Start Listening To: Tiger Really
Canadian emo-jazz band Tiger Really chat to us all things heart-break, dude-bros at shows, and their upcoming album out October 18th.
Tiger Really are an emo-jazz band from Vancouver who have carved out a niche for themselves by mixing emo with elements of jazz, punk, and indie rock, creating a sound that is both distinct and deeply resonant. Their consistently electrifying performances coupled with frontman Lian's intensely personal song-writing has garnered them a deeply connected fan base and community, cementing themselves as a staple of the Vancouver underground.
Tiger Really is set to release their highly anticipated debut full length album "Swan Sting" on October 18th 2024 through Counter Intuitive records. Read on for our interview with front-man and song-writer Lian.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
I'm Lian!! I'm a massive chronically online loser who lives in Vancouver. B.C. and I make music under the name Tiger Really. I was born in Chengdu, China but moved to Calgary when I was eight, and then again to Vancouver when I was 18.
Your sound combines two seemingly opposite genres—emo and jazz. What inspired you to merge these styles? Do you feel that one conflicts with the other?
I think emo is something I've always listened to and connected with growing up, while jazz is sort of a newcomer that I really only started getting into in university. I met a bunch of people in the UBC jazz club who I thought were very nonchalantly musical geniuses and I thought that was really cool.
I don't really know where I got the idea to merge the two, I think it's just sort of the two genres of music that plays in my head all the time, and it's the two styles of guitar playing that I'm inspired by so for me it was a natural move to try to combine them in the music I write.
I think generally emo and jazz are sonically pretty different, but I wouldn't say they are incompatible. I don't know if a true fully 50/50 split of emo and jazz would be my thing, I find that usually I write stuff that leans more to one side of either emo or jazz, and borrows elements from the other, which I think sits better. Both genres have their modularly distinctive elements that make it pretty intuitive for me to combine this way in my head. Plus usually our songs have a bit of an indie-rock slant to it anyways which I feel glues the genres together.
Where did the name ‘Tiger Really’ come from?
I think originally I was sitting in my second year computer science class and bored out of my mind and could feel my brain turning into mush so I started trying to think of new band names. Tiger lillies were my girlfriend at the time's favorite flowers, so I wanted to name the project something related to that.
I thought about changing it after we broke up, but I was tired of always changing stuff and not sticking through a project when things got difficult, so I pressed on with it.
To me now the name Tiger Really is sort of a reminder to commit to my dream even through the hard and uncertain times, and to never giving up on making music. Plus, tiger lillies are my favorite flowers now too.
Your songs are extremely emotional – I’m thinking of the bridge in ‘Fundamentally Unlovable’. Can you walk us through the songwriting process?
I think Fundamentally Unlovable was one of those songs that was written very quickly just out of the sheer raw emotional need I felt to write it.
The song is about a relationship I had with an exchange student from London in my last year of university. We broke up when her exchange program ended and she had to go back home. We had attempted long distance for a little bit, but with how busy both of us were + the 8 hour time zone difference, it was pretty much impossible to spend any meaningful time talking together.
It was definitely the roughest breakup I've ever been through, because the relationship itself was pretty perfect before the distance, and when it ended everything felt incredibly out of my control and ill-fated, which was really hard for me to accept.
It was the first time I had to cope with so many intense emotions happening at the same time, and I hadn't really done the work to develop the tools to deal with that yet so I self-destructed and self-sabotaged in a way that hurt a lot of people, including her and myself.
That's around when I wrote fundamentally unlovable. I just sort of sat down at my computer with my guitar and it all just kind of flowed out into the daw. I was listening to a lot of glocca morra and black country, new road, which I think really showed through in the song.
Many bands cite specific albums or artists as defining moments in their musical journey. Are there any particular records that had a profound impact on you as a band?
I think you can't really be in an emo project without having some sort of moment while listening to American Football, so I'd say that's how I got started. But I think in terms of raw impact like "oh shit I want to make that type of music", I'd probably have to say it was Best Buds by Mom Jeans. It's an album that sort of aged into this weird post-ironic "bad music" meta-state online now, but I still enjoy it. I wouldn't say it's my favorite emo record of all time, but I can't deny the impact it had on me as a young diy musician.
I also really loved the lofi/ballady aesthetics of Chet Baker Sings, and a lot of the other ballads of that era as well. They definitely had a big impact on me and our sound.
Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy was also huge for me, it taught me that you really don't need expensive gear and a "real studio" to make fantastic music. Even today I still record and produce out of a 2 channel audio interface in my bedroom.
Your new album Swan Sting is set to be released on October 18th. What can fans expect from the record?
Swan Sting is an album about love. Love for self, love for others, and how that love changes us, especially when it ends. Grief is a very strange and transformative thing, and this album is sort of the story of the last 3 very strange and transformative years of my life. Every song on the album is directly inspired by a personal experience I’ve had, and the tracks are intentionally ordered in a way to tell a story about love from beginning to end.
I did my best to portray how I felt in these times, and I hope listening to these songs can help listeners reflect on and process their own experiences of love and grief, and see beauty in the irreplaceable person that came out the other end.
Your live shows are pumped with energy and intensity and you often perform at parties, in gardens or houses. Do you feel that playing live shows like this are central to your artistry?
Yeah I think so. I love playing smaller venues and diy spaces, I think that's sorta where you get to meet the most dedicated and passionate music fans. A lot of the music I write is rooted in emotional catharsis and explosive self-expression, and I think stuff like house shows and small stages really lends itself for that due to how intimate it is and how non-existant the barrier is between the musicians on stage and the people in the crowd.
We're not able to play these types of shows as often as we'd like though. Rising rent prices and unaffordable living costs in Vancouver have largely killed a lot of DIY venues unfortunately. But I know that there's still a big culture and community here that will fight to keep the scene alive, so I'm not worried. I just hope one day this city gets a little cheaper to live in, because I really love the scene here.
As a Canadian band, do you feel the scene in Vancouver (and beyond) has shaped your sound much, or do you pull from other scenes?
The Vancouver scene is predominately indie-rock focused, which I enjoy a lot but I wouldn't say that it's the type of stuff I like writing. There are a lot of Vancouver artists that I am influenced by that don't necessarily fall under that umbrella, like girlsnails, Sleepy Gonzales, smush, Jia, Ramen Fog, and Mother Mother to name a few.
I definitely feel more connected with diy emo scenes in the states, and bands like Michael Cera Palin, Riley!, red sun, TRSH etc are big inspirations for me.
What do you love right now?
Sleeping, petting my dog Hanji, having a cheeky bev, playing music with my friends
What do you hate right now?
Tour planning, drama, dude-bros at shows/clubs