= Bands Like Rush

Guitarist Chris Herin and bassist Jeff Whittle join me for a discussion of their band Tiles, a indie progressive  rock group out of the Detroit area.

In the interview we get:

• A brief history of the band up to the present day
• A glimpse into their do-it-yourself approach to making music and running their business
• Why Tiles is known as the “Anvil of Progressive Rock”
• The upside and downside of being constantly compared to the band Rush
• Some amusing anecdotes and stories about their work with long-time Rush producer Terry Brown, album artist Hugh Syme, as well as their collaboration with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart

See below for the edited transcript:

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Ben: Why don’t we start by just letting you guys speak one after the other about yourselves, your history, the band, how you guys got started and maybe up to the present day roughly. So Jeff, do you want to go first?

Jeff: Tiles was working with a different bass player on their first record. What ended up happening was that towards the end of the recording, I think when they were finishing up some of the bass stuff, they had asked him if he had wanted to join. His name is Kevin Chown. Kevin was already doing other things, and he couldn’t commit. But, he was a bass teacher and I believe Chris asked him if he had any students to recommend. And that’s where I came in. I was talking lessons with Kevin.  So, that’s really how I came into it.

Kevin recommended me. Then, Chris contacted me. I got a press kit in the mail. This is back in the day. There’s no internet.  It was great. I just remember getting it and right away sitting down and figuring out some of the songs and stuff that were on there.

The band practiced in Chris’ basement and it was quite a drive for me; about 45 minutes. But, I was young and totally into it. There really wasn’t anything in my area that was as cool as that, so driving down there was no big deal.

Anyways, I went through the audition process and there you go. But, as far as the actual beginnings of the band, Chris would probably be better for that. But, that’s how I came into the band.

Ben: So Chris, how did the whole thing start?

Chris: Well, it was the drummer, Mark Evans, and I had come off another project that didn’t really take root. Then, we started writing some songs and we worked them out just as guitar and drums. Little did I know that would’ve been blueprint for fame and fortune to the White Stripes.

Ben: That’s right, no bass. You should’ve left Jeff out of it!

Jeff: Oh, I’m sure Chris has said that many times over our career.

Chris: Well unfortunately, I went ahead and followed the standard band format of a bass, guitar and at least a singer because my vocals aren’t all that good. Mark and I just went in and cut the drums, and a scratch guitar track and started putting the new project together. We ran ads for other musicians and that’s where we found Paul Rarick, the vocalist. We just couldn’t find  a bass player.

Ben: That’s always the way.

Chris: Yeah, I just looked through music ads and stuff; looked for guys who were teaching bass and ran into Kevin Chown. He’s an excellent bass player and we just asked him to record as a session musician.

And that’s how the first Tiles CD came together. As Jeff said, when it came time to build a spot permanently, we asked Kevin for a recommendation and we made Jeff audition – I don’t know – seven or eight times, just to make sure that he was into it.

Ben: So, this is way back when. How old were you guys when? Where were you in life? From your bio, it looks like that was the early 90s. So, what was going on then?

Chris: Well yeah, that was the early 90s and, really, my goal as a guy that was kind of approaching 30 was thinking, “Well geez, I ought to get one project together, and out there and see if anyone likes it before I retreat even further into the basement.” And Jeff was younger. He was just turning 20 or something.

Jeff: I think I was 21. I think I had just turned 21.

Ben: So, you were drinking. That’s good.

Jeff: At that time, no. I was a staunch vegan, and no drinking. It’s different now. I have meat IV-ed into me. It’s crazy.

Ben: Ha! Sound like me – my freshman year in college I was a vegetarian, and a feminist and all those things. But, it all gets old quick. Where is this by the way, for the folks who don’t know.

Jeff: About two miles north of Detroit. Chris lives about 20 miles south of Detroit.

Chris: Just about 20 miles south of Detroit. So, like in a major city, we’ve got different communities of musicians just based on kind of a locale within the larger city.

Jeff: I don’t want to make it sound like the East Side is what they would call where I live. Where Chris lives, they call it Down River. But, the East Side, it’s not like it was the void of talent. There was lots of stuff around. Hair metal was still kind of in vogue. Metallica’s Black Album had come out and was changing things a bit, but that was still what was going on. The problem was that the more I was learning about music and stuff, I wasn’t fitting in with the bands that I was in.

I would hear that all the time. “The stuff you’re contributing musically isn’t what we’re doing.” I really thought I was screwed. I thought there was something wrong with me.

