Talons of Spring talk to Rabbits (An Interview)

I was lucky to get the chance to sit down and talk with two great up and coming artists, Andrei Tutunaru and Travis Knight of Talons of Spring. They were awesome enough to invite Rabbits Black out to the set of their new music video “Hi, Lo,” off of their new album, Copacetic Part I, expected to be officially released on December 25^th. During the sit down, we dove into some of Talon’s past projects as well as some future ones that the public will be seeing in the upcoming months such as a national tour and two art exhibits. The first art exhibit being in Los Angeles and the second in New York that Knight will be producing and Tutunaru will be directing.

 

Rabbits Black (RB): How did the collaboration between you guys come about?

 

Andrei: Well Travis is one of my best friends and we first worked on a project for Talons of Spring about 3 years ago when we were introduced by Paul McKenna, my engineer, and he played bass on it. He pretty much saved the day because when we were on set, the guy I originally commissioned for some of the song writing for me only played a couple of strings and said, “That’s all I got.” I could hardly believe the balls this guy must have had to come in like. Anyways, Travis came in and luckily he is very good with composition and got a pretty good read on where we were trying to go with the songs and pretty much directed the whole band.

 

Travis: Yeah, I was basically a hired gun. I was with Moss Bluff at the time and we were recording at Swing House where we did six tracks in two days. The vibe in that place was awesome.

 

RB: What were some of the concepts or inspirations behind Copacetic Part I?

 

Travis: Andrei is an amazing spoken poet so for me everything starts with his vocals and I try to build off of that. All of the music that I have arranged are in support of his lyrics.

 

Andrei: The reason I moved out from LA to Portland is because of my ex-fiance, so she plays a part behind this album. Instead of being specifically about my ex-fiance, it is about heartache in general and dealing with one’s emotions. While conceptually Part I is a darker shade, Part II is illumination. When both parts are heard collectively they are meant to project a single, main theme: LOVE. My previous albums fell a bit short of my expectations and encouraged me to make something that I’d want to be known for and proud of and I think Copacetic Part I reflects that beautifully.

 

RB: Tell me about the art exhibit, what is that going to be like?

 

Andrei: I’m basically acting as the creative director. I guess you can say it’s an art exhibit in motion that revolves around the different types of mental illnesses in different cities. There will be two exhibits, the first one is going to be here in LA and the second in New York. It’ll be community driven involving all of the mediums of art. The artists that I bring on will kind of flush out the skeleton I present to them. I’m putting together the spatial dynamics, the sound architecture in a sense, but it involves installation because it’s such a massive project and it will take a while, probably about six to eight months.

 

RB: That’s going to be awesome. I can’t wait to see how that turns out! Well I want to thank you guys very much for having me out here today and taking the time sit down with me.

 

Andrei/Travis: Our pleasure!

 

So be sure to get yourself a copy of Copacetic Part I when it releases on December 25^th. A CD release party will be announced for January and a national tour is scheduled to begin in March!

Copacetic Part One by Talons of Spring