TIPSY

TIPSY is San Francisco electronic-exotica duo Tim Digulla and David Gardner. Chaotic interpolations are sequenced together with ‘happy accidents’ to create a musical collision of every style imaginable. Tipsy’s quirky and whimsical music is infectious, inventive and inspiring. Musicial influences range from exotica pioneers Les Baxter and Martin Denny, early synthesiser music from Morton Spotnik and Dick Hyman, to the 1930’s cartoon-jazz by Raymond Scott and Spike Jones.

Tipsy’s special cocktail of plunderphonics fuse experimental elements with instrumental samples. For example, their Swedish Erotica Mix of Pulp’s “This Is Hardcore” uses a brass sample of “Bolero On The Moon Rocks” composed by Peter Thomas. Tipsy have also prostituted their talents to Lords Of Acid’s “Spank My Booty”, creating The Paddles And Whipped Cream Mix. A discrete sample from “Run Alice Run” by 101 Strings Orchestra was used a smooth backing track to this tasty mix. More recently, Tipsy have been commissioned to remix music from Matmos and The High Llamas.

Asphodel Records, owned by executive producer Naut Humon, has been home for Tipsy’s full-length albums since 1997. Their disorientating psychedelia has featured musicians from Mr. Bungle, Trevor Dunn on “Trip Tease” and William Winant on “Uh-Oh!”. The seductive sounds of Tipsy have featured in television commercials for Apple Computers, Orange Telecom, Cote D’Or Chocolate, Guiness Beer, Coca-Cola and award-winning HBO programs The Sopranos and Sex And The City.

Selected Discography

Exclusive Interview

Justin St. Vincent from Xtreme Music interviewed Tim Digulla and Dave Gardener of Tipsy on June 6, 2004 San Francisco (CA), Obscura Digital Studios.

Xtreme Music: I’m here with Tim and Dave from Tipsy. I’d like to start the interview by asking, how exactly would you describe your music?

Dave Gardener: I would describe it as a whole bunch of different kinds of music all tossed into a blender and then chopped into fine pieces and then sprayed out onto the wall.

Tim Digulla: You keep throwing things at the wall until they stick.

Xtreme Music: That’s a great visual way of view it! Who would you say are your main influences and how have they shaped your musical direction?

Dave Gardener: A lot of comic music, cartoon music, the great 1930’s musician Spike Jones and Cab Calloway. Basically, everyone else who has made music between now and then.

Tim Digulla: A little bit of everything.

Xtreme Music: Any particular musicians? You were mentioning before about Carl Stalling and Raymond Scott. Are there others?

Dave Gardener: Oh there are so many others that I couldn’t even go through all their names. Like everyone who has done the underscore of a cheap b-movie is an influence on me.

Tim Digulla: For me when I was young, a lot of early synthesizer music, Morton Spotnik and Dick Hyman.

Xtreme Music: What innovative production techniques do you incorporate into your music?

Tim Digulla: Chaos!

Dave Gardener: Chaos, but with the edges smoothed into order. We just record and record and record and then cut pieces off in a sculptural way. We carve the notes and the rhythms..

Tim Digulla: Yeah, one percent is left or so..

Dave Gardener: Oh, I would say two or three (laughter), let’s think positive.

Xtreme Music: That’s one of the things that I like about Tipsy, is the fact that you produce very intricate music with exotica influences, combining that with electronic music. Where would you say you find your inspiration musically?

Tim Digulla: From wanting to hear new things that haven’t been heard and just having fun making the music. Doing things that are weird but still people like it.

Dave Gardener: Right, something that can be experimental and brand new but something my mother’s friends would like, something that little kids could jump around to. Music that’s commercial but not homogenized.

Xtreme Music: When would you say has been the best experience in Tipsy’s music career?

Dave Gardener: I would say whenever we get the chance to play abroad, that’s always a big boost for us.

Xtreme Music: Could you tell us a little bit about the time when you met Jean Jacques Perry in Paris?

Tim Digulla: Yeah, that was a great show! That was one of my favourites! He’s such a great guy and I just love his music, so I was freaked out when I met him. I thought it was amazing!

Dave Gardener: Actually, I met him here in San Francisco when he was doing some sort of promotional tour and he played in a little pick up band here and I got a chance to meet him, shake his hand and give him ours CDs and all that.

Xtreme Music: Fantastic! How would you say the live reaction from the crowd has been during your live performances of Tipsy?

