TIEKEN

Tieken (pronounced, I’ve learned, “tea-ken”) is a two-piece metal outfit from Ursa, IL, comprised of twin brothers Trenton (stylized Trent10) and Trevin Tieken, with Trent10 playing drums, Trevin playing bass, and both providing vocals. Though I can’t possibly imagine doing much of anything with my sister that doesn’t result in me trying to kill her, the talented twins tell that fights seldom arise as a problem for them. I believe it, because obviously nothing’s stopped them from kept them from making reminiscent of metal fifteen to twenty years ago – in the best way. These guys are insanely talented, and I was able to learn a little more about them.


So, I’ve gotta say, I can’t imagine doing much of ANYTHING with my sisters, and you guys have managed to create a really cool sound and music I feel like people are bound to love. How do you keep those inevitable sibling shouting matches from disrupting what you do?
- We honestly never really fight… pretty strange!

Whoa… I kinda doubted that relationships like that actually existed between siblings.

Building off of the last question, how long have you been playing, and what made you decide to play together?
- We've been around music since we were born, and grew up with a dad who was a musician so it was inevitable that we'd end up playin’ music, with one of us playing bass and the other playing drums we naturally ended up playing together.

It’s like going into the family business – only, you know, cooler.

Your pages say you’re looking for another guitarist; how do you think the addition of a third member will impact the band?
- It’s hard to predict what would happen with the right third member and how it would affect the music, unfortunately we've had a lot of bad luck so far, but in order to play live you gotta have a full band.

Completely understandable - I know that I’m not alone in loving the thought of seeing you guys live!

Which one of you writes the lyrics to the songs? Or do you write them together?
- We both write lyrics and music, and we both have our own songs we write individually.

What do you use as inspiration for your music?
- Inspiration comes from anything and everything... people, life, movies, other music, or whatever makes us wanna write, we have no rules.

Of the songs you’ve done together, which do you connect with the most (individually)?
- Probably some of our most recent stuff we're working on, but you'll have to wait for that!

Ah! Way to make me over-eager. Here’s to hoping I won’t be waiting for too long!

What do you guys do when you aren’t creating sick awesome music?
- Either watching way too much TV and movies, or making ridiculous movies with friends, oh and can't forget Blowing Shit Up!

Haha, sounds like fun!

Who serves as the greatest influence to each of you? Both in regards to your respective instruments and musicians in general.
- Overall as a band we'd say Rob Zombie, Motley Crue, Alice Cooper, Kiss and Marilyn Manson are kind of our main influences, but as far as individual players for bass and drums would be Bassists like Gene Simmons, Jack Bruce, and Nikki Sixx and Drummers like Tommy Lee, John Tempesta, Seven Antonopoulos, and Morgan Rose, the list is endless....

If something, anything, had kept you from doing music, what would you have done instead?
- Something in arts and entertainment, like movies, or music production, art, something along those lines.

You guys are still young. I know you do something with film (I saw the trailer for “Hampshire” and really want to see it now) – would you ever try to pursue something in that avenue, along with your musical endeavors?
- Maybe, we love movies and love goofin’ around with filming.

Movies – best and worst of all time?
- Tough question.... We love a lot of movies and hate a lot of movies!! We could spend an hour trying to figure this question out.

Everyone has some kind of guilty pleasure in their music collection. What’s yours?
- We don't feel guilty about anything we listen to.

Now here’s my embarrassing question: How do you pronounce your name? I really don’t want to get it wrong.
- TIEKEN, Tie (like the drink Tea), ken (like Ken and Barbie).

What’s on your playlists?
- Neither of us have consistent playlists we listen to.

What do you want your fans to get out of listening to your music?
- Pure entertainment and enjoyment, and for people to make their own interpretation.

We don’t see a lot of those eight-to-twelve minute songs anymore, and you’ve got quite a few. Is there a reason behind that or is that just how things turned out?
- None of the songs are all that long, I think there’s a glitch on the players saying they're twice as long as they really are, our longest is song is about 5 minutes. Maybe someday we'll jam out a 10 min groove like the old days.

Oops! My mistake! Well, I wouldn’t be opposed to hearing something that long. Maybe I should start letting things end instead of getting distracted…

So, keep it in mind, guitarists in the area, the Tieken twins are on the lookout! And readers, you should be looking out, too, because I’ve got a feeling good things are coming our way from these young rockers. There are currently six songs available for listen on their MySpace page (see the link at the bottom), with my personal favorite being “Kings, Queens, and Fools”. Check it out!!

TIEKEN myspace - http://www.myspace.com/tiekenband


Lotsa love to all my readers, all the bands, and any music-lover who hasn't yet found his or her way to this blog... even though they don't know I send my love. ;)

Mari
xoxo

marissa.billiet@hotmail.com
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