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July 2021




  

TILLI’s
Latest Wild Ride
Through Hollywood
Interview By: Patricia Baker



Punk Globe interviewed TILLI following her neo-noire release “Do You Love Danger” filmed at Union Station and we are excited to showcase TILLI’s latest video “Do I Have To Spell It Out For You?’ A tongue in cheek, Bonnie and Clydesque slightly trashy, fun, romantic, get it while you can, the consequences be damned, wild ride through Hollywood.  When you fall so hard, you’d even commit crimes with your paramour. TILLI's latest video chronicles such a complicated relationship.

Punk Globe sat down with TILLI of TILLI and the Titans to discuss the release, co-written with Junior Rodriguez in Paris, and filmed with Bailey Coppola and to ask about the video and about TILLI’s upcoming work.

Punk Globe: Tell us about your latest release that dropped last month, “Do I Have To Spell It Out For You? 

 

TILLI: This song... yes it’s a grab the money and  run scene through Hollywood Blvd. and the seedy Hollywood motel room hideout. I had a friend who was a Famous bank robber in his day... Eddie Dodson was his name and he  would tell me wild stories about his heists. His girlfriend needed expensive shoes all the time and he had his umm needs...so off he would go. He was very polite and only used a fake pistol. He was also a vegetarian and an antiques connoisseur. The Yankee Bandit. He went to jail a lot . Stealing Corporate money and going for the abandonment of it all. It probably comes out of the cabin fever of the mind... Wanting to break free. And, doing it with someone you would happily go criminal with. That’s the whole point. 

I think Luxe Interior and Poison Ivey had that fire.


Punk Globe: Where was the video filmed? Tell us about the locations, and challenges making the video. Where did you film?

TILLI: We filmed the video in Hollywood at a motel where everything was brown ... some kind of 70s colors... weird. And the rest of it was filmed on different streets around town. Hollywood is so boss like that... All the guards looked the other way so we get our shots done! Movie town baby! The difficulties come more with the time and money limitations... Getting all the shots done in a somewhat controlled frenzy and yet still things get left in the dust. Everybody had to saddle up. It gives it an edge even if we’re smiling a lot, they are smiles of frenzy 

Punk Globe: There’s beautiful vintage photography equipment in the video, a brownie and a vintage flash? Whose collection were those props from?

TILLI: Oh yeah, the flash and camera belong to the young director I was working with, Antonio Bourge. He has a collection of vintage cameras and movie memorabilia... The camera had a really good feel to it, so we went all David Lynch in mixing time periods. The bulbs get so hot when flash that they kind of melt and look pregnant. The tiny tv is one of my props that I use a lot .

Punk Globe: Do you anticipate continuing to use LA and Hollywood as a backdrop to your upcoming videos?

TILLI: Oh yes I will continue to use Los Angeles as my palette. It’s got a lot to offer... the next video will be filmed here very soon... I have my eye on anther rooftop and a wall with barbed wire...

Punk Globe: Karan Singh and you are currently in the studio, what are you working on? Your collaborations have varied so, thematically from “Do You Love Danger“ to “Do I Have To Spell It Out For You” and the new song X . What can you tell us about your writing and co-production process?

 

TILLI: Music is like sex... and there is good sex and bad sex, right? We desire to be moved...

Currently we are  recording a sexy jailbreak song... it’s a transformation song... It’s another theme I think we can all relate to given the circumstances of the last year and a half.

Now we are getting ready to release Howling at The Moon which is a rocknroll ballad and the video travels through a  few lifetimes with the same characters playing out their drama and... The Longing! 

Most of my songs have to do with the human condition... feelings, situations, actions, driving in L.A. - the stuff I see. I also write about the mystery of the Moon...space. 

The music comes through me so I try and get out of the way as much as possible. One of us will grab something from the Ethers  and then we go to work. It all happens in the kitchen... Like any good party. The videos also come along in head pictures. Getting it from the air into form in this dimension is the thing. It’s a lot of work! I do like the process though...  I never did things step by step before... it’s something I’ve had to learn because I got tired of having to rebake the cake all the time! 

It’s a musical Universe... everything is a vibration. 

Punk Globe: Where was “26 FL.” filmed and “Drive All Night?"

TILLI: Almost all my videos are filmed in Los Angeles... On the street, up in the canyons, at the top of the library for 26Fl. That is a song I recorded with Dave Grohl and  I did the video for 26Fl. with Bailey Coppola directing and co- producing  and we used the elevator in the old Desmond Building... along with Ruben, the famous elevator man. You have to get really creative if there is not a big budget. You kind of have to “get it” in one or two shots. Like a Russ Meyer film or an Ed Wood. 

For the  Hollywood Blvd scene in ‘Do I Have to Spell it Out For You’ we had to time it so the cops had made their drag up and down the boulevard and then we hit it... throwing counterfeit $100’s out the window and the moonroof (which people were very interested in ) and then had to duck down a side street a few times to hide. Ha!

Punk Globe: Tell us about ‘Howling At The Moon.’ 

TILLI: I filmed ‘Howling at The Moon ‘ with Bailey Coppola and Junior Rodriguez in my old house on Martel and then at various locales in town like Mel’s Coffeeshop for the 1950’s lifetime and Chris Burden’s street lamp installation in front of LACMA for the present lifetime. Many lives, many chances ! 

Punk Globe: 'Love Stance’ has also been blowing up on Sound Cloud. For a so called ‘down year’ you’ve been prolific. What’s your writing process been like during Covid-19? You have explained that some of your process is inspired by lucid dreaming.

TILLI: I guess all this home lockdown gave me the chance with Karan Singh and his talents to focus and get stuff done... Home jail. What else to do? Yes, I have a big lucid dreamlife and it’s really important to me... It shows me stuff about myself and others. 

26 FL. came from there...  I told Dave G. about my dream in an elevator going to the 26th floor and he said let’s record it! Tombstone came from there... It’s a rich place in the void. Way trippier than acid ????!

Love Stance is a rockin’ dance song that has a never ending 4 on the floor beat. The cloud is digging it probably because it’s a long weird groovy ride and I wrote it sitting on Jim Morrison ‘s tree . 

Punk Globe: What can Punk Globe Readers look forward to next? Where can readers see your work?

TILLI: Welllll! We are getting ready to drop ‘Howling at The Moon ‘ any minute now and then X song is in the lineup. I’m back in rehearsals with The Titans and we have some really exciting shows booked already.

Halloween we are opening for Oingo Boingo at The Canyon Club. It’s going to be hot and spooky with The Coolers band on board. There’s a badass  brewery in Palmdale, Transplant Brewery that is starting a hot mess music scene and we will be playing there end of July as well as a few local shows while finishing up a new ep. So, it’s coming to a station near you ... tune in to the vibration ⚡️ 

Punk Globe: Thank you TILLI, it’s been a  pleasure. Do you have any links you would like to share with our readers?

TILLI: Big shoutout to you Patricia Baker and that Very Wild Woman Ginger Coyote! 

 








TILLI