Ben: It was just the scene you were in.

Jeff: It was weird because I hadn’t really delved into any of the stereotypical progressive rock bands yet at that point. I was hearing Dcream Theatre in 91, of course, with Images and Words and stuff. But, it wasn’t until I heard Yes’s Close to the Edge, and Genesis and all that stuff; and Rush and all that.

But, I really got into Rush’s catalogue. But, I realized that, “Whoa. No, it’s not that I’m doing anything off the wall here.” It’s just the bands that were in my neighborhood weren’t playing that.

Ben: Right. Well, most neighborhoods they were. It’s still very niche.

Jeff: And that’s why what I said earlier, when I got the material from Chris in the mail, it was totally different right off the bat – from the first song.  I knew there was something there and I was hoping that I could pass through the auditions and be a member in the band because I knew I was younger. They beat me into submission and made me pay the dues. The check cleared. That was what? 15 years ago, 16 years ago; something like that.

Ben: So can you synopsize what’s been going on since then? Have you guys been working full time since shortly after the beginning? What’s been the arc of your career since then and up to now?

Chris: Well, we released the first CD on our own label in 1994, and actually spent some time using some connections and shopping it to labels. And it ended up getting released in 1995 on Green Circle in Germany.

It received really good European reviews and that was kind of the launching pad. Green Circle folded and Inside Out was just starting up. I had heard about them and got in touch with them right around 1996 when we had done our second CD, Fence the Clear. And so, I think that was actually one of the first 15 CDs that Inside Out had ever put out.

So, we got in that at the ground floor, which helped. And of course, they’ve turned into the progressive rock and progressive metal powerhouse that they are today.

But, the initial reviews on our first CD kind of launched us both in Europe and Japan. It was downhill from there in Japan. Every successive CD seemed to be less well received.

Ben: That’s odd.

Chris: For whatever reason. But in Europe, it kind of went in a good direction.

Ben: What was your connection there? Was it just a press awareness of you? Did you go and tour there? Do you still have a fan base in Japan, in Europe? Where are you most solid?

Chris: Well now, the fan base is pretty solid. It’s just because of the boundaries of buying music are gone. There aren’t too many people left that actually buy it.

But, even ten years ago, or maybe not quite that long, back when our fourth CD – Window Dressing – came out in 2004, we didn’t get a Japanese release. Really, that was because you can buy whatever you want on the internet at pretty much domestic prices.

So, there was no huge fan base in Japan that warranted release on its own. It just helped our sales from Inside Out because any of the Japanese fan base would find the Inside Out version.

From a trajectory standpoint, that was 1997 for our second CD and then, actually, it was a pretty prolific recording session and we had so much stuff we hadn’t finish that that kind of morphed into continuing to work in the studio and led to Presents of Mind which came out in 1999.

I think that album is a kind of a fan favorite to this day, and it had gotten into the hands of Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater. They took us out on a three week European tour when they had just released Scenes from a Memory.

And so, previously Presence of Mind had gotten real good reviews and sold really well. So, the label was able to get behind that European tour with some tour support.

I guess looking back now, that was ten years ago, that was the peak of our activity. Back to one of your earlier questions, Tiles is not our career or necessarily a hugely profitable endeavor. It’s very artistically satisfying and we’ve been very fortunate to have been able to do the things that we have as a a part time job or semi-hobby.

Ben: So, you had a peak; a time of the stars aligning before the music industry went through all its contortions. I’m in the same boat. Ever aspiring musician is and, sometimes, even seemingly established musicians are in the boat where they’ve got the day job, they’ve got their music which they either need to decide is a passion they need to go full bore on, and make a career by cook or crook or if it’s just a hobby, they need to be artistically satisfied with. So, where are you guys now in your life and your outlook on the whole music industry and the music career in that respect?

Jeff: I think, for me, it’s weird to say that the feeling is still the same from day one. But really, it is. We don’t let things bring us down too much.  We have goals. Once the record’s out, our thing is, “Let’s promote it. We need to book. We need to play.”

And then, you do that for a year, maybe two or whatever. Because the stars haven’t aligned for years at a time and we haven’t been able to do this full time as our career, as our job, it takes us a little longer to work things out.

But, as soon as the album’s out we play, promote. Chris and I still have bits of music and we’ll say, “Oh, I got this new bit.” That hasn’t changed as far as writing and our goals. That is still the same and we still try to push the band and the songs and the albums every bit as hard as we did even then.

