Tacky Little Hatshop
--"electronica neo-folky polka"
Tacky Little Hatshop is the dynamic indie duo that you've got to hear about, bringing a fresh and whimsical sound to the world.
Tacky Little Hatshop is the dynamic indie duo that you've got to hear about, bringing a fresh and whimsical sound to the world.
Tunage got a chance to catch up with Tacky Little Hatshop. If you haven't heard of them, they're two sisters who create the most unique sound for Southern California to enjoy. It doesn't stop there though; these ladies have even shared their music love to Russia and Ireland. With influences from the 1910's, Legend of Zelda, and the Celtic culture, each tune they've composed have brought testament to their talent in thinking outside of the box.
Tunage: So, what are your names and your roles in the band?
Enya: I’m Enya and I play keyboard and accordion.
Anneke: I’m Anneke and I do guitar, lead vocals and banjo.
Tunage: How did this band start?
Enya: Well, we always played music together ever since we were little, and in 2008 my brother invited us to play at his concert with his band, because they didn’t have enough bands that night. But we didn’t have a name or anything so we said, “Um… okay. Sure we’ll play!” and we figured out the name that week.
T: How did you come up with Tacky Little Hatshop?
E: Do you know Hayao Miyazaki?
T: No, I haven’t.
E: He’s a Japanese animated director and illustrator, and he makes very beautiful anime movies. There’s one called “Howl’s Moving Castle”. There are these two girls, and they have a shop, and it’s Tacky Little Hatshop.
Enya: I’m Enya and I play keyboard and accordion.
Anneke: I’m Anneke and I do guitar, lead vocals and banjo.
Tunage: How did this band start?
Enya: Well, we always played music together ever since we were little, and in 2008 my brother invited us to play at his concert with his band, because they didn’t have enough bands that night. But we didn’t have a name or anything so we said, “Um… okay. Sure we’ll play!” and we figured out the name that week.
T: How did you come up with Tacky Little Hatshop?
E: Do you know Hayao Miyazaki?
T: No, I haven’t.
E: He’s a Japanese animated director and illustrator, and he makes very beautiful anime movies. There’s one called “Howl’s Moving Castle”. There are these two girls, and they have a shop, and it’s Tacky Little Hatshop.
| T: When I first heard your music, is seemed to sound almost nostalgic to a different time. Is there a time period that has influenced your music? E: Hmm… as far as sound goes, sometimes we have that harpy chord feel of 1910ish. A: That’s what I was thinking too. For me, I really like old music, but I don’t think a certain time I could think of; but I think for our song called “Periwinkle Waltz”; it makes me think of that era and stuff with the accordion, it’s kind of cool. | |
T: How about band influences.
E: I don’t think I have a specific band that I’m influenced by; I think I’m most influenced by video game music, for me anyways.
T: What video games do you like?
E: Legend of Zelda.
T: I’m so glad you said that.
E: Yeah, the music is so beautiful.
A: I think for my favorite, I’d have to choose Sufjan Stevens, especially for his banjo parts, I got really inspired to play banjo from his music.
T: So what’s your favorite Zelda song?
E: I like the Twilight Princess symphony one; it’s so beautiful.
T: Sleepy Forest of Horrors is my favorite song of yours, how did that one come about?
E: Usually when I record a song, I go in my room and mess around, and I came up with the chorus part first.
A: For the lyrics, that was one of the first songs we made up, so we had our mom help us because she’s a songwriter. So she worked with us a lot to come up with the lyrics.
T: So, you come from a really musical family!
A: Yeah
E: Yeah, our whole family is musical.
T: Also, when I first heard your music, the recordings sounded really clean and professionally done, how did you do it?
A: At first, we just recorded it by ourselves, and later we did layers of each instrument. I like doing that; it’s fun!
E: We recorded in our barn slash shed, and there’s like ducks walking around while we’re recording, and we’re like “What?!” (laughs)
T: Any new projects or songs that you’re working on right now?
