The Salvation Day Interviews (1 of 2) with musician Anthony Tadlock

     Dear listener, as a special treat and for the edification of music lovers all over Tumblr this is part 1 of 2 of my Salvation Day Interviews with Anthony Tadlock, A.K.A. t-underneaththeradardancing on Tumblr. Mr Tadlock, I recently spent several hours listening to Salvation Day. Thanks for agreeing to answer some questions about your band’s music. 

    When I dive headlong into music that I’m not too familiar with there’s always this sense of discomfort, but when I started with Mercy from your EP, The Backdoor Sessions, I felt distinctly like I was sitting in a new bar and listening to an exceedingly talented local band perform live. I know we’ve discussed this one-on-one before, but for the peeps on Tumblr, what was the actual genesis of SD, and how did you and Ms Vita Rhie Quintanilla meet? What was the spark that brought you two together to record in the first place?

     to set the stage - so to speak - i had been performing with and jamming and hanging with a young musician - very loose no muss fuss - 3 weeks before meeting vita i had a mild heart attack - mild but the hospital experience was literally a nightmare and nearly killed me - a couple weeks after getting out i was invited over to play/ jam/hang out - wuz expecting at most a couple other ppl to b there - btw to digress - t is very much an introvert - to digress further - t is a stage name but the only name ppl in the music aspect of my life know me by or call me - anywaves - i had just set up my guitar and amp when i could feel a presence coming down the stairs - a young woman - at 1st i guessed 25- ish which would make her the 2nd oldest in the room - she looked at a painting of crows and i said something to her about my love of corvids - i was improvising on guitar - some blues - i think a bass player was playing along and maybe another guitar - she started singing improvising lyrics and we started riffing off each other - her voice blew me away - then she started playing her original songs - omfg ! - anyway - i hoped that we would play together again

     a couple weeks later she walked into Madrone Art Bar where i frequently played open mics -she was with my friend - both joined me on stage and we did what i call "deep space nine " which is what i called any unplanned unrehearsed collaboration onstage - i of course could not remember her name - she handed me a business card lol - she told me she had a weekly gig at a cafe i had performed at and would i like to join her - by this time i knew she was diagnosed w schizoaffective disorder - that she was 17 still in high school and a witch - we started performing together playing her gigs - open mics - on the street ...there is of course more to the story which may be covered as we go on

    I went through every song on Salvation Day’s YouTube page, the instrumentals and the voice go very well together, and I must admit, there is great synergy on display. You two had me mesmerized a few times, particularly with tunes like Para Ti and Reincarnation. Tell me, do the instrumentals come first, or do the lyrics/vocals come first, or somehow both at the same time? What goes into the process before you record?

     virtually all of salvation day songs are mostly vita - the lyrics in particular - some have come out of improvising at gigs - or as vita would say - we are just gonna pull something out of our ass now - some she has already "arranged " before i hear them others she asks me to figure out some chords and key - it should be noted that after graduating high school she moved to davis ca about 100 long miles away with no good way of getting there and back on public transit - required bus ride - a subway ride and finally a train and took 3 hours - neither of us drive though she recently learned - t cant see for shit so - and there was lots of drama in the summer preceding - however we rarely felt the need to rehearse - at early gigs i would ask whats the 1st chord and what key - sometimes the answer was - idk - jimi hendrix chords lol - sometimes they were jazz chords i didnt know - i still play a lot of chords im not quite sure the name of and double stops that suggest a chord - on a good night i play by ear and improvise mostly - when we decided we were gonna make an album - we formalized the arrangements and figured out keys etc ...

     sometimes - like last week when we got together after not playing together in a couple months - tho exchanging some snippets thru email text etc - vita thought of some lyrics on the spot - i started playing some chords - we fucked around w it a bit - made a rough recording on fones and will see if something comes of it - Reincarnation was written just before we met - vita says the songs morphed and become different thru my influence - Para Ti she had come up with a couple months after we started playing together - we were at the friends house - and he had become totally indisposed - we were supposed to start the recording process that day - we waited around to see if he would improve and she started playing it - i came up w the lead guitar lines - btw to digress to q 1 - vita was often in and out of hallucinations and delusions at the time - she has no memory of the 1st time we met and hazy about the beginning period - one last example Mercy - written entirely by vita - tho my guitar was central - she sent me an audio file - it has chords i dont know - i just followed her voice and elaborated - tbh i still dont know what key it is in lol - like jack sparrow eluding capture we just make it up as we go

    Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians out there based on your experiences with SD so far? Have you had any creative blocks or serious problems when generating new music? If so, how do you get through them, and what do you think the most important thing is for a musician to do when they feel discouraged or dejected by their own bad experiences with music making?

     whew - thats a tough one - i have been playing guitar for almost 60 years - been in a number of bands and playing situations - have been discouraged countless times - most recent was the whole experience of recording a studio album with a producer - it was hugely stressful for myriad reasons and ego deflating and not in a good way - we coped w that by recording the Backdoor Sessions ep - the bulk of was recorded in a couple hours in vita's tiny dorm room using garageband - it was done without rehearsal - and we played 2 gigs in january that we were happy with also w no rehearsal - we also released vita's book The Schizophrenic Dialogues - all while covid was rearing its ugly head - no gigs to promote anything - no spoken word opportunities - vita was in terror of infecting me - between age COPD and heart i was a likely candidate to die - so we saw each other rarely

     i had invested a huge amount of $ in the studio album - to cope vita started a collective based on Sacred Arts Productions - a jewelry biz and an art biz - i worked w our web designer / friend / collaborator maggie umber to get our web site up - and started recording daily snippets for instagram and spammed the fuck out of tumblr - vita and i met mostly outdoors - playing mostly acoustic where the chances of infecting me were minimized (she got covid twice during this period ) so i guess my advice is 1) forget the ego and bullshit that goes w doing - anything - but particularly the creative 2) forget about "success" and numbers - sales/listens/hearts...3) just keep on keepin on - that said it aint easy sometimes - i been playing as i said almost 60 years - theres still so much i dont know - i try to learn new things and ways almost daily - just showing up is sometimes a victory

     Listen to Salvation Day on Youtube. Back at the end of the next week with part 2 of my Q&A with Mr Tadlock. If you liked this post, please spread the word about SD and consider reblogging this set of interviews. And if you haven’t done it yet, scroll to the top of this post and smash play!

Colgera // The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

love all the tmi couples POST tmi but in every single case the early relationship was in shambles like why is everyone pretending they cannot see red flags come on now. if they had friends who were actually involved and NOT each other they would be holding interventions and telling y'all to break up at every given opportunity. but no they're surrounded by people who spend their time making objectively worse romantic decisions so they do too. and yes this applies to everyone

Happy happy birthday to the resident high warlock of glitter and our hearts, Magnus Lightwood-Bane!

Frederick the Great Playing the Flute at Sanssouci by Adolph von Menzel, 1852.

fem!malec because everything is better if it's wlw

Do you have any music recommendations :)? After you mentioned Girls Rituals in one post I became curious about your music taste (affectionate)

HII... thank u so much for asking me this, music is my 2nd passion... !!!

my top artist for 2 years straight has been a band called lemuria, i just really enjoy them! some songs i'd recommend from them: 1- It's not a lie, it's a secret 2- the origamists ii 3- bugbear 4-pleaser

i love all their songs.... so if it were up to me i'd add ten more

i'm also really into slow pulp! really love the song "trade it" by them

also really obsessed with rosie tucker, i've been playing their new single "all my exes live in vortexes" on repeat the past few days, also really love "fault lines" and "ford pinto: for sale" by them too !

also loveee the band pinback! i'd recommend: 1-byzantine 2- crutch 3-tripoli

i could keep going ... but i'll stop! thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk.

it's sad how many reviews and stuff around tmbg seem to centre linnell as the sole dark and creepy writer of the band, never really crediting flansburgh too. do "hide away folk family," "dirt bike," "rabid child," "black ops," "cloisonné" mean nothing to them, smh.

I love how the broken, gilded cage Robin sits in appears to resemble a waterphone (and a phonograph within, by the look of it?). You may have heard its beautiful haunting voice in horror films and music in general. That the splash art attributes it to her, a Path of Harmony character, The Robin of Penacony, renowned singer across the stars, is so cool.

remember when jace said there was no way valentine would agree to trade the mortal instruments for him bc i do :(

The Salvation Day Interviews (2 of 2) with musician Anthony Tadlock

     Dear listener, this is part 2 of 2 of my Salvation Day Interviews with Anthony Tadlock, A.K.A. t-underneaththeradardancing on Tumblr. For reference, Part 1 is here. Without further ado let’s start picking T’s oddly poetic and musical brain once again...