So, that hasn’t changed. But obviously, our personal lives have changed. For me, I’m married. I have a daughter, so that changed obviously from when I was 21 and single.

Ben: Fancy free, yeah.

Jeff: Yeah, I could live on a bag of salad. And we’re still around.

Chris: Oh yeah, we’re like the anvil of progressive rock.

Ben: Is that your term or has someone called you that, Chris?

Jeff: No, we joke around about that all the time. We get that quite a bit.

Ben: You need a documentary done after you. Maybe this will prompt one.

You guys book, you guys promote, you guys hustle everywhere?

Jeff: Every God damn thing comes from the band.

Ben: That’s a necessity. For instance, I’m start up a career and I’m definitely going to do that only because that’s all I can afford. It’s because no one’s going to show interest unless you have a track record.

But also, to learn it all so that you know how to delegate later, if and when you’re blessed with that opportunity to be able to hand it off to someone else. So, why haven’t you guys done that? Are you guys control freaks? Do you not have the critical mass to support it or just no one’s interested?

Jeff: To be honest with you, it’s not like we haven’t tried. We’ve talked to people over the years. I think one of the problems that we have suffered from is we had some success here locally right out of the great a bit. We were getting some radio air play and stuff.

But also, remember, when we were first coming out, it was really the dying of metal or hard rock and alternative rock was coming up. So, I think when we put a ton of energy into finding management for the longest period of time during the first five years, we were – and I’m sure in most of the world except for Europe and stuff, and Japan – we were a nonexistent entity as far as music; style of music I mean.

Nirvana, and Pearl Jam and Sound Garden ruled the airwaves. It’s hard to go to a management company – even though Chris’ business plans are ridiculously meticulous.

Ben: Oh wow, you do business plans. That’s a wonder right there, Chris.

Jeff: They were ridiculous – they absolutely laid out what our plans were.

Ben: You guys think you were swimming against the stylistic tide. Chris, is that basically it? It sounds like you did everything else right.

Chris: Especially in North America which is why we had our successes, really, overseas in Europe and Japan. It’s been years since we started – in the early/mid 90s. Grunge was taking off and we were the antithesis of that kind of music.

Our songs were long, with busy bass playing, odd meters and all that kind of stuff, not what was really in the mainstream.

Ben: You had the high register tenor vocals, the whole nine yards.

Chris: Yeah, we had that.

Jeff: Yeah, Paul too. Think about the singers that were popular in that era. We had Paul, an amazing singer. He wasn’t into the super octave stuff, but at a higher register. We were out the same time as Pearl Jam.

Ben: Well, you do need to scream to get along in that Pearl Jam, Nirvana camp.

Jeff: Yeah. Personally, I don’t have a problem with Nirvana. I just never liked Eddie Vedder’s vocals. They’re out of tune.

Ben: That’s part of the art, I guess, they would say.

Jeff: But you know what? Really, that’s the problem and I don’t want to go on a tangent here, but that’s the problem. Reviewers of that, that’s the feeling of it. Oh, really? So, being out of tune is a feeling. I didn’t know that.

Then, you know what? I guess The Cramps are like the Beethoven of our era.  If being out of tune is good, then every album The Cramps have ever done is a masterpiece.

Ben: Well, I don’t know if you – Yoko Ono came out with a new album recently, of her noise rock-type stuff. Rolling Stone gave it like a four or five star review, just gushing. I listen to Howard Stern, and it was just fun to listen to him, among other people, berate the critics for the dishonesty and absurdity.

Jeff: And there you go. Really, in the early 90s, mid-90s, that’s what almost every progressive rock band had to fight against. If you played in a garage, then you were the greatest thing ever.

And there was some great bands that came out of that, so don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t matter. If a reviewer happened into a bar and you guys were just bashing your guitars, then that was the greatest thing that they had ever heard.

I think maybe the problem is that reviewers and music critics think that there’s something wrong with a well-crafted song, and a well-sung melody or even a well-crafted guitar part; a melodic guitar. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but that’s not cool to those people.

Ben: I want to ask one thing only because the angle here is with Rush and what struck me is the number of connections, kind of peripherally anyway, you have with the band. I think this last album was produced by Terry Brown who was Rush’s long time producer. You got artwork from Hugh Syme who is their long time artistic collaborator.

Aside from the stylistic elements which I’d like to talk about that are kind of common to a lot of the great prog rock; the complexity, the mixed meters, even the lyrical content and approach you guys take. Tell me how those connections came about.

