By: Taylor Magill
In a world where every high school kid has access to a guitar, the music industry is full of hundreds of bands restricting themselves to some sort of popular sub-genre and the fleeting hope of cornering some portion of an over saturated market. This is not the case with Calhoun’s experimental post-hardcore band Tir Asleen.
Formed in November of 2009, the five members of Tir Asleen set out to create music with a wide array of sounds while striving to establish a unique and heartfelt sense of identity for themselves. Boasting a wild and energetic live show, tireless work ethic, and the drive to further discover who they are as artists, Tir Asleen is poised to be a light in a world seemingly devoid of originality and full of those selling out for trends.
Although I’ve known the guys of Tir Asleen for several years, I recently sat down to talk to them about the background behind the name, their musical influences, and their upcoming plans in 2013.
AMG: What inspired you guys to start a band?
TA: We all wanted to play and write music but the single event that inspired us to do something different and heartfelt was a Fear Before (the March of Flames) show. We saw them at the 7 Venue in Douglasville, GA alongside a crowd of about 20 other people and we’re completely blown away by their performance. Despite the crowd they put on an intense and captivating performance that inspired us like nothing had before. A few months after that Jesse, Micheal, and Bret drove to Ohio to see Fear Before on their last tour and that pretty much solidified our vision to create what would eventually become Tir Asleen.
TA: From the beginning, we have strived to create something unique and heartfelt. What inspires us most are the bands that do the same thing. Older bands like Botch, At the Drive-In, Glassjaw, and Refused who were creating something unique at a time where none of that existed up to now with bands like La Dispute, Touché Amore, and Pianos Become the Teeth that are recreating some of the emotion that we feel had been missing from the music scene for a while.
TA: Obviously Fear Before because without them Tir Asleen wouldn’t exist. But there are so many other bands that influence us like Thursday, Coheed & Cambria, The Pixies, Sparta, Horsetheband, Glassjaw, Botch, Refused, At the Drive-In, Kane Hodder, & Circa Survive to name a select few.
TA: Touring through most of the Midwest and East Coast would by far have to be our greatest accomplishment. We’ve had the pleasure of playing shows in over 20 states and plan on making it out to the West Coast soon. Of course none of this would have been possible without the amazing support from our label (The Motherland Collective). They believed in us at a time when no one should have and without their support we wouldn’t be the band we are today. The most memorable show we’ve played was a show at the Masquerade in Atlanta last year opening up for La Dispute on the Wildlife Tour.
TA: February 16-23 we will be in the studio recording music for 2 future releases: one that will be a split and another that will end up being our next EP. Release dates are still up in the air but we should know something concrete soon. We’re also planning a few tours this year with the first one starting in May with our good friends from Knoxville, TN Lions. This is going to be the biggest year Tir Asleen has had yet and we can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us.
TA: We’ve had the pleasure of opening for so many amazing bands since we started, but out of the ones we haven’t played with the opportunity to open for any of these bands would send us into a joyous fit: Thursday, Glassjaw, Circa Survive, Coheed & Cambria, Sparta, mewithoutYou, and Horsetheband.
TA: Tour as much as we can and get our music out to more people one basement at a time. Eventually if we can find a label to press some future releases for us one day then that would be amazing as well. Hopefully one day we can take this venture overseas as well and tour through Europe. All we’ve ever wanted to do is inspire people to go after their dreams and create music. If one kid wants to create music because of us then we’ve reached our ultimate goal because in the end all it takes is that one kid to make something matter.
TA: These are the best ways to keep up with our antics:
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.twitter.com/
http://www.youtube.com/
Tir Asleen is Micheal Floyd on guitar and vocals, Jesse Hicks on vocals, Bret Williams on bass, Dallas Gallimore on guitar, and Cameron Flaisch on drums.