    Mr Tadlock, SD’s style of music seems quite distinct and doesn’t sound exactly like any other band I’ve heard of. When you two record music, what is the specific style you’re aiming for? Do you and Ms Vita Rhie Quintanilla align on any favorite influences that heavily sway your sound? Do you two enjoy the same type of music outside of SD? How much does classical or modern music affect your own expression as musicians?

     whether we are recording - playing live - just fucking around (what passes for "practice/rehearsal ") we dont actually aim for a style - early on we talked in general about "goals" we agreed that what we aim for is transcendent magic healing - and we will settle for being in tune and not sucking - influences many and varied but both agree if on a desert island - and could only have one album it would b miles davis "kind of blue" - we both enjoy a wide range of music...

     everything we hear - have heard - from classical to punk rock influences us - we also play a fair amount of "covers" live - a typical example would be "i know places" which is a kind of dirge by lykke li - vita had never heard it before - it was a staple in my live performances at the time - vita listened to what i had done w it and it became a staple of early performances having morphed into almost a stax type r&b - like many songs we play - we worked out the arrangement during performances with little or no discussion about arrangement

     I find that some of the most effective musical groups out there are duos. There’s just something that seems more concentrated and concise about a duo’s ability to wrap an album in a tight bow. Compared to other musical projects you’ve worked on in the past, do you prefer dealing with one single other creative mind… or many others… and what are the disadvantages of both from your point of view? When you’re playing guitar and she’s singing, for example, how do you deal with the inevitable issue of adding percussion to ‘enhance’ a track or live performance?

    at this time there are actually 3 members of SD - the 3rd is london - he plays guitar and bass - is engineering / producing our next project - at various times we have had a 3rd musician join us for a song or 2 - and there is maggie umber the artist, who created our web site - a video and some behind the scenes stuff - which is not precisely answering the question - i understand about duos though - with 2 minds/ souls it is easier to keep the connection - the unspoken - and be as 1 - with the whole being more than the sum of - it was only in making the album and making hard choices / dealing with forced choices and realities that i realized my true role / gift as a guitarist/musician is being a catalyst for magic to happen - to digress - often at open mics - peeps play along from their seats - impromptu collabs occur - sometimes the whole place becomes the stage - today im gonna prob play 1 song w the host/emcee - we have played 2x together - 1st time was cuz someone who had someone die that they were close to requested she play hendrix purple haze and she asked me if i could - tho i have heard the song countless times - the last time i played parts of it - i was maybe 15 - but it’s a simple structure - i said give me a minnit - went outside tried out chords as i remembered and something resembling the guitar parts - spent maybe 5 minutes total - came back in and said yah sure but u have to sing - no rehearsal - loose and nothing like note for note - ffs i dont play anything note for note or exactly the same way twice –

    anyway - it’s like that w vita - she often asks - can we play xxx - i say sure - look up chords if i dont know and ...w vita it has been consistent magic from the start and while not effortless by any stretch - we both put everything we have into the music as we play - whether we are loosely playing in my dining room / her living room - out in the street - onstage - sometimes we think there is no audience and a neighbor will later say they liked it - or look up on the street and realize we have attracted a small audience - in terms of the limitations - especially when vita isnt playing guitar - partially i am accustomed to playing solo just me and guitar - have developed different strategies for compensating / filling holes in the sound - that said we have wanted a percussionist from day 1 - on the album and ep we used synthesized drums / percussion which can be hard cuz we are a bit quirky - so in some ways salvation day will always be vita and t at the core - tho our 1 performance w london was ez and in some ways our best - and playing w him is ez and natural - unfortunately no recording

    I have but one final query and it’s a general one, so buckle your fuckles. I’m curious Mr Tadlock, what do you think of the state of modern music? When I listen to Salvation Day, I hear a group that is 100% genuine. You’ve got an interesting story and your entire act and delivery is sincere… when I turn on modern radio I just hear utter nonsense. Nonsense that is often dumbed down by multimillion dollar corporations that are trying to turn the talents of others into a saleable product. Do you think the vast majority of modern music is even healthy for people, and is there a conscientious effort on your behalf to keep the presentation pure with Salvation Day?

