HOW DID YOU START A BAND DURING A PANDEMIC?

 GLENN: We were both looking for a rehearsal studio just as the pandemic hit with mutual friends. We ended up renting separate rehearsal studios in the same building but ended up having a few jams together around some of Lauren's 'pandemic diary' ideas and here we are.

 LAUREN: Glenn texted me one night from his rehearsal space — which is in the same building as mine, two floors down — asking if I needed drums for whatever I was working on. He came up and played a few times and I sent him a few rough demo recordings of the songs I was making. I wasn't really considering it becoming a real band at that point, maybe just a recording project.

GLENN, WHAT DREW YOU TO THE SOUND and think your DRUMMING wOULD COMPLEMENT LAUREN'S SOUND?

GLENN: My natural inclination on the drums is to sit slightly ahead of the beat and be fairly rhythmically structured. I like piecing rhythms together like jigsaw puzzles. The music that Lauren was coming up with seemed to almost be the opposite of this approach. Lauren was playing a wash of lush, pretty expansive sound that was almost ambient in places. I enjoyed that contrast between my drumming style and her sound. It is almost as if Lauren sketches the musical ideas and then I come along and help to color them in.

 LAUREN, HOW DID THE BEDROOM MUSINGS INFORM YOUR WRITING?

 LAUREN: My intention with the pandemic sound journal project was to snap myself out of the unproductive state the pandemic had left me in. I just thought if I started playing something every day, even if I didn't come up with anything good or new, the process itself would help me feel productive. I had no intention of starting a band but the process unwittingly helped create the material and motivation to do so.

 THE PANDEMIC SOUND JOURNAL HAD A VARIETY OF SOUNDS. WHAT WERE YOU PLAYING?

 LAUREN: I mostly played the Moog Grandmother and Fender Jazzmaster or a Fender Jaguar through effects pedals for the bedroom videos. I mostly used reverb, analog chorus, analog delay and fuzz pedals. They were mainly improvised, impromptu pieces, composed on the day I recorded them. One each day for about three months during the pandemic. Bits of those I later used to come up with TREMOURS songs but most of them just exist as those initial little Instagram videos.

 WHAT GEAR DO EACH OF YOU PLAY ON THE DEMOS?

 GLENN: In terms of my gear, I was playing Paiste cymbals and Pearl drums with Vater drumsticks and mallets. All the drum sounds on the demos were recorded through my Yamaha EAD-10 drum module.

 LAUREN: I play guitar and Moog. And, of course, the vocals are mine. I mostly play a Fender Jazzmaster through a Hiwatt combo amp. The Moog model is the Grandmother.

 HOW DOES THE CURRENT STRANGE STATE OF THE WORLD IMPACT YOUR MUSIC, IF AT ALL?

 LAUREN: Our music itself isn't political, climate change, elections, etc, but obviously these things have an effect on me personally. They just end up motivating me to play music. It's more than a creative outlet in that way. I know I have at least one constant in my life, that being the music and regardless of how I'm feeling, it's always there. It keeps me busy. It also keeps me from dwelling on personal things I shouldn't. 

 WHAT'S IT LIKE STEPPING FORWARD AND BEING THE FRONT PERSON OF YOUR OWN BAND?

 LAUREN: I have never actively thought of forming or fronting my own band. I guess I just don't consider that I have the 'character' for that.  Mostly because I'm pretty shy. Being a two piece is just as limiting as it is freeing. I don't really feel comfortable engaging with the audience in the traditional way, so there's that!

 For now, I'm just trying to focus on playing guitar and singing well! Initially, I felt like it was very much 'my band,' but not now. Glenn is more than ‘just’ the drummer in TREMOURS. We both make sure that the other doesn’t get discouraged, is inspired, and mainly enjoying playing music.