Grimy Goods Interviews Allen Tate

In a recent interview with Grimy Goods, Allen Tate provides an in-depth look at the process behind his solo album Sleepwalker and explores how his participation in the experimental indie-pop collective San Fermin has shaped him as a musician. “I’m such a better musician now just by being around everyone in the band,” he says of San Fermin, which includes “virtuoso level” musicians and which pushed him to develop his voice into the gorgeous baritone heard throughout his new LP. “Before San Fermin,” he confesses, “I remember doing a miserable John Mayer impression in what may have been an attempt at a falsetto or something–it was rough.”

While San Fermin’s music is complex, Tate says the songs he wrote for Sleepwalker are simpler, more direct, and focused more on his meticulous lyrical style. “Lyrics will start a song for me,” he explains. “I might here a funny turn-of-phrase on the road and that will stick in my head or a piece of a melody and I’ll keep humming things over and over again and I’ll try to unload it all.” Read the whole interview right here.