     the state of modern music ? idk tbh - it’s a scattered and confusing landscape - like always - much of wat is out there is crap - but then again - i lissen to 60s station on sirius when on road trips w the unpoet and much of what i hear is pretty crappy and i love the 60s lol - same same modern music which i get sporadic exposure to via tumblr instagram and youtube - hearing while in cafes or in ride shares - SNL ... and every once in a while an absolute gem is heard so is "mainstream " pop /commercial music "healthy" - fuck if i know - i remember 1st listening to top 40 am radio in 1st grade - loved the chipmonks (Alviiiiiiin!) singing witch doctor - a one off "flying purple people eater " lots of "novelty records " when previously listened to moms opera and frank sinatra - beatles werent on the radar yet but beach boys - mostly vacuous but fun - have gone thru phases - only listened to jazz and opera for almost a decade - have compulsively listened to 1 album or artist for periods - was any of it "healthy" maybe - it fomented trance and being outside myself - sometimes music is entertainment - sometimes just background for a lot of people - but also a way of coming together - a way to express confusing/conflicting emotions - i could critique modern music as being cookie cutter and meaningless - but no more than say doo wop dang a langa ding dong indeed or has there ever been anyone more transgressive than little richard then again chuck berry stooping to my dingaling ffs

     so did we do we trynna keep it "pure" w salvation day - fuck yah - i mean how fucking audacious (pretentious) to call it Path of Sacred Art - i thot our producer understood and they did sorta but - and i love our album but at one point i almost walked away from it - the process slowly grinds - yah rough edges r smoothed but - a case in point - the epitome of early salvation day - the sacred art side was/is "reincarnation" something went terribly wrong in the studio - after spending waaaay too much time recording vita's guitar - and too much autotune on her vocal - her guitar track had a "glitch" making it unusable - by the time that was discovered vita was in davis again - covid was just about to go into the lock down phase ...it was expedient to hire a classic trained studio musician that the producer knew and could record studio quality on his laptop

     and tbh i still am not sure how much of the electric on it is actually me or if some was replaced w same studio guitarist - little dramas like this went on for months during the mixing process and much of the email text exchanges w producer were late night sleep ruining drama - in the interest of ever getting the album finished - vita - whom i gave ultimate decision making since they are her songs - deeply personal - she has literally shed blood (read her book) during the writing of performing recording , allowed almost all of her guitar to b scrapped - replaced by same studio musician - tho to said musicians credit - she did a good job of re creating vita - and if some of my guitar - we only talking about a few notes - was also replaced - she faithfully re created - tho i did go in studio one day a couple weeks after recording was "finished" and laid down a lot of riffs / repeating lines / solos and i was sooooo stoned i truthfully dont remember - in those daze because of intense constant pain - i used what in retrospect were enormous amounts of thc and cbd - no other drugs or alcohol but i was high 24-7 and rarely got as much as 3 hours sleep a night - anyway - so yah we did our best to keep it pure - and there is nothing cookie cutter about the album

     T !!! JFC !!! Thanks so much for your time and your FANTASTIC riffing here on Tumblr. Listen to Salvation Day here on YouTube or here on Spotify. Their website is here. If you liked this post, please spread the word about SD and consider reblogging this set of interviews. And if you haven’t done it yet, scroll to the top and middle-bottom of this post and smash play!

roger had to be the band's bass player because he's what a bass guitar would look like if it got turned into a person against its will with black magic