Chris: It started out between our first and second CD. We had, like I mentioned, a good response to the first CD and we had produced that locally with a pretty minimal budget. We we’re definitely happy with the sound and quality.

But we thought, well if we’re going to actually try to achieve some next level of attention or additional quality, we should find someone who has a name.

Ben: Who has a track record.

Chris: Yeah, or that level of industry recognition. Coincidentally, Terry Brown had just done that Rush Tribute for Magna Carta which there were like a list of five or six people. One was the guy that had produced Kansas and I had just kind of gone through albums of people whose work kind of were in that progressive realm, thinking they would have an affinity for delivering our kind of music.

And I put in three or four calls to Terry Brown, who was the first one to respond. He heard the rough mixes of what we were doing and really liked it, so we kind of went with that.

He’s a great guy and he’s got a great ear. He comes from the sixties in England. That’s kind of the advent of the British Invasion and worked with just an incredible number of bands; historical recordings now.

Obviously, his track record besides Rush is pretty impressive and. The mix on Fence The Clear was just so big and vibrant that we were spoiled.

And when we did our third CD, it just seemed pointless not to go back to Terry. And it was actually Terry who suggested giving Hugh a call. He said, “You know, this Presence of Mind stuff is…” He was really complimentary about it and he said, “Well you know, you guys might want to consider stepping up your artwork another notch, too.”

So, we called Hugh and he was interested because Terry was involved. So all of a sudden, now there’s Terry Brown and Hugh Syme.

Ben: Yeah, look out!

Chris: And it kind of stuck for our third, fourth and fifth CDs. Unfortunately, because we bear some influence of Rush, I suppose me especially with some of the guitar chord voicing, and arpeggios and that kind of approach.

Jeff had never been much of a Rush fan at all. But, through sharing, I suspect, some of the same influences of Geddy, Chris Squire and being kind of a very energetic personality, his bass parts were just always kind of busy and melodic.

So really, it was just kind of a convergence from different places that kind of set us on that Rush parallel, Working with Terry and Hugh certainly didn’t minimize that.

So, there’s a pretty healthy contingency out there in the music world that things were just blatantly trying to coattail and capitalize on Rush.

Ben: The benefits of having those two skilled folks, even if they were the Rush folks, hopefully outweighs the bad press if any – or does it?

Jeff: If you take away our first disc and if you listen to Fence the Clear from then on – you can’t hide certain influences I guess, but they aren’t copycat albums at all.

Chris: You know what? I think it just got to be a convenient or almost lazy way for reviewers or critics to kind of tag us.

Ben: Well, your stuff is, I don’t know, am I right? It’s heavier, it’s even more guitar oriented than the recent Rush which is kind of guitar-ish and back-to-basics.

Jeff: This doesn’t get talked about enough. Think about how the guitars that go back and if you look at the credits. Chris plays trumpet on a song on Window Dressing. He plays banjo, mandolin. What’s that little tiny – a parlor guitar, not that Alex couldn’t do any of that stuff. But, I’m just saying that from an arrangement perspective, it’s not like we just cheesed our way through it saying, “Okay, Chris only plays suspended chords now,” and just we’re bashing through suspension chords. You know what I mean?

That’s just not what it is. You can’t help but imitating music that’s come before you. So deny that is like saying that nobody can ever play a Led Zeppelin drum beat. Well then, what the fuck are you going to do?

Ben: And I’m facing this myself. I think a lot of bands do. When you’re starting out, people don’t know who the hell you are. So, you’ve got to give them a context and the context is that easiest handle of “what do you sound like?”. If you say: “I sound like nothing you’ve ever heard.” Well, that’s the most boring answer ever. Thanks for talking.

Jeff: But, you know what though? As a review, I’ve never minded when somebody says, “This band is reminiscent of early Rush or 80s Rush,” whatever. I mean, whatever they decide.

But, for the reviewers that obviously listen to music – I don’t mind if they use that as a frame of reference because every band borrows – e.g. Tool borrows a ton from King Crimson.

So, it’s not like Tool could be pissed off about saying – hey, they’ve obviously listened to some King Crimson and some Rush.

So, I would never be pissed off if somebody compared us to Rush. But, it’s when they’re like…“These Rush clones.” That’s bullshit.

Ben: Right, when it’s used as an insult or pejorative,.

Jeff: Yeah. That’s lazy. You’re not even listening. Chris is right. That’s a lazy review.

