Floridan Band "Tides of Man" Interview

I've known the Tides of Man guys for many years and have been incredibly proud of their progress and how far they've come. I always feel a sense of pride or admiration for bands who I see come "from the ground up," but when it's friends of mine or people I know, that feeling is always stronger. And I definitely talk about the band more if I know the people and can vouch for their characters, because personally that makes music so much better in my eyes.

I had the chance to do an interview with Alan Jaye [bassist] and he gave me some really great, in-depth answers to my inquisitive questions. I hope you enjoy it, and that you'll support this wonderful band on continuing their journey. If you know them, please support their campaign for their new album, and if you don't, I'll leave links below so you can get to know their music and give in anyway!

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What prompted you guys to give it another go with the instrumental album, after seemingly giving up on finding a new singer and making new music?

We wouldn't say we gave up. We never stopped writing. It may have seemed as if we were gone, but we've been working this whole time on crafting this new sound. I can't tell you how many times we wrote a song or idea and just threw it out because we weren't 100% satisfied with it. 

We really found ourselves  writing the music that we grew up on and after months of trying out various vocalists, we were completely happy as a group with the sound as it was. It's not like we didn't come across some real talent in the try out process, but the songs just never felt right with vocals. When we finally embraced being an instrumental band, and stopped "fighting" it, we had more drive than ever to put this new record out. 

How has the writing process been for you guys? Did you start all over once you decided to do this process, or did you use some of the material you already had?

There were a lot of riffs written that were formed out of loops, ideas, concepts, or even just messing around. We made a lot of demos with vocal structure in mind, but when we fully embraced being instrumental we just expanded on the riffs and made them into what they are becoming now. It's important to know that we had so much time to mess around with our new sound over the past 2 years, that the songs have been fully put together, and then completely taken apart, or approached from a different dimension all together over time.

What specific moments or experiences during this "hard time" and the hurdles you've had to overcome have strengthened you as people and as a band?

We have all experienced a big change in our personal lives. We're all getting older and we run into the grind of the everyday work world just like anyone else. After a while, we were really struggling to even make it to practice with all of our conflicting schedules.

And that's really what this record is all about. It's about losing sight of the fact that we were just kids once. All of a sudden, we woke up and found our lives full of bills, rent, car payments, etc. Collectively, we've all experienced that over these past 2 years. 

We had to come back into the "real world" after our touring life, and it hit us hard. We were dropped from our label, silently let go by our management, publishing, booking. It was a double edged sword to us, because we lost all those connections in the industry, but we also gained the freedom of not having to write songs to "fit" into that label genre. 

We could've given up on the band all together, and just gotten sucked into that daily grind, but we refused to stop. It really made us stronger as a band having to push through all of that and still come out on the other end with a full length album of songs.

This record is about overcoming that urge to give up on our music, but also living with in the confinements of reality while doing that. It's about always striving to keep that kid-like view of life, yet always fighting the urge to become jaded and sour. 

We wrote this album as a medium to push us through these times, to keep us from going insane with the mediocrity of the day in and out.

There's no question that fans are happy you're "back." Given what you've seen so far and what you predict, how do you think old fans feel about the idea of the new album?

Surprisingly, the fans are actually really receptive and excited for the new sound and the new album. We do have the fans that want the old "Tides" back, but for the most part everyone loves it and because of the support we are getting, the fans are actually backing up our IndieGoGo campaign and helping us get to record and release this next record. We are honestly in awe of the support and love that we are getting it! On a personal note I (Alan) want to thank everyone who has had our back since the beginning. It means more to us than we will ever be able to show you!


The new song you released, "Young and Couragous" was quite beautiful and didn't seem lacking without the vocals. Should listeners expect the same vibe from the rest of the tracks?

The same vibe... We wouldn't say the same vibe. There really is a different message and emotion that each song has and represents, but the feeling you get from "Young and Courageous" definitely spreads throughout the album. We have faster songs, harder songs, softer songs, but the underlying tone of the entire record gives the listener a sense of a story. You're definitely going to want to listen to this record from start to finish.

You're doing pretty much all the work yourselves and releasing the album without a record label, correct? What has this been like?

Yes, we are doing this record ourselves, without a label. Its definitely interesting. There's a ton to learn and we have a lot of "unexpected" kinks to tackle, but it is a learning experience and its quite fun to know that our music is dependent solely on us getting it out there. We don't have anyone to fall back on if things go bad, so overall it makes us stronger as a group because of the barriers we have to overcome.

How has using IndieGoGo worked for you so far? I know a lot of both lesser known and well-established bands are fans of Kickstarter, but you took a different route.

IndieGoGo has been great! Anytime we've needed any help, they are right there on board and getting our questions answered. Have nothing against KickStarter, it was just based on what we felt would be more beneficial for us, and IndieGoGo seemed to be what we were looking for.  

What are the plans for album release show(s) and touring?

We haven't fully planned our year out, but we're already getting tour offers on this album. We are currently concentrating on the final writing stages of the album, and we will definitely be paying more attention to the shows and touring of the album after that.


If you guys could collaborate (on an instrumental track or otherwise) with one band or artist, dead or alive, who would it be?

Personally if I (Alan) could collaborate with anyone... I would have to say, probably Jaco Pastorious. To me he's one of the most influential bassist/musicians for all of my favorite bands. It kind of says something for me as a player.

As far as the others guys go, you'd have to ask them. But I'm sure we could all agree on collaborating with bands like Sigur Ros, or Radiohead.

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Check out Tides of Man on Facebook, Twitter, and support their IndieGoGo campaign!

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All pictures are from Tides of Man's Facebook page.