Read KVRX's interview with shoegaze duo Tremours below.
Q: How's the Texas weather for you all? Was it a surprise, or is it like California weather?
Glenn: It's a bit more muggy.
Lauren: Yeah. Just about the same other than the mugginess. And you guys get rain.
Q: So, what are you all guys most looking forward to in your time here?
Lauren: I guess just playing shows. I mean, we’ve got basically a whole week of dates and playing our buddies showcase, which is Club X at 13th floor [on Saturday, Mar. 8], so that's a big one for us. We haven't played Club X in a year. We actually haven't been back to Texas since then. Then we’re doing the Space Agency showcase at Hotel Vegas [on Friday, Mar. 14]. I think that’s a big one, too.
Q: Are there any tourist spots you want to check out during your time in Austin?
Lauren: You tell us. Where do we go? Because we always just end up playing and having to drive. We’re here all week so what do you recommend?
I would definitely recommend South Congress. Have you all heard of it? It's this big strip of shops.
Glenn: Oh, yeah. I've been there, that’s where Antonio’s bar is. I’ve been to Austin a bit. I used to play in a band from Austin, so I don't know, I can't remember what I've seen.
Which band was it?
Glenn: Chief White Lightning. I went to a mini golf place.
The Peter Pan one?
Glenn: Yeah, and a British cafe in an old petrol station, and a capitol building. Other than that, I can't remember. But I’ve been here a bit.
It’s definitely nice. I would recommend that, and I'd also recommend Mozarts … It's like this big cafe on the lake. It's very nice.
Q: So what instruments do you all play? Are there any instruments that y'all want to learn to incorporate into future music?
Lauren: Glenn’s been wanting to learn bass.
Glenn: Lauren plays keyboards on the recording. I’d love to play more piano.
Lauren: It’s weird being a two piece. We mostly stick to our instruments, but then when it comes to recording we have a bunch of layers, synths and stuff like that, and that’s kind of a collaborative thing. Both of us ended up playing a bunch of instruments we don't normally play.
Glenn: We can always swap for an experimental album. I can play an E flat minor chord.
Lauren: I can't really play drums.
Q: How is the whole creative process for you all? What inspirations do you all find when creating music … or does it kind of just come to you?
Lauren: I mean, I guess it depends on the song. This band’s a bit weird because we write songs kind of separately. I'll start an idea and send it to Glenn and he'll work on it and send it back. But yeah … a lot of the songs come from just experience and traveling. I don't know … they're all kind of eclectic lately. I don't really know what direction a lot of this songwriting is going in, to be honest.
Q: So I was reading up on you and I saw that you have toured with a bunch of other bands, like LSD and The Search for God and Cherubs. Do you think that's influenced how you make music? Did you learn anything while touring with them?
Lauren: Yeah, I mean I also play with LSD and The Search for God a lot. I did a tour with them a year ago and we came through Austin. Yeah, playing with different musicians, you end up learning a lot and taking a lot, especially with guitar, you take a lot of effects, ideas and stuff from them. We kind of bounce ideas back and forth, pedals and stuff.
Glenn: Not especially, but you do pick up how to do things, how not to do things. So yeah, you take inspiration from everything really.
Q: I had seen you perform with LSD and The Search for God when y’all came through Houston in 2023. That’s actually how I figured out about Tremours.
Lauren: Yeah, that was a super fun tour. All the bands are buddies, so we stay in touch. When Panchiko comes through LA we always go. If we're in town, we'll go see them and hang out. And LSD are just right above us in San Francisco. Maybe it doesn't influence it as much musically, but definitely touring with different bands, you kind of either build relationships or you learn. You just kind of trade secrets, like touring secrets.
Q: So on that topic, is there anyone y’all have been dreaming to collaborate with?
Glenn: I’d love to collaborate with Andy Weddle, but he’s sadly dead, can’t do that.