A: Yes! We’re recording out second album right now. We’re shooting for the end of July.
T: Do you have a name for it yet?
E: We haven’t thought of a name for it yet, but we will soon enough.
T: How about touring, any plans for a CD release show?
A: We’re thinking of playing at the E Street Café once we have the CD done, hopefully by the end of the month.
T: Do you have any favorite songs you wrote?
E: I like “Through Glass Darkly”. I like the sound we use distorted layered piano and classy harp keyboard.
A: That’s my favorite song too because I get to the different ways I get to sing, like at the end of the song, I get so sing really high, it’s really fun.
T: What I really like about your music, and what makes it unique is your experimentation with your music. What are the different musical elements that you like to explore to get ideas?
E: We like to get ideas from old fairytale stories. There’s this Hans Christian Andersen story called “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, that’s how we got the name for “Marsh Maiden”.
T: Indie is usually too broad of a genre, what would you call yourselves?
A: (laughs) We haven’t been able to come up with a name for it yet, but we played a concert and this once musician said it was…
E: …He described our music as electronica neo folky polka.
T: I like that! You have your own genre!
T: If you can time travel to any time period, what would it be and why?
E: 1870’s, makes me think about Sherlock Holmes. I love Sherlock Holmes; I read all the books.
A: Me too, I’d go to the same time period.
T: Favorite Zelda characters?
E: Link, obviously, and I like Tingle because he’s so weird, with the way he jumps around.
T: If there were one message you want to send out to your listeners and fans with your music, what would it be?
E: We just want to keep doing it and hope that everyone likes it.
T: What can people look forward to in your upcoming album?
E: I think the songs are more complex and more going on, and it’s more mysterious and dark sounding as opposed to out previous songs.
A: Our last album was also our first, so now we’re experimenting more with different sounds. Like even in the beginning of one of our songs, for Marsh Maiden, we’d have a soundtrack of sounds from a marsh.
T: Have any funny or cool stories from one of your shows?
A: Well, we got to play in Russia last summer.
E: It was really cool.
A: We got to play in this big concert hall; it was really big and old fashioned inside. It was fun because we got to explore underneath, like there’s this big trapdoor underneath that leads you to this big dark tunnel, it was really cool. The crowd was very enthusiastic and they made us feel very welcome.
T: Have you played in any other places outside of the U.S.?
E: Ireland, it was so much fun. That’s why we recorded an album, because we needed a CD to bring to the concerts we had. We got to play along the streets, so we got my big long keyboard and Annie had her banjo and guitar and we just sat on the side of the road and played as people were going by.
T: Have any of those cultures influenced your sound or your style?
A: Irish culture is one of my favorite cultures. I love the Celtic and I listen to it so much that I’m sure that I’ve been inspired in some way in my music.
E: I want to go to Japan; I really want to go there so bad.
T: Any last words you want to put out for listeners and readers?
E We hope that everyone will listen to our upcoming album and we really hope they like it. We’ve been working on it for a long time, so we just hope that everyone likes it.
A: Yeah, this is our second album! I cannot wait; we just put so much work into it.
Check out our exclusive poster design at the poster gallery page! Also, keep up with Tacky Little Hatshop through their facebook page and official site.
- Tunage
Written by Deanna Trombley
E: I don’t think I have a specific band that I’m influenced by; I think I’m most influenced by video game music, for me anyways.
T: What video games do you like?
E: Legend of Zelda.
T: I’m so glad you said that.
E: Yeah, the music is so beautiful.
A: I think for my favorite, I’d have to choose Sufjan Stevens, especially for his banjo parts, I got really inspired to play banjo from his music.
T: So what’s your favorite Zelda song?
E: I like the Twilight Princess symphony one; it’s so beautiful.
T: Sleepy Forest of Horrors is my favorite song of yours, how did that one come about?
E: Usually when I record a song, I go in my room and mess around, and I came up with the chorus part first.
