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May 2021




  

Do You Love Danger?
The Dangerously Talented
Tilli
Interview By: Patricia Baker

Photo by Julian LeBallister

Photo by Julian LeBallister



Please enjoy this encore presentation of Patricia Baker's interview with Tilli

Punk Globe magazine is excited to interview Tilli . Her new neo noire video “Do You Love Danger,” (an apt anthem for our current zeitgeist), filmed in Downtown Los Angeles at Union Station has recently dropped. MTV has given it 5 stars, and Punk Globe concurs and says ‘check it out’ !

 

Punk Globe: Hi Tilli - who are you listening to in lockdown? 

Tilli: Hi Patricia ... during these extraordinary times I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music and punk/ rock music like some Cramps (so exciting) and some Psychedelic Furs, Little Richard, Jello Biafra (so timeless), Billie Eilish and this crazy kid Teezo Touchdown.... and I skate around on the radio a lot to hear what’s going on sonically in all categories . Feeling people vibes. 

Punk Globe: What’s a typical day like for you during the current Covid 19 pandemic? Do you write, play and make music every day? 

Tilli: I get up every morning and chant and drink coffee and look at my list ... I’m always excited to work on music and to go with it . When it’s time for lyrics I open my senses wide so that I can hear, if that’s the right word, what we’re all feeling… These days we’re all feeling a lot and when I open my senses for music It comes to me in so many ways… Sometimes it’s just a fragment I hear or sometimes an event brings it and we continue with that thread creating together. So yes, I am on it every day and do my best to keep up with the mundane chores of life too ... like Voltaire said ... One must tend one’s own garden. It’s a balancing act. I’m grateful ... spinning it out there.

Punk Globe: Who are your inspirations? 

Tilli: I am inspired by nature ... and space ... and sound, and the elements... animals. people ... the All of it.  Musically, I started out loving early Elvis and Beethoven ... from there you can really go anywhere. Punk and Rock n roll really move me because of the energy ... And its ability to move the body… I think the entire creation comes from sound vibrations first and then there was light, so ...  

Photo by Franklin Teng

Photo by Franklin Teng


Punk Globe: Who do you write with? 

Tilli: At this time, a lot of my new material is coming from a collaboration with Karan Singh ...  he’s a young composer /magician from India. It’s a Hollywood Rock n Roll Bollywood adventure!  We just released Do You Love Danger and its noir video. ( more to come )  I’ve spent time in India and I love the music and the vibe ... anyway, we have a great creative connection ... he’s a punk at heart .  

Punk Globe: What’s the story behind your latest release - this beautiful rockin’, nod to 1940’s neo noire film – your video shot in downtown LA and at Union Station? 

Tilli: I love noir and Neo noir films and detective stories. Hello Raymond Chandler . It’s a great and sexy ride .... dangerous and alluring like the song. Union Station is very beautiful and speaks to a time when there was a lot of uncertainty in the world like now ... and yet a lot of beauty came forth anyway. Karan filmed the video guerilla style and the people in Union Station were very accommodating in looking the other way...  I was directing from the sideline and had the amazing talent of Bailey Coppola (who made the 26FL. video ) and Susan Primorac as the bad guys... My character was time traveling from the future . It’s also an introduction to an upcoming graphic novel I wrote some time ago that we are finally getting to make!  

Photo by Moshe Brakha

Photo by Moshe Brakha


Punk Globe: Who are your current band members? 

Video/filmmakers/partners? 

Tilli: TILLI and the TITANS is the name of my band ... our last show was in February 2020 and then they closed the venues right before our next gig. At that point the band was some of the members from The Coolers; Serge on drums and Sadie Dean on guitar. The bass: Chris Camacho. My band is ever evolving with the music. Karan Singh and I are doing all the film and video ourselves ... we are partners in the Kitchen Studio productions ... He comes from a lineage of filmmakers in India which is exciting because we really bounce on whole concepts. We want people to enjoy !  

Punk Globe: Can you tell us about working at Studio 606?

Tilli: I had a great time creating with Dave. I had sent him these lyrics I wrote from a lucid dream about an elevator and he laughed and said let’s record it! We recorded several songs together and I really enjoyed the process but the day of recording in 606 I was so nervous about how it was all going to work out.  There is a lot of history there and awards are covering the walls . The energy of the place and his ease and John Lousteau recording of it all sort of carried me over .... I still have a big ballad I did with him that has not yet been formally released. ( it’s coming ! )  Bailey Coppola is also in that video.  

Punk Globe: Can you talk about your releases, making 26 Fl and Monster Mashup? You seem to be working very hard.

Tilli: Yes, 26 FL. was something I originally recorded with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters and it was an incredible experience. 26 FL. Monster Mash Up was a re-creation of the original song that Karan Singh and I produced . He made all this new bossy music for it for fun and then we decided to record and release it. From that followed the release of Do You Love Danger ...  

Punk Globe: Can you tell us about writing Drive All Night? Where was the video filmed?

Tilli: I wrote drive all night as a love song to Los Angeles in Hollywood. When I first moved here, I did not know anyone in so I would get in my car and drive around a lot… Especially at night. I had the movement of the car and the radio to keep me company and I saw so many things here. All the poetry of Bukowski and the secret music clubs... downtown was half abandoned and a great playground. Los Angeles was more rundown , glamorous and free for all at the same time. I recorded the song with the talented Alain Johannes of Eleven and Them Crooked Vultures. He created a great rhythmic background for that song to unfold. I shot a lot of the footage while driving around (life in the car)! And Alain shot live footage of me performing with the band and then rolled it together. 

Punk Globe: Are you a gearhead?  “One who is knowledgeable and enthusiastic about equipment and functioning of mechanical devices” and “a technology enthusiast” ?

What an amazing adventure your life seems to have been, growing up in Hawaii, and the south, to getting signed by Eileen Ford and modeling in Paris and now living in Los Angeles and playing and making electronic/dance music. Have you always had an interest in rock and roll? 

Tilli: I have been a rock n roller from the beginning... even while modeling all over the place I was always seeking out the music and the dance halls ... even in Africa I managed to find the musicians ... I had started writing early on but it was delayed due to constant traveling. I did have the earliest Gearhead gear for quite a while ...when I was still a teenager, I was going to punk shows in NY and also hanging out with Eric Clapton and his band. They had some pretty groovy traveling gear ... which of course I had to have. I was the model that came lugging music gear everywhere. Now ... it’s all Spacely Sprockets and yes! Once again, I have some fantastic new gear ... we are headed toward holograms for sure .  

Punk Globe: As it’s December. Can you give us the 411 about your Christmas video?

Tilli: We are working on finishing a song I recorded with Mick Sweda of The Bullet Boys. I’m excited about it and the upcoming holidays because more lights are everywhere... in the winter solstice. 

Punk Globe: Describe yourself in 3 words. 

Tilli: Born to Rock'n'roll!  

Punk Globe: Any concluding thoughts?

Tilli: I wish everyone would pick one animal or send money to plant a tree to support the planet. Without our beautiful planet there will be no music. 

Punk Globe concurs and says check TILLI out!


 








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