Lauren: We do collaborate with other musicians a lot. Well actually, on our Tremours record that just came out, half of the record features Pete Holmstrom from Dandy Warhols. So he's done a lot of synth and electronic stuff. I've actually talked with Chris on that last tour about doing some collab guitar stuff with him, from LSD.
Glenn: Mark?
Lauren: Yeah, Mark Van Hollen. He's a really awesome electronic musician, and added a bunch of synths on the track “Postcards.” That is our most recent single. I sing on a lot of people's records lately. I don't know if that's really collaborating, but yeah.
Q: So I heard y’all mention earlier that you guys like traveling and that’s a big inspiration for your music, is there a dream place you wanted to go?
Glenn: Definitely not Southhampton. I don’t know.
Lauren: I really want to tour Japan. A lot of our buddies’ bands have recent experiences [there]. They’re really cool. I’ve never been so I think that would be extremely different. And I like cats a lot. I like cats.
Yeah there’s definitely a lot to do there! Like all the animal cafes.
Lauren: Yeah I see videos. I think it's my algorithm reading my mind, but I get all these videos now of those Capybara cafes in Japan where you can hang out with them, and cats too.
Glenn: Capybara Cafe?
Lauren: Is that the little, like, the bunny guy?
Glenn: Yeah.
Lauren: Yeah. They have them in Japan.
Glenn: Really?
Lauren: Yeah. Loads of them. Irita went. I played this other band, LA Witch, and one of the band mates went to one recently when she was there. Yes, you can hang out with them.
That’s so fun. I wish they had them here. I know in Houston they have them, but I don’t know what they have in Austin quite frankly.
Lauren: We went to one on that tour with LSD. We just toured with LSD in December in Bellingham which is almost to Canada, West Coast, and there was a cat cafe a few blocks from the venue. Glenn didn’t go because he’s allergic to cats.
Glenn: Literally my worst nightmare. There’s a dog cafe. They got dog cafes?
Lauren: I mean probably
Glenn: Like a Golden Labrador cafe.
Lauren: They probably have something for you in Japan.
They have something for everyone. It’s a big country.
Q: Is there an unconventional piece of inspiration for your music or would you say it’s more heavily influenced by the things you listed earlier?
Glenn: Tea. Tea and marmite.
Lauren: Yeah I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s really inspiration, but I write a lot when I’m just walking around. Ideas come to my head and I hum them to my voice recorder on my phone or something. I don’t know if that’s really inspiration.
Q: Outside of making music, are there any other creative hobbies you guys pursue?
Glenn: I like to take photos. I went to an art university. Britain Hall. It’s in Britain! It was in a sculpture park. I have to do design stuff for other work that I do. But I think we both write and we’re into the arts.
Lauren: Yeah, I used to draw and paint a lot, but I haven't really been doing that in a while. I feel like all the free time I have now I end up trying to play guitar, or we're traveling a lot, it’s just been a lot more hectic since we've had the band.
Q: I read that you had a skate deck brand. What was it like?
Lauren: It was really cool. I started it when I was in Brooklyn, living in New York, so it was really just an idea to make these little cruiser boards to get around the city and around the neighborhood and stuff. We would get all the local wood from a local lumber shop, and then I would paint them all. My partner would shape all of them. Very surf inspired. But, yeah, I haven't painted probably since then, really, or done any drawing stuff, but I was playing a lot less music then too.
Q: I had seen in an old interview that y’all said you wanted to go to Yellowstone. Did y’all ever end up going?
Glenn: Still haven’t made it.
Lauren: You don’t really go through there to get to any places. Like, where would we play, near there? Or what, when do you go through Yellowstone?
Glenn: It’s probably an amphitheater there. I’m obsessed with playing amphitheaters. I’ve noticed since you go around America, there’s loads of small amphitheaters for 300 or 400 people everywhere. I’d love to do a tour of those small amphitheaters. I bet there’s one in Yellowstone.
