Artist of the Day | TALL HEIGHTS
ARTIST OF THE DAY
23.07.2021
TALL HEIGHTS
LOCATION
Boston, MA, USA
Currently driving from St. Louis to Indianapolis. Just passed a sign that told me we have 208 miles to go.
GENRE
Electrofolk
CURRENT MEMBERS
Tim Harrington (me) and Paul Wright
With the current pandemic, the state of the music and touring industry has dramatically changed. Where were you when everything was brought to a halt?
We were on tour, wrapping up a full national headline tour. We were lucky because we only had to cancel like 5 shows or something. When we finally just called the whole thing off, we were in the venue in Brooklyn talking to the venue staff. They were like "you can do the show if you want to," and ultimately we went with our gut and said "let's not." The next day we found out that the guest sax player who was going to join us that night had Covid. So we made the right call because that dude would have been misting his saliva directly into our faces, and into the crowd too.
How has that affected your plans for the coming year? Did you have a tour planned, upcoming album release?
As we speak we're out on The Tall Heights Backyard Tour. This whole idea was born of covid last fall when venues were closed and not opening soon. With seemingly nowhere to play, we started asking the question, "but what about backyards?" We solicited fans for submissions and ensured ample social distancing and masking, the whole 9 yards. It was a great success, they were cool shows and they felt safe and all that too. We dug it so much that it's kinda just become what we're doing this whole year. We'll be in 50+ backyards this year all over the country. It's been a really cool way to ease back into the live music space, and I think we all need a little TLC and healing after what we just went through, I think the backyard is the best place to do that. We're putting out a new album next year, by then we'll be back in the typical rock venues.
What have you been doing to fill/make the most of your new-found free time at home? How are you supporting your mental health through all of this?
As I said, we're touring now, so there's not a ton of free time at the moment. And, to be honest, the pandemic was also kind-of nuts for us. When we got home from the cut-short-tour, we launched directly into one of the most productive creative periods of our career. We wrote and recorded a ton of new songs, The Mountain being the first of those that we've released. We also had a ton of personal shit going on too. Early in the pandemic, I lost my grandfather, and there were some pretty trying substance abuse issues going on quite close to me as well. Paul's dad had a serious health crisis, and both of our wives became pregnant too. At the time we were all living under one roof with my dog and Paul's cat, my toddler, and everything was just happening so fast and, oh yah, we had to move out of that house by the fall. Man, and moving is so stressful. In any case, to answer your question, what we did with the "time off" was to hole up and create within the most intense madness I had experienced. It was pretty crazy, and there was unfortunately no time for making sour dough bread or whatever people did with their quarantine.
As things are reopening & restrictions are lifting have you booked any new gigs? Tours? Etc? If your region is still under restriction, how are dealing with the Covid third wave?
I think we already covered this one. We're touring in a way that feels extremely aligned with this moment in time.
Favourite Starlite Room Moment?
I'm really digging the Vinyl Unveil y'all are doing! I love that you're spreading the vinyl vibes.
Do you have a message for everyone at home reading this?
We're dropping singles, baby! I'm so proud of this new collection of songs we'll be rolling out this year, so go and find us on Spotify and press follow, so you get all the new shit!
If you would like to be our next ARTIST OF THE DAY please email us at:
JEN@CONCERTWORKS.CA