Ben: I’m in the same boat. I think a lot of people are. You guys have been with that, you’ve lived with that label for a long time and if it’s used as a point of praise, it’s like you said Jeff, there’s no issue. I wouldn’t have any issue with that and you don’t, obviously. But, used by lazy reviewers or lazy critics as a thing to bash you with, well…

Chris: I was going to say we kind of whine about it and still try to reconcile the fact that we can’t seem to break beyond people’s perception that there’s more to us than just kind of some Rush similarities. But, I don’t guess we helped ourselves with Alex Lifeson guesting on Flypaper either.

Ben: How did that happen? I actually forgot about that. Did that come through Terry or Hugh?

Chris: Oh yeah, that came through Terry. Terry’s brother, Phil Brown, his older brother who kind of got Terry into the business has worked with all kinds of notable people; Roxy Music and Talk Talk. The list is endless.

And we got to cracking jokes one day and I told Terry. I said, “You know, we just need some big name guitar player on here to help move CDs.”

Jeff: Yeah, but tell him who the big name you threw out was.

Chris: And Terry’s brother had just got done working on a David Gilmour album.

So I said “Why don’t you call your brother and see if David will just play this quick eight bar solo here.”

Ben: He can phone it in.

Chris: Yeah, we’ll be all set. I can’t imagine why he just wouldn’t do that. And Terry laughed and blew me off for the joke that it was. And then, a couple days later he said, “Well, you know what? That wasn’t such a bad idea. I don’t think David Gilmour’s our guy, but why don’t I give Alex a call and see if he’d be into doing something.”

And so, sure enough he ended up doing it. Terry went over to Alex’s studio or had played him some stuff beforehand. Alex was into it. He put Alex into three rough mixes. It was really pretty impressive when we finally saw the Pro Tools files. Alex had done probably 15 tracks of different guitars, and different parts and all kinds of experimenting for probably a ten or 12 hour work day.

Jeff: Not all of those 15 tracks made it on the record, by the way.

Ben: Do you have the out-takes? You should sell those.

Chris: Oh yeah, I had Terry give me kind of a sample mix with all of Alex’s parts kind of blasting through. Actually, Terry mixed me virtually out of the song anyway. So, what you hear on it is 80% Alex anyway.

Jeff: Chris wasn’t supposed to tell you that, Ben, by the way.

Ben: Oh, he was masking as Alex.

Jeff: No, Chris is very well-represented, but there are certain parts where Alex is lead – where I’m playing with Alex, and Mark and Paul.

Ben: Wow. Well, you know what? I’ll put the song out there, and link to folks to see if they can play a game and tell who’s who.

Chris: That’s not meant to sound like a complaint at all. If there was anybody that can take over a song from me, then I’m more than happy to have it be Alex or David Gilmour. That would’ve been…

Ben: That would’ve been even better.

Chris: So yeah, we were kind of hoping that if Alex Lifeson himself didn’t think we sounded so derivative that he was willing to do it, mostly for Terry of course, but certainly not put himself in a position of embarrassment. But, that kind of shows the general public that – because we got to meet Alex, and talk to him, and thank him and stuff.

Jeff: And Chris, tell him the gift that we gave him. We gave him a gift.

Chris: And he was very complimentary about the CD. He could hear some Rush stuff here and there, but he was actually pretty complimentary that we were doing something that he thought was fairly unique.

But, what do you give a guy that has everything he wants? He didn’t take anything for all of his efforts. So, we gave him three or four dozen expensive golf balls with “Tiles” painted on it.

Ben: Golf balls.! Is he a golfer? I don’t even know.

Chris: Yeah, he’s a real serious golfer.

Jeff: But Chris, tell him why we didn’t print “Alex Lifeson” on the balls.

Chris: Oh yeah, we didn’t want to leave a trail of balls in the woods. I think we cracked some kind of joke saying we put our name on this so in case anybody stumbles across them in the woods or the water, then you’re not held accountable.

Ben: That’s right. With “Tiles” printed out them, no golfer would make the connection. They’d probably think it’s some brand name like “Titleist”

Jeff: Exactly. So, we just thought, “Well, if we put Alex’s name,” he plays some great gold courses – courses we’re never going to play. So, he plays some great golf course with a bunch of water and woods on it and people are finding it. “Who the hell is this Alex Lifeson guy? This guy blows.”

Chris: So, you can let all the Rush fans know what a great guy Alex is.