Lauren: We see them a lot in parks, like random Boy Scouts lessons or whatever they do there. There is one we took in Palm Springs a few months ago. We took this tramway thing up to the top of this mountain, and you can't get up there, other than taking this tram – like, no roads or anything – and there was a tiny little amphitheater up there within all the hiking trails and stuff. I don't know how you would get your gear up there, but.
Glenn: One day.
One day, one day.
Lauren: But we do need to get to Yellowstone for sure. It might not be on tour.
Q: What would you say your favorite thing to do in California is?
Glenn: Hiking is quite good.
Lauren: Hiking is probably what we do, mostly, If we have a day off or something, and really don't have anything to do we’ll be like, okay, let's drive because LA is surrounded by mountains, so you can drive 30 minutes and have really nice hiking trails. When it's a bit warmer, we do beach days … the other day we went out, and it wasn't warm, but we took a really cold, windy beach walk.
Q: Do you have a favorite movie?
Glenn: I love Big Wednesday. It’s a surf film from – what is it, the 70’s?
Lauren: Yeah, I think it’s 70’s, like late 70’s.
Glenn: That or Lost Boys.
Lauren: I do like Lost Boys. I don’t know, this is a really tough one. I like Doom Generation a lot. A lot of inspiration for music comes from that. I like Drop Dead Fred.
Q: What is a quote on quote “perfect day” for you?
Lauren: Cat cafe. I like to start with coffee then.
Glenn: Can’t handle coffee. I support a football team from England, so I have to watch them on Saturdays, and it usually kicks off at seven in the morning. So probably wake up, watch them win. Because if you wake up at seven and they lose, that’s the day ruined. I don’t know, wake up, see them, have a nice cup of tea … probably wake up in New York. That’d be ideal, I really like New York. We both used to live there.
Lauren: I would say waking up in London or somewhere walkable, like when we’re on tour, finding a random coffee shop, and then having a full day, not having to soundcheck until six o’clock and no stairs for a load-in.
Glenn: That’d be your ideal day? I would not have a gig on my ideal day.
Lauren: I would, but we would be supporting Slowdive or something and we only have like a 30 minute set and we go to soundcheck late. Maybe we don’t even go to soundcheck because Slowdive takes so long to soundcheck. And then I get to just walk around London all day and drink coffee.
Glenn: Why don’t you just do all that without a gig?
Lauren: Because I want to play, I actually enjoy playing music.
Glenn: My ideal day would have no gig, no phone, no internet.
Lauren: I just don’t want to drive much. If we can just walk around all day and hang around and play, and then after you play and you don’t have any stress, you get to see one of your favorite bands play, that would be good.
Glenn: Alright, sorry I go back to Wembley and see Pompey win the FA Cup against Southampton and we demolish them. There you go, that’s my ideal day.
Q: So I think what I’ve gotten from both of these is that you are very much coffee and tea people. What’s your go-to order?
Glenn: Just tea, just proper hardcore strong tea. I can’t handle coffee, it’s like taking speed.
Lauren: But he calls tea hardcore.
Glenn: Have you heard of that COSM thing? I think there’s one in Dallas, big IMAX screen, but they show football games on it.
Lauren: Soccer.
Glenn: Football. So Pompey were playing and we went and I had a cup of coffee and it was about half six in the morning and I was DJing that night, and at nine o’clock that night, I still had the jitters. So definitely no coffee for me. I cannot handle it.
Lauren: He just has English breakfast tea with a tiny bit of soy milk or something in it. And then I just usually go for drip coffee, like plain coffee or a cappuccino. I’m just pretty plain.
Q: Is there anything else you guys wanted to say?
Lauren: Thanks for having us. Hope we have a good week in Austin, so once we recover from the drive we’ll be more awake.
Y’all drove all the way here?
Lauren: We did. Yeah, we played New Mexico on the way out. It’s just harder with all our gear and stuff and we’re here for a whole week playing shows, and in San Antonio, so we needed to have a car. But yeah, thanks for having us!
Check out Tremours here.