Dave Gardener: Generally excellent! In fact I’m down right shocked at how well it goes over. Since, at least my part is sort of chaotic and thrown together.

Tim Digulla: It’s interesting to see which songs people respond to.

Dave Gardener: Especially in Japan, they were jumping up and down and screaming! I couldn’t believe it! (laughter).. I think they were drunk!..

Xtreme Music: Could you also tell us a little bit about your work with the more recent remix album that Tipsy has released on Asphodel?

Dave Gardener: The remix album, it’s all remixes done by other people of our two albums. It was entirely done on a barter basis – we’ve traded remixes with all the people who’ve submitted to that. Or at least all the ones who have asked us to remix so far we still owe quite a few.

Xtreme Music: You’ve collaborated with some of my favourite musicians, to name a few, We and Lords Of Acid. One track in particular is the Paddles And Whipped Cream Mix that Tipsy has done. Could you tell us a little bit about that particular track?

Dave Gardener: We did it for money! (laughs).. We prostituted ourselves with that track. I figure that’s sort of appropriate given the subject matter. For that one I’d gleefully say “Yeah, We did it for the money!” (more laughter)

Tim Digulla: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Alright! We get to throw in a slap sound as part of the hook.

Xtreme Music: How did you hook up that job with Lords Of Acid?

Dave Gardener: You know I have no idea! I think it’s because when we did a remix for the band Pulp, we gave it a subtitle with a pornography reference. I’m guessing that’s what interested the Lords Of Acid because they are in that sort of direction.

Xtreme Music: You’re refering to the “This Is Hardcore” remix..

Dave Gardener: Right, we did the Swedish Erotica Mix and they are probably familiar with the series.

Xtreme Music: Did they get in contact with you guys directly or through Asphodel?

Dave Gardener: How did that happen? You-know I really have no idea, I have forgotten that. Did they send me an e-mail first or did Asphodel? I don’t know.. It’s not something that was important enough that I would remember.

Xtreme Music: That’s definitely one of the groups that seems to stand within the music portfolio of Tipsy. Are there any other collaborations coming out within the near future?

Dave Gardener: Well, we’re still doing remixes.. We’re working with a Hawaiian-Japanese singer named Karpae, who did a bunch of vocals on our upcoming material. We’re gonna be doing something for her. We’re gonna be doing a remix for The High Llamas next. That’s pretty much all we have planned in the immediate future..

Tim Digulla: We’re trying to concerntrate on doing an album..

Dave Gardener: I don’t know what special guests if any we are gonna have on this one.

Tim Digulla: Oh, there’s the singer from Monokini that wants to do something, it’s a Brazilian indie band. Yeah, we’re trying to get more.. female voices are nice.

Dave Gardener: ‘Girlie-Hooks’ that’s what you call them, ‘Girlie-Hooks’..

Xtreme Music: I especially like that little ‘Girlie-Hook’ at the end of Bunny Kick.. that goes “Yeah!” (laughs).. I think that’s kinda funny..

Dave Gardener: He married her..

Tim Digulla: Yeah, I basically had a bottle of wine, got some girls over to drink and do some strange stuff on top of the music, and it actually worked.

Xtreme Music: Definitely. Could you say something about the work that Tipsy has been doing in the past seven or eight years within the San Francisco music scene as well as worldwide?

Dave Gardener: We play around whenever we get asked.. we don’t really have a manager and we do a kinda hap hazard job of doing it ourselves.

Tim Digulla: But that’s probably gonna change pretty soon, it seems like the ball is really rolling these days. There’s been some weird things that have been happening. We’ve been getting a lot of e-mails from people who are interested in us doing things..

Dave Gardener: Television soundtracks maybe in the future..

Xtreme Music: Tipsy has been featured on some adverts within the U.K..

Tim Digulla: Orange Telecom, Guiness Beer, Cote D’Or Chocolate..

Xtreme Music: Tipsy has done quite a lot of commercial work, are there any other British or many European companies that have hired you guys?

Tim Digulla: Not as much as the American ones do..

Dave Gardener: Yeah, well we licensed out a bunch of things to them. We don’t always hear about them, sometimes it just happens..

Tim Digulla: We get our royality statements..

Dave Gardener: And we get a cheque and say “Where did this come from?” (laughs)..

Xtreme Music: So they don’t contact you guys to ask permission first?

Dave Gardener: Well, we have a Hollywood agent now.

Xtreme Music: Well, it’s been fascinating chatting to you both, thank you very much for setting up this interview! I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best in the near future.