A: For the lyrics, that was one of the first songs we made up, so we had our mom help us because she’s a songwriter. So she worked with us a lot to come up with the lyrics.
T: So, you come from a really musical family!
A: Yeah
E: Yeah, our whole family is musical.
T: Also, when I first heard your music, the recordings sounded really clean and professionally done, how did you do it?
A: At first, we just recorded it by ourselves, and later we did layers of each instrument. I like doing that; it’s fun!
E: We recorded in our barn slash shed, and there’s like ducks walking around while we’re recording, and we’re like “What?!” (laughs)
T: Any new projects or songs that you’re working on right now?
A: Yes! We’re recording out second album right now. We’re shooting for the end of July.
T: Do you have a name for it yet?
E: We haven’t thought of a name for it yet, but we will soon enough.
T: How about touring, any plans for a CD release show?
A: We’re thinking of playing at the E Street Café once we have the CD done, hopefully by the end of the month.
T: Do you have any favorite songs you wrote?
E: I like “Through Glass Darkly”. I like the sound we use distorted layered piano and classy harp keyboard.
A: That’s my favorite song too because I get to the different ways I get to sing, like at the end of the song, I get so sing really high, it’s really fun.
T: What I really like about your music, and what makes it unique is your experimentation with your music. What are the different musical elements that you like to explore to get ideas?
E: We like to get ideas from old fairytale stories. There’s this Hans Christian Andersen story called “The Marsh King’s Daughter”, that’s how we got the name for “Marsh Maiden”.
T: Indie is usually too broad of a genre, what would you call yourselves?
A: (laughs) We haven’t been able to come up with a name for it yet, but we played a concert and this once musician said it was…
E: …He described our music as electronica neo folky polka.
T: I like that! You have your own genre!
T: If you can time travel to any time period, what would it be and why?
E: 1870’s, makes me think about Sherlock Holmes. I love Sherlock Holmes; I read all the books.
A: Me too, I’d go to the same time period.
T: Favorite Zelda characters?
E: Link, obviously, and I like Tingle because he’s so weird, with the way he jumps around.
T: If there were one message you want to send out to your listeners and fans with your music, what would it be?
E: We just want to keep doing it and hope that everyone likes it.
T: What can people look forward to in your upcoming album?
E: I think the songs are more complex and more going on, and it’s more mysterious and dark sounding as opposed to out previous songs.
A: Our last album was also our first, so now we’re experimenting more with different sounds. Like even in the beginning of one of our songs, for Marsh Maiden, we’d have a soundtrack of sounds from a marsh.
T: Have any funny or cool stories from one of your shows?
A: Well, we got to play in Russia last summer.
E: It was really cool.
A: We got to play in this big concert hall; it was really big and old fashioned inside. It was fun because we got to explore underneath, like there’s this big trapdoor underneath that leads you to this big dark tunnel, it was really cool. The crowd was very enthusiastic and they made us feel very welcome.
T: Have you played in any other places outside of the U.S.?
E: Ireland, it was so much fun. That’s why we recorded an album, because we needed a CD to bring to the concerts we had. We got to play along the streets, so we got my big long keyboard and Annie had her banjo and guitar and we just sat on the side of the road and played as people were going by.
T: Have any of those cultures influenced your sound or your style?
A: Irish culture is one of my favorite cultures. I love the Celtic and I listen to it so much that I’m sure that I’ve been inspired in some way in my music.
E: I want to go to Japan; I really want to go there so bad.
T: Any last words you want to put out for listeners and readers?
E We hope that everyone will listen to our upcoming album and we really hope they like it. We’ve been working on it for a long time, so we just hope that everyone likes it.
A: Yeah, this is our second album! I cannot wait; we just put so much work into it.
Check out our exclusive poster design at the poster gallery page! Also, keep up with Tacky Little Hatshop through their facebook page and official site.
- Tunage
Written by Deanna Trombley
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