Full Steam Ahead // The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (2009)

of course I’ve also made a show alec version who do you think i am

tag list (tell me if you wanna be removed or added):  @magnus-the-maqnificent @literallytypogod @ukisteria  @wildesummerchild @sociallyineptbibliophile @queenlilith43 @khaleesiofalicante @wandererbyheart  @raziyekroos  @onetimetwotimesthreetimess @alexandergideonslightwood @andrwminward @noah-herondale-lightwood @elettralightwood @dustandducks​@deliciousdetectivestranger @delightfullyterrible @letsgofortacos​ @kita-no​ @mxtthew-fxirchild-apologist  @thelightofthebane @secrettryst @pocketoffeels @cityofdownwardspirals @stupidfuckindinosaur @i-have-not-slept @kasper-tag

if you wanna indulge me, id love to hear your opinions on sing (all of mine are detractory which i know isnt the complete view of the song)

omg id love too!! sorry this took me a sec to formulate post-work haha. i know we don't agree about sing but honestly that's the beauty of music opinions- I feel like it becomes easier to define what I like about things when faced with legit measured criticism anyway

for me, i want to start with the structure and instrumental since it's usually not mentioned (most of the criticisms of sing are exclusively lyrical or intention-focused). it's so cool. and evocative. and full of tension!! my favorite use of synth on danger days, plus the keys and the drums (man i love the dd studio musician drums lmao), really emphasizes sing as a suspended moment both in the album (necessary bridge, tonally, between bulletproof and planetary imo) and in the track itself- its alllll building up to that bridge and final chorus. but there's all these little pieces- the backing vocals, there's so many hidden guitar parts that riff just under all the noise, that opening like, tambourine. sorry for not having a quote on hand but Ray's said he really loved writing sing and it's so totally obvious to me. especially live- part of the reason I was soooooo excited for sing swarm tour edition is that even during dd ray was like absolutely shredding for sing after the bridge. and everytime time it's so good. part of the reason the lyrics don't bother me is sing could stand alone instrumentally and I'd still want to listen to it. (sing also reminds me of Ray's solo music- the sentiment is more significant that the lyrics and the music is itself a vehicle for storytelling)

also though, i think there's a lot of intention with sing (it's up to the listener to determine if that paid off obv) but within the context of dd the record as a pirate radio station, sing has always read as a trojan horse song. making it a single too, like once a song takes on a life of its own outside the record there's new meaning and circumstance. so both within and outside the killjoy universe sing is a vehicle for not just the bridge but the overall sentiment of dd (how fucking excited was gerard when glenn beck took the glee bait) like, yes, i do agree they could've benefited from another pass over the lyrics (i will always defend keeping "sing it till your nuts" bc its sounds like sing it to your nuts though) but I don't personally get the criticism that sing isn't "specific enough" about what exactly it's against or is too optimistic about "sing it for the world"-- i think there are songs on the album (notably planetary right after it!) which do that job just fine. dd is gerard in arguably top lyrical form so theres a lot of meat in the rest of the record like. sing it for the world is a purposely simplistic art is the weapon. like those are the same sentiments rendered very differently!

also like. i do think there was a very directed target at the younger part of their fan base here (girl/boy) which is sweet. to me. like i did hear sing first when i was a young teen (one of the few dd songs i was familiar with) and it did feel huge and empowering at that moment. my chem are their best when they are navigating the dualities of their specific fame, which includes simultaneously making very serious, adult rock music which is concerned with violence death grief and sex, as well as being a role model for younger people and taking them seriously and neither of these are in rhetorical conflict with each other. so like whatever sing is a little juvenile. but it's still filled with passion! taken as a legitimate project with a creative instrumental and a narratively-driven music video. I like that aspect, it works for me. I'll never call it my favorite my chem song but its certainly not the worst when you add in the bridge (i wanted to prove my point without the bridge but like. damn!! it's a good bridge!!!). that's my spiel.

high off my absolute gourd just watched this video where frank picks up rays guitar part so smoothly and seamlessly for him after ray misses, and ray looks so proudly at frank!! im staring into my orb thinking about how frank and rays guitar parts aren’t just support and melody, they weave and interchange with each other like two unlikely friends shaking hands to band together to fight a common enemy (bells tingling over an ancient memory that remembers frank saying that playing live felt like he was fighting for his life) And how important it is that Ray felt like he could trust Frank to have his back while playing these songs especially when they were first starting to write together and i’m going insane. theres so much weight in trusting a stranger to fight alongside you and feel confident enough that they would handle their piece with care. ray is not only able to translate gerard’s thoughts into melody but ray and frank also share a common language that’s unique to each other in the creation of their art and you can see that in the way their respective parts communicate to and with each other in the music and onstage FUCK. i’m just vibing over how harmoniously frank and ray fit together as guitar players like this really is a once in a lifetime band. basically: