wholeheartedly, resulting in 2019’s aptly titled In Another Time, which instantly earned cult status and put them on the map. Now, they return with Voyage, picking up where they left off and once again demonstrating their mastery when it comes to this niche. While their debut came together easily, this time around there were hurdles to overcome, first and foremost the COVID-19 lockdown, which geographically split up the band, Tippins living in the UK while vocalist/bassist Cindy Maynard and drummer Keith Robinson dwelt in Brooklyn. Once life finally returned to “normal” and they were ready to record, they were hit by another bombshell with guitarist Charlie Newton abruptly bowing out of the band the day before tracking began.” We get Russ to discuss new music, influences, and more.
1. Tell us a little about your latest release. What might a fan or listener not grab the first or second time they listen through? Are there any hidden nuggets you put in the material or that only diehard fans might find?
Actually yes! On the new Tanith single “Olympus By Dawn” there are a couple of phrases directly referencing “Citadel” from the first album. It was quite intentional, just a little conceptual continuity you know. No one seems to have picked up on that yet, or if they have, they’ve not mentioned it in public.
2. What got you into music and can you tell us about the moment you realized you wanted to be a musician?
As a boy I was force fed Zeppelin and Sabbath records by my two older brothers. It was involuntary on my part, but Zeppelin really got under my skin. One day my brother Brian bought an electric guitar with a small practice amp. After a few weeks of trying to learn he gave up and put it in a cupboard. When he was out, I would get it from the cupboard and mess around on it. I worked out a few moves from a chord booklet and was bragging to my classmates in school that I could play electric guitar. They were pretty impressed and one of them even came to my house to hear what I could do. It really wasn’t much but he said to me “Russ show me how to do that and we’ll form a band together.” That was Steve Ramsey and the band we formed while still in school was Satan.
3. Building on that, is there a specific song, album, performer, or live show that guided your musical taste?
Oh you bet! Although it was the love of Led Zeppelin that made me want to pick up the guitar, my eyes were opened by a Judas Priest concert at Newcastle City Hall. They had Iron Maiden opening for them and both bands were mind blowing, the sound of the two guitars playing in unison. I remember envisioning endless possibilities for a two-guitar heavy metal band. Steve was also at that show and the following day in a technical drawing class he drew out the symmetrical Satan logo and said, “this is going to be the name of our band, now show me how to play the guitar.”
4. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be, and why?
Gosh there are so many! But, thinking on it… Jon Anderson has such a singularly beautiful voice that it’s incomparable to anyone else. I would dearly love to work with that man, I get chills when he sings, and his prose is never less than poetic.
5. What is your favorite activity when out of the studio and/or not on tour? What do you like to do to unwind?
In all honesty, I’m never more relaxed than when I’m in creative mode. Whether in my own company or with someone else. I’m not talking about arrangement, it’s more like the formative stage, simple free association of ideas and making quick voice memos of the ones that resonate. That can happen anytime, anywhere, and if I don’t have a guitar to hand, I’ll just sing the riff into my device.
6. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?
It’s human nature to make comparisons. The need to, upon hearing a band for the first time, brush aside nuance and try to distill it down to something that will fit neatly into a drawer that already exists in your mental filing cabinet. I find myself doing it, even though I view that need as lazy and dismissive of other musicians’ efforts. For example, with Tanith someone summarized us as ‘Fleetwood Metal,’ which I admit made me chuckle. You can imagine the mental levers clicking into a place like “hey it’s a band with two singers, a guy and a girl, but they sound kind of British heavy rock… oh I’ve got it!” I suppose comments on YouTube are fair enough, but I do expect more from professional writers.
7. When your band is hanging out together, who cooks, who gets the drinks in, and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?
Me! I do all of the above and I drive the van and do all the housework too.
8. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?
In 2019 I got to see guitarist Wayne Krantz playing his own music at 55 Bar in the West Village. I’d previously heard him in session with Steely Dan. There is no way to summarize what he does. Nothing to grasp in my mind to compare it to. It was like an Alien had landed on planet Earth and started a band. It had such an impact on me, I tried to play along with his recordings, but it was impossible to get a handle on it. Yet the music held me captive. Sometimes you just have to bow your head in worship of true genius.
9. What is the best part of being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?
The best part of being a musician is that nobody bosses you around and you don’t have to get out of bed in the morning. If I couldn’t play guitar, I could totally see myself as a production line worker, screwing the caps onto tubes of toothpaste as they come by on a conveyor belt. I’ve heard there is a gap in that labor market. Obviously, I would have to acquire the skill sets in college, but I’d look at that as an investment in my future.
10. What is one question you have always wanted an interviewer to ask – and what is the answer? Conversely, what question are you tired of answering?
I suppose nobody ever asks about the music, technical stuff about modality and rhythm modulation. I spend an awful lot of time structuring my work to give it its own identity and never get the chance to talk about that stuff, except for one time in Japan when Steve and I were interviewed by a Tokyo Guitar magazine. Most people just want to know how the band formed and why did we choose that name – questions I was tired of in 1989 when the band finally broke up.
11. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep or you would like to have a “do over,” even if it didn’t change your current situation?
Interesting question and yes, looking back there was definitely a misstep in 1984. Court in the Act had been on the market for six months or so and it was clear to us it had been a huge failure both critically and commercially. The press ridiculed the music and in particular our name. The few writers that didn’t hate the music still hated the name. And the first sales statement seemed to back them up. We took it all to heart and changed everything – the name, the music, even our singer for Pete’s sake! We really should’ve said ‘f*ck you all’ and carried on in the same style.
12. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?
The first thing that comes to mind is Sabbath’s fifth album Sabotage in 1975 because of the track “Supertzar.” It’s one of my favourite pieces of music ever and it features a full male voice choir. I remember reading an interview with Ozzy where he talked about walking into the studio one day during the sessions and thought he must be in the wrong place cause all he could hear was ‘church music’ then he saw Tony conducting a ‘bloody choir’ and wondered WTF was going on haha. I would have loved to be present during that session in the middle of that wall of voices. To me it’s a spine-tingling masterpiece.
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Category: Interviews