Jeff: And he was very cool. We actually got a chance to meet him. He was unbelievable. He was very, very nice especially when we presented him with our gift. Unbelievably nice. That guy spent more time with us than he should have or probably needed to.

Chris: Well, we’re not deluded either. He was glad to reunite with Terry and we had a great time. That’s our biggest claim to fame – bringing some faction of Rush back together with Terry. Even that’s okay too. As a Rush fan, I’m a little bit partial to the Terry-produced years. That’s some kind of story that would be interesting for a Rush fan.

Ben: Do you got any more hiding? I think we covered that stuff.

Jeff: Hell yeah, he does. Hey, tell him what happened at Terry’s birthday party, Chris.

Chris: Oh yeah, Terry’s 60^th birthday party which was just before – let’s see, that was 2007. So, Jeff and I drive over from Detroit to Toronto.

So, we’re talking to some guy that helped Terry record All the World’s a Stage and there’s all kinds of other musical connections with guys from FM. Was Kim Mitchell there?

Jeff: No, Kim wasn’t there. But, the guys from FM were there.

Chris: Yeah. So anyway, there were many luminaries from the Toronto music scene there. This was after Alex had recorded for us, so we were kind of hoping Alex would show up. But, he was already wherever Rush was was touring at the time.

So Neil Peart comes walking in and ends up being Rush’s representative at Terry’s party.

And, of course, that causes quite a stir because nobody expected him – they all kind of expected Alex and Geddy. But, Neil was the guy that was still left in town from rehearsals. He showed up, and hung out and I got to chit-chat with Neil. He’s just a super nice guy too.

You kind of see these stories about invading his space, but either he was kind of expecting it and well-prepared – he was very approachable.

Afterward, I had passed him on a copy of Flypaper, and a little paperback book that I had picked up in North Carolina about nature, wind – something that a motorcycle guy might like.

Ben: Or an intellectual for sure.

Jeff: Yeah trust me, Ben, I don’t hang with Chris. Once he gets intellectual, I’m like, “What?” Okay, let’s go where other people are.

Ben: It sounds like he and Neil probably hit it off that way.

Jeff: Well, they hung at the bar. There’s a picture on our website. There’s two, I think.

Chris: Yeah, there’s a couple. I think it’s Neil and Terry, and me and Neil. So, for the first time in a million years, I drink a beer. And so, here is a picture of me drinking a beer. Not quite as exciting as Alex Lifeson playing on one of our songs.

Ben: Hey, just to wrap it up, I want to ask you guys if there’s anything new coming up, any news, any releases, or tour dates or anything that you want to tell the fans, or prospective fans, about?

Chris: Well, we’ve recorded a bunch of stuff on a live soundstage with a small audience – to make sure that people realize it’s truly live.

Ben: So, is that out yet? Or you said you’ve already done part of it, but what’s the schedule?

Chris: Oh. Well, we’ve got just gobs and gobs of new songs. We’ve done lots of jamming in Jeff’s basement. I’ve got tunes, and Jeff’s had ideas and we’ve worked on getting some things together.

Jeff: I guarantee that the first three minutes of this first song that we’ve kind of completed which is a longer piece, it will be totally different than anybody’s ever heard from tiles.

Ben: Uh-oh.

Jeff: Chris, would you agree?

Chris: Oh yeah, we’re bringing in some techno and industrial influences. We should probably still play up the whole Rush pedigree since this is an interview about our Rush similarities…

Ben: No, no. Diversity is good.

Jeff: No listen, Chris throws a suspended fourth in the second bar of this industrial intro.

Ben: Suspended chords are like a tick you have, huh Chris? You can’t help yourself?

Chris: Sorry. It’s my hands just fall in the same old places.

Ben: Well, I think that’s where that suspended chord form came from. You just mash your fingers on the fingerboard and there it is.

Chris: Well, it started out that way – when I first started playing guitar, I couldn’t make a proper bar chord. I couldn’t get all six strings to sound.

Jeff: Hey Ben, he had weak fingers.

Chris: When I started learning tunes like those on 2112 I thought, “Well hey, I can sink these chords.”

Ben: Well, I look forward to hearing the curveball if you’ve got one ready to throw. Stick it to the critics.

Well, thanks guys so much for your time. I appreciate all the info, and the old war stories and your point of view on things. What’s the website and other places folks can hear about you online?

Jeff: The website is www.tiles-music.com. We’re also on Facebook, and  Myspace, and reverbnation.com.