In May, Lowell-based indie outfit Tysk Tysk Task graced the Orange Stage at Boston Calling for a riotous set showcasing their trademark woodland grunge vibe. Draped with vines and greenery, the stage provides a simple backdrop which only helped to show off the power of Samantha Hartsel’s vocals and the cohesion across the band. Following their set, we got to chat with the band about their new EP Helium Dreams, their Lowell roots, fostering a supportive community and how to properly handle salamanders. Hint: it’s all about the dirt!
Allston Pudding: So you guys performed today, how are you feeling now that the show is over?
Samantha Hartsel: It was amazing. It was a huge crowd. I don’t think we ever could’ve conceived of that. It was incredible. I’m so grateful.
AP: How was preparation for this? How did you get booked?
Kyle Griffin: There was some suffering, we had a lot of ideas. There are some group chats that will never be shared.
SH: We played The Rumble last year and the promoters from Boston Calling saw us and that’s how they reached out. They asked us more than seven months ago, which is an incredible time for a band to prepare a 30-minute set, so that’s where the suffering came from. It was a lot of time.
AP: Is that a good or a bad thing to have that much time to prepare?
KG: I thought it was pretty decent. [all laugh]
Matt Graber: Was it pretty decent Kyle?
KG: It gave us a lot of time. There was a lot of “okay this set is 31 minutes long, we really gotta shave a minute off,” and it helped us dial it in pretty nicely. Our drum tech told us we clocked in [today] at 29:30 so…
SH: No kidding? Wow. I mean beyond that, we wrote a new song in the last couple of weeks because we’ve been so inspired by this opportunity and yes, we had seven months to hem and haw but then the momentum is building and you’re thinking “what’s the best we can bring?” Our opening song we put at the end of the set which we never would’ve done a few months ago. We just wanna keep the energy up.
AP: So, it really gave you a bit to work around freaking out and to try new things before the show?
SH: Absolutely.
MG: We’ve played a lot of shows, we’ve done a lot of rehearsing, I think actually playing shows is the best thing for getting prepared. We got to drill the set a lot. We’ve played the songs live many, many times. They’ve slowly shaped into the way they are now.
KG: Just to tag on with the live shows you can go into a live show with an idea. Let me just try this and see how the audience reacts and see if they like it, if they cheer.
Rick Martel: That’s how the hat happened! People love the freakin’ cowboy hat.
AP: It’s kind of on trend, with Chappell Roan performing today.
SH: Totally, we love a cowboy moment.
KG: So yeah, it was nice to have that time to trial and error.
RM: It’s also nice because we play a lot of different types of venues like basements, bigger clubs…
AP: Do you have a preference between indoor and outdoor?
SH: I mean indoor is incredible. We’re from the basements of Lowell. We love grunge, we love grit and we love grime. That’s where our sound comes from.
AP: The glamorous basements of Lowell MA… (all laugh)
SH: Honestly they are glamorous! The scene is so immaculately supportive and we’ve built a fan base over the last five or six years of 17 to 18-year-olds who are now in their 20s. They remember us, they wanna come to the shows, they’ve seen our evolution. And we love to make shit and decorate, like we love to put vines all over the place and twinkling lights. We are woodland grunge.
KG: Our next show is a basement show too, we go from this big Boston Calling gig to a smaller show in Allston.
SH: We are a huge supporter of the underground DIY scene. We’ll never stop. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing shows like Boston Calling. We’re gonna go back to the basements because that’s really where the heart and soul of this band is.
KG: New England has a lot of really old basements, your breathing in a lot of je ne sais quoi… a really unidentifiable element that can really inform your playing and future songwriting along with the feedback from other bands playing and listeners too.
SH: We incorporate more feedback and shoegaze into our shit than we ever have. I think that’s because we’re just bouncing off of the vibes we get back in these dark rooms in Massachusetts.
KG: Well, in rooms like that it’ll turn into shoegaze no matter what you play because the rooms are so echoey you know you might as well just lean into it.
AP: What song is your favorite to perform?
WSH: We should say them all at once to see if we say the same thing… ready? 3…2…1… “Ocean now”!
KG: “Ocean now”!
MG: all of them!
RM: I don’t really have a favorite… but I like the dynamic changes in “Trazodone”. We just put out a new EP and currently that’s the only song that’s in our set. It feels like a new recording. It really changed when we played it, so I’m growing fungus around that one.
SH: Rick produced our EP and he mixed and mastered all of it
AP: Now you’re done performing for the weekend, what else are you guys excited for?
KG: Megan Thee Stallion! I’m stoked. I wanna shake my ass.
MG: Did you say shave?
SH: Did you say shit?!
AP: We’ll have to see what happens in that crowd. It’s pretty crazy out there today.
SH: I recently discovered blondshell from the BC lineup and I’m such a fan.
AP: Her voice!
SH: Gorgeous voice, lyricism, storytelling – just incredible. I can’t wait to see and hear her. I think we could maybe open for them someday so I just wanna see them and tell them I’m a big fan.
AP: You just released an EP, but what’s next for you guys?
SH: We’re working on our third album. We’re recording in two weeks at our studio in the woods called Treehaus. It’s an affordable rehearsal and recording space that we’ve made. There’s so many places getting shut down and there’s such a premium on sound, but we want to support the scene the way they’ve supported us.
KG: Rick is a truly incredible producer.
SH: Rick is the best thing that ever happened to this band
RM: I’m alright.
SH: The DIY aspect of what we do is incredibly fostered by the fact that we don’t have any timetables or deadlines. Being unsigned & being indie actually allows us to breathe and experiment. We will record something and not like it, but then a couple weeks later we will try it again because we have that luxury.
AP: If you could be a woodland creature, what would you choose?
SH: I wanna be the fungus that grows up the side of the tree, that’s really Ferngully dreamland.
MG: A skunk with manners.
KG: What counts as a woodland creature?
SH: Anything in your backyard.
AP: It could be a fairy too, I mean, you can get fantastical with this.
SH: No, we don’t have fairies where we are.
MG: Sorry!
RM: I would be a snake.
KG: I’ll be a fox, because my favorite Disney movie was The Fox and the Hound, that’s an incredible movie. It’s highly recommended. I would say it’s a 9 out of 10.
SH: At our last album release we had Bambi playing behind us the whole time. We really believe in the Woodland-core that is around us in New England.
AP: It’s not every day you walk by a festival set and see a stage adorned with vines and a singer in a beautiful flowy pink dress, just screaming into the microphone.
SH: Listen, the forest is whimsical, but it’s also terrifying as fuck! You get it.
KG: I’d also be a salamander. If you find one of those, don’t handle them with clean hands. They breathe through their skin so if you have soapy hands, they’ll take that in.
SH: Are you getting this down? This is really important.
For more information on Tysk Tysk Task, check out their website here and follow them on Facebook and Instagram for more!