If you hadn’t yet heard of the recently formed supergroup, Good Tiger, you have to check them out ASAP. With ex-Tesseract vocalist Elliot Coleman, ex-The Safety Fire guitarists Derya Nagle and Joaquin Ardiles, ex-The Faceless drummer Alex Rüdinger, and bassist Morgan Sinclair, the band self-released their debut LP, A Head Full of Moonlight, last year. In their first full tour, they supported Periphery and Veil of Maya in Europe, but they have now teamed up with August Burns Red and Between the Buried and Me for a US run. We spoke to vocalist Coleman during the tour. Check out the interview below.
Right now you guys are on a great package with BTBAM & August Burns Red. How has it been so far and what are your relationship with these two bands?
So far, it’s been one of the most fun tours I’ve done myself. We’ve all toured with Between the Buried and Me, except for Morgan [Sinclair], but he’s toured with August Burns Red. So, we all know each other. The BTBAM guys are like family and when you go into a tour with people you know, it’s easy right off the bat.
A Head Full of Moonlight was officially released by you guys last year. Was there a different dynamic in the writing or recording process in comparison to Tesseract or other projects?
I’d say this was certainly more organic. Dez [Nagle] and I worked really close on the vocals especially and there was more freedom to experiment. For me personally, in the last band I was with, all I did was what the previous guy had done. So this was like my first opportunity to create vocals for a full-length. When you can basically do whatever you want, it feels like you’re just picking out the bad parts because you have a lot of material to work with.
Good Tiger is comprised of members from metal bands. You guys tour with metal bands. But your sound is quite different than metal, maybe leaning more towards rock. When forming the group and writing the album, was there any decision making towards rock or metal?
Dez is the main songwriter in terms of the instrumentals. I know he’s grown up with a lot of 90’s alternative rock and you can hear that in the music. But he also has a progressive metal background. Being able to blend those two, made it a really unique sound and it fits really well with these two bands we’re with. It’s proggy enough to fit in with BTBAM and just heavy enough for August Burns Red.
Were you the main lyricist and was there any goal or theme for the lyrical content of the LP?
We all kind of contribute with lyrics. I would say I’m the chief lyric writer, but I don’t need to have a signature thumb print on every song. It’s not my way or the highway if someone has a better suggestion. And that goes for the music too. We’re all willing to compromise for whatever is best towards the song. But I would say it’s not really a conceptual record or any underlying theme. “Enjoy the Rain” is about an alcoholic and that stems from the film Leaving Las Vegas. It’s not directly correlated, but I remember watching it and thinking it was something I could write about without being exactly about the film.
Your latest news is you signed to Blacklight Media to re-release physical copies of A Head Full of Moonlight. Do you think with streaming services like Spotify or Apple music nowadays, physical sales have lost its appeal for the rock or metal community?
I would have thought so, especially being 2016. And Spotify has been around for awhile, so why buy something when you can download it for free or stream it? We’ve been selling a lot of records at every show. When we first started, we thought they were buying so they’d have something for us to autograph, but these are new listeners and want the physical copy. So, I’d say it’s still alive and well. Obviously, it’s not as strong as it used to be, but there’s no complaints on how many records we’re selling at the shows, every show.
I think there’s a slight connotation towards supergroups or projects like Good Tiger in that they are somewhat short term. Do you foresee the band as a long-term project?
Oh, definitely long term. We didn’t do this to make a quick pay day or anything. We’re not from the biggest bands ever coming together so there’s no way we could play some shows and get a million dollar guarantee. We all sacrificed a lot to make this work. Being in a band with members from different continents, it’s tough to do, but it really does work in this situation. We wouldn’t have signed a record deal either if we wanted to be one and done.
When funding the album, you guys received $45,980 via Indiegogo, which is way more than the bar you guys set. Do you foresee using this process in future releases?
If we never signed a deal, maybe. It felt like a risky thing to do at the time. Our original goal was $16,000 to cover the cost of the album and we were kind of nervous about that. We were kind of on the fence because if we didn’t hit our goal, then that’s it. Overwhelming support and a lot of really generous people that were excited about music made it great though.
A lot of bigger bands are participating in crowdfunding as well. What do you think this says about the music industry and community?
We only did it once and it was extremely successful for us. I would say any band that has a fanbase can do well with it. I know Darkest Hour destroyed their goal for theirs. If you think you can pull it off and continue your career doing something like that, then by all means go for it. The one thing I like about it is it’s not charity. We’re selling a product through there. The money we made, we earned and I like that.
Any plans for the rest of the year?
Yeah, we have tons of plans. Nothing I can talk about right now obviously, but we’re working on our follow-up. There will be plenty more touring in the US and Europe. It’s a well oiled machine and it’s going great right now.
