When I was about 17, I had just been introduced to the realm of experimental music. It didn't take long for me to dig deeper and deeper, as about 40% of my teenage years were spent on discovering new music. I had gone from listening to stuff like indie rock and post-punk, to more exploratory genres like post-rock and experimental, or avant-garde. I was open to almost anything new; bands that were taking creativity one step further than the usual "mainstream equivalent to rock progression" we had all become so used to, and never dreamed of questioning.
I started stumbling upon all types of artists and bands that would later influence me greater than I could ever imagine. I started listening to bands like Explosions In The Sky, MONO, Tarentel, Red Sparowes etc. (which to this day all hold a special place in my heart.) It wasn't long before myself and a few friends wanted to be involved in the same kind of thing, musically. We experimented here and there, but ever quite found what we were looking for at first-
Until one day, I was on the Temporary Residence label's site, and felt I needed something more, as many of their artists had previously failed to let me down. The name 'By The End Of Tonight' on the mp3 side-panel was first to catch my attention, and I thought "What a strange name, this just HAS to be good!".. I ignorantly clicked on a download link, thinking I would be directed to a biography of sorts, when suddenly, a mysterious mp3 started downloading. As much as it may have seemed like a mistake at the time, in hindsight, it was probably the best mistake I've EVER made. I just thought that By The End Of Tonight sounded like an awesome band name, but I really had no idea just how incredible their music in fact was, or how much of an impact it would later be on my life as a fellow musician.
By The End of Tonight (often abbreviated as BTEOT) was an instrumental four-piece band from Alvin, TX. Formed in 2003 by Stefan Mach, Josh Smith, Jeff Wilson and James Templeton, with the later addition of Brett Taylor in 2006 after Josh's departure. They mingled between blends of vicious math-rock and swirling post-rock, interwoven into ferocious bursts of experimentation, and a pinch of metal thrown in too. They managed to grow quite an extensive following over the years, in and out of Texas, respectively. They signed to the Temporary Residence label (home to greats like EITS and MONO) in their adolescent years, leaving an even bigger impression on their early reputation. They released 2 full-length albums, a number of EPs and a handful of split albums with bands/friends including Tera Melos, and O PIONEERS!!!. Sadly, since 2009, By The End of Tonight have been on an indefinite hiatus, due to relocation and work on other musical endeavors. So while the future may be cloudy in the BTEOT world, their sounds still seem to climb the heads of the uninspired and break the ignorant ice to a comfortable discovery in experimental music- whilst carefully egglifting their jaws up from the floor.
Fortunately, I got to speak with Stefan Mach, just one fourth of the greatness that is By The End Of Tonight:
1) Your music is extremely eclectic and imaginative. Rather than asking the
common cliche of the average long biography, I'm gonna take a short cut and ask
how it all began. How did By The End Of Tonight start? How did the 4 of you first meet?
Stefan Mach: By The End Of Tonight was a band that formed from a few other bands the other members and I were in. I met Jeff (drums) when I was 14 I think, we clicked right away and started playing together. We were playing pretty bad, unimaginative metal at that time, and we went through a few years of doing that and going through many line-ups. Eventually we got around to getting Josh as the second guitarist, because he lived in Jeff’s neighborhood and could practice regularly. Lastly, I suggested James to play bass when we got rid of the bass player we had at the time. James and I had been good friends since we met in 6th grade so it was obvious to me to ask him to come try out. There were a lot of people who were in the band before this line-up came to be, but when we officially started BTEOT it was with these members, so I won’t go into the boring details of everyone else.
2) BTEOT have always kind of struck me as being quite secretive, the origin or
meaning behind the name By The End Of Tonight still remains a mystery to many,
any chance I could get you to spill the magical beans on that?
SM: I cannot say if this is 100% correct, but I think that the band name came from us all sitting around the night before we were sending off the "…In a Letter To The Sandbox" record to get pressed and we still hadn’t decided on a band name to put on the album. I remember us all being in Josh’s kitchen, and I can’t remember who said it, but someone said, “We need a band name by the end of tonight.” That was it and the name was settled shortly after.
3) In 2003 "...In a Letter To The Sandbox" was released as your
"self-produced-demo" which I thought was quite humble of you, considering it's
generous content, clever construction and all round excitement. Thinking back,
could you tell me a little bit about the recording process?
SM: This record to us was never a demo really. We had made a few 3-song demos to hand out around town and at shows, but I don’t think we ever sent them to any labels or anything. A good friend of ours was taking an audio engineering class at the college in our town and needed a band to record for his final project, and since we had 14 songs to record it was perfect for both of us. We had the recording studio for 3 hours at a time, and I think 2 nights a week. The whole record took about 2 – 3 months, being recorded like this. We recorded all of the songs live on a reel-to-reel recorder with very little to no overdubs. The only overdubs were pianos, and the little weird interludes between songs. It was very exciting to record live and just jam. Since it was recorded live the songs are really fast and were even hard for me to play at that speed, unless on stage. All in all it was a great time, and an awesome learning experience for everyone in the band.
