Put on Your Tanooki Suit

Dec. 15, 2004

Tanooki Suit has worked the last three years on creating a strong presence in the area music scene through touring and frequent local appearances. This energetic indie rock band is comprised of four high school students from Traverse City: Patrick Carroll on guitar and vocals, Will Thomas on drums, Colin Campbell on bass guitar, and Andrew Rosinski on guitar. Northern Express sat down with Tanooki Suit to talk about music, the local scene, and what comes next.

NE: How did Tanooki Suit get started?
Patrick: Andrew, Will and I started playing together in junior high. We were more kind of hanging out, jamming together. It was just something to do. And then Colin joined up a few months later.
Will: We knew we wanted to be a band from the beginning but there weren’t really any guidelines to start. We just wanted to have fun in the garage. But we started trying things out and soon after that we had the name.
Patrick: Will’s brother, Cam, actually suggested the name, kind of out of the blue. He told us what it meant and really, it was better than any of the other names we were considering. So that was that. (Note: A Tanooki Suit is a special item in Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers 3.)
Will: It was kind of a miracle it passed. Somehow it endured all the discussions of change, and unfortunately, it stayed. (laughter) It really has no significance beyond a reference to video games. But we’re past the point of no return now.

NE: What did the first music coming from Tanooki Suit sound like?
Patrick: It was instrumental to start. There weren’t even any vocals for the first year. We’d just fool around, come up with cool guitar parts. It sounded like garage surf rock. Then when we started adding vocals, we didn’t have a designated singer. Colin was going to be our singer, but he couldn’t sing and play at the same time…(laughter)
Colin: I was more embarrassed to sing than anything. That’s kind of why Pat stepped in.
Will: Colin’s voice hadn’t changed yet so we didn’t want to put him on any songs. It would sound weird.
Colin: And yet Pat’s voice still hasn’t changed…
Patrick: So anyway…our first song with vocals was “Plaid.” It was this emo kind of ballad, ripped off a Radiohead song.
Will: It was a monster ballad. It went verse, chorus, solo, chorus. Our second and third songs made it to our first CD, but “Plaid” sadly did not.
Patrick: It’s a rare limited edition now.
Andrew: Pat wrote all the songs on that CD. (laughter)
Patrick: Let’s see, the debut (Yes Yes Yesterday) came out in May 2003 I believe. It’s really more a collection of 15 or so random songs that we did. Weezer-inspired, pop rock songs. But the album is not that coherent as a whole; the songs don’t really fit together.
Will: But it was the first step in us maturing as a band.

NE: You released a second CD (Rough Lines) this past May. How would you compare it to your debut?
Colin: It’s more intelligent music. We progressed from just simple chords to something more complex. Musically, lyrically…it’s more intricate.
Will: Our first CD is more vocal-driven. The second CD is more about the instrumental -- we have two instrumental tracks on that one.
Patrick: The song-writing process was completely different for the second CD. It was more like, “Let’s just write these songs and see what happens.” We wanted to be open to exploring more, which was different than with our first CD.

NE: As a band, do you have a particular style or sound you’re trying to achieve?
Patrick: I don’t think we’ve really found our style yet.
Colin: Our first and second CDs are totally different.
Patrick: Some bands have a certain sound they’re going for, or they’re trying to sound like a this band or that band. We’re not trying to do that. If anything, we would try not to sound like another band. Other musicians influence us, but more in the sense that they inspire us to keep playing and making music. They don’t affect our own sound -- we take it from there.
Will: We’re definitely a rock band. We might do different things, but I think we’ll always be in that category in some way.

NE: You’ve made a strong mark on the local music scene. What are your thoughts on the scene in this area?
Andrew: Traverse City has a great music scene.
Patrick: It’s too bad it’s kind of far for bands to travel to.
Andrew: We should move Traverse City downstate.
Will: People complain sometimes and give it a bad name but I am really pleased with the number of shows we have up here.
Patrick: Although a full time venue devoted to music would be great.
Colin: There’s too many bar-type venues here where you’re asked to be quiet or turn your mikes down so that they can hear the game on TV. We’ve played some of those shows, and it’s not worth it. There’s no respect for the bands that are coming in to play.
Patrick: We have a good relationship with a lot of the other venues in town. We’ve played TC Local shows, Jacob’s Well shows. Even shows out of the area- Charlevoix has been great to us. I just wish there wasn’t so much negativity in the local scene sometimes, so many complaints. It’d be great if the music scene was more united, more like a family.

NE: What does the future look like for Tanooki Suit?
Colin: We will probably be together at the most for another year or so, until the end of high school.
Patrick: Andy’s probably going to end up in Chicago. Will and I are still undecided about college, where we’ll go.
Colin: I might go down to Chicago too. But for now, we’re planning on recording an album with Victor Fix the Sun! over Christmas break. That’ll be a split CD that should be out in early 2005. And we’d like to do another full-length album too, hopefully by next fall.
Patrick: We’re not expecting anything big [with the band]. We’ve talked about pushing for a small deal somewhere at a record label. We’ve been sending out demos, trying to work something out. But for the most part we’re focusing on shows and making a new album. Eventually, we will probably go our separate ways.
Will: You always have big ideas in the back of your mind. You have those things you hope you’d see happen. But you just have to take it as it comes, one day at a time.

Tanooki Suit’s albums are available at www.tanookisuit.com or at Vinyl D in downtown Traverse City. This is Beth Milligan’s first article for the Express.