4) If you could give me a brief break down of your personal musical influences,
who would they be? And if BTEOT shared mutual influences, what/who would they be?
SM: It might sound weird but personally, I love pop punk and pop music. Blink 182, Pixies, Saves the Day, Of Montreal, Why?, Propagandhi, Andrew WK. Stuff like that. I would say that these bands and styles have had a major impact on the type of riffs I write when playing in the band. But there are a few bands that really influenced the band as a whole and here they are.
1. Rumah Sakit
2. Dilute
3. Dillinger Escape Plan
4. Don Caballero
I STRONGLY suggest anyone who hasn’t heard these bands to check them out. Rumah [Sakit] and Dilute are two of the best bands in the world hands down, in my opinion. If you listen to these bands, and then to “...In a Letter to the Sandbox” it’s pretty apparent that we were fans of these bands at the time of that album.
5) 2005 saw the release of the marvelous sophomore EP, titled "Tribute to
Tigers", which captured just as much charm as it's previous effort, but polished
toward a fresher sound. How did these 5 songs come together? Why tigers?
SM: Tigers was something that evolved on its own. I remember us talking about not really wanting to get stuck in this one genre of writing, and to really just do what we wanted to do on any record we made. It really wasn’t something that we had to sit down and specifically say, “Let’s write a softer album.” It came out how it did because it was what we all wanted to play at that time, and we were happy about the songs. Looking back on it, I think we could of made the album a lot better and some of the songs are just not up to the standard of what I think we could have done. That’s my personal opinion, but I feel safe saying that the other guys feel somewhat similar. I think that the song “Ready? Aim. Fire!” was the best song that we ever wrote with Josh [Smith] in the band, and I really think it embodies the style we were trying to create on "A Tribute To Tigers."
6) As a guitarist, do you have any personal influences you'd like to share with
BTEOT fanatics? What started you playing?
SM: When I started, I was a 12 year-old metal kid. Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura, and stuff like that. Pantera had the biggest influence on my practicing every day, and all day at that. As I got older I got more into pop music and strayed from metal. All of the bands I mentioned before have had a major influence on me and my playing.
7) Jeff is a very talented drummer, it's not very often I hear someone play as
remarkably as he did. Was he self taught, or trained? Also, I read somewhere that
he gives lessons, is that still in full effect? How is it going?
SM: Jeff is a freak of nature. He was totally self-taught and never stops getting better at drumming. It is so awesome to look back and see how lucky I was to have him as a person to jam with for so many years. Jeff and I were teaching at a music store in TX, but have since moved on to other things.
8) How were songs structured during a typical rehearsal? And how were drum lines worked out for guitar melodies, and vice versa?
SM: For every song it was different. There would be times where we would all come to practice with nothing and just started from scratch, and then there would be times where one of us would have a pretty solid idea for a riff, or even a whole song. I think that throughout time the way we were writing had to evolve to the circumstances that the band was in. During the '…Sandbox' days we were all young enough, and had such little responsibility that we could all practice every day of the week, and really write songs as a unit. As time went on that became harder to do. I could go through a list of who wrote what song and what parts but it would take forever. But I can say that every single person in the band had input on every song we ever wrote.
9) Various shouts, screams and wails can be heard in songs throughout your
back catalogue, do these convulsive codes tackle specific subjects? Or rather
better left as random outbursts of excitement?
SM: In all honesty it depends on what song you are listening to. 'In A Letter to The Sandbox' and 'A Tribute To Tigers' were both recorded live, so if while we were recording and someone started screaming, then you would hear it on the album, and if we didn’t want it in the song we would have to re-record the entire song. So they all stayed in. But on the song “Stop, Drop and Roll Does Not Work in Hell” there is a part that has the most vocals in any BTEOT song and it was something that Jeff wrote, and I think it might be the only serious lyrical contribution to our songs. Any other singing part that was structured normally revolved around an inside joke between the band.
10) Along with the other 3 members, you all released your own 3inch "solo" cds in
2007, yours being "The Gunslinger EP", could you tell me a little about how this
all came together? How, and where did you all record these EPs?
SM: This was a point in the band where we were taking a short break from writing together. We had just spent a lot of time making A Tribute to Tigers and had been touring behind that record for months on end, so we all split ways for a month or so. When we all met up again we shortly realized that we had all been writing and recording music of our own during the break and it was all music that was outside the normal BTEOT spectrum. We sat down and talked about what we should do with it, and if we should even bother putting it out as anything, and decided that we should. Jeremy Devine, the owner of Temporary Residence, came up with the idea of the 3” albums and had said it was something he had been wanting to do for a long time, so we jumped on it. All of the records were recorded in our rooms for the most part, and many of them had little help or input from the other members. Jeff’s easily had the most help from other people, where James’ and mine had none from anyone.
10b) Your solo EP titled 'The Gunslinger' has a very evident BTEOT tone, and can definitely substitute for anyone seeking listening pleasure beyond the BTEOT realm. Would you ever consider putting out a follow-up release, or perhaps a companion to this release?
SM: This is something I have planned to do ever since I finished The Gunslinger EP. I have even sat down and recorded ideas for a new record, but my issue has been inspiration. When I was writing The Gunslinger it was finished in about two months and every part just came to me, like the riffs had been living within me forever and just needed to come out. It felt very magical and I only want to write the next record when I am in that state of mind again. If it never comes, I will be disappointed, but I don’t want to push out a record just to do it either. The album was a reference to Stephen King’s amazing Dark Tower series. Between each book there were year-long waits and they were due to him not finding the right mind set to do the next book. It seems that I am in the exact same position.
11) Again In 2007, BTEOT released the split album "Complex Full Of Phantoms",
with Roseville math-legends Tera Melos. What triggered this magnificent idea?
Were you all friends already?
SM: Tera Melos is a great band and even greater friends. We had toured together a few times before this idea came about and the first time we met we clicked on such a personal level that we knew somewhere down the line we would be doing more together. We didn’t know whether it would be touring or something like a split album at the time, but it turned out to be both. So yes we had been close friends before the idea came about and are still good friends to this day.
12) By The End Of Tonight's live shows looked insanely fun, definitely something I wish I was
lucky enough to witness when I had the chance. Are there any shows that still stick out? Memorable moments?
SM: There were a ton of great shows we all played together, and a ton of bad ones as well. It’s hard to really keep that same energy every night on a two month tour, but when the shows were great it was very easy to keep it going. For me personally there are three great shows that stick out:
a) The Halloween show on the closing day of the amazing club in Houston, TX, named Fat Cats, or Mary Jane’s. (Different people will call it one or the other.) That was a club that BTEOT really grew it’s following in Houston at and had a great connection with the staff, and always loved playing the venue. So to be able to play there on its closing night, and on a Halloween show nonetheless, it was very special for us and we were all really sad to see such a great venue get shut down.
b) A show in Colorado Springs at The Piano Warehouse was amazing for us. It just felt right. Everyone was on point and the crowd was great. So great that I broke my guitar in half at the end of the set, and didn’t care. That guitar died at the best show it ever played!
c) Lastly there was the reunion show we did last year in Houston. There was a lot of hype building up to this show and it turned out to be amazing. So many friends and fans came out and made it an incredibly special night for all of us. Thanks to everyone who came!
13) You've all obviously had time to yourselves during the hiatus, which can only
mean various projects have surfaced. What does the future hold for Lisa's Sons?
sIngs, Limb and Fucking Thief?
SM: You know, I can’t really speak for everyone about this. sIngs I believe is working on a new record, and so is James’ band. Limb. Fucking Thief is pretty non-existent at this time, I think. Lisa’s Sons is working on new stuff but there’s not a specific time frame of when it will be out. But I feel that the other guys stay pretty busy with their projects, so you can check them out online to find out more about them.
14) BTEOT released yet another split album in 2007 with O!PIONEERS, containing the single "I Love Technology, I Love You Too", how did this random song come about? And what is the story behind the title?
SM: This was the last recorded song that we wrote as a band. If I remember correctly, we were writing music for a full length but the song felt different than the album we wanted to make. O! Pioneers were great friends of ours and we had always supported each other in the Houston music scene, so it felt right to do a split together. As for the title, a few of us were at a party and someone was expressing their love for their phone by exclaiming, “I love you technology!” From somewhere else in the room a person responded, “I love you, too!” Thus, a song title was born.
15) And now, the break-up question.. Living in different parts of the country is an obvious reason for your absense, but with the following you've gained over the years, would you consider playing more shows in the future? Would new recordings at some point be any way possible?
SM: This is a tough one to answer. We got together briefly last year, and played 5 shows in the summer. Some were great, and some reminded us why we stopped playing in the first place. I know that there are some members who are much more open to the idea of writing an album than others, and that is the big issue, other than me now living in Boston, while they are still in Texas. I don’t want to say that it could never happen, but I think it would take something pretty magical to get everyone on board. Every member of this band is still a close friend that I see having for the rest of my life, but in terms of the band, we have all grown up and moved on since we were all 16 playing together in the garage. Times have changed so much that it’s hard to say, but if there was a way to do it and everyone was excited and REALLY wanted to then I would say yes. I just don’t see that day in the near future.
As much as these fine young lads will be missed, their music will live on forever! They have all been in numerous projects to date, and will continue to put out great music:
Stefan is one half of Lisa's Sons
Brett's solo act, sIngs
James plays in Limb
Thanks so much to Stefan for answering my questions, and thanks to anyone reading!
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