TILLY & THE WALL
The SiS Interview by Eavvon O'Neal

Kianna Alarid, Tilly & The Wall's platinum blond vocalist, is on top of the world. She is performing with friends she met over beers, has just released a third album with the aforementioned kids, O, and is consumed by a healthy musical relationship that has produced three well-received albums. It's weird, but it's true. We got a chance to sit down with her recently and this is what came out of our chat.

SIS: How did the album title come about?

KA: Well we came up with O because we didn’t know what else to call it, which we did think about, but also we didn’t care. It was funny because people were asking is it self titled, is it untitled, is it just “o”, and we just didn’t care. It’s not like one of those things like “!!!” where it’s “whatever you want it to be.” But its like for us, it’s the shape of the oval, sort of, and it’s the shape of the cover of the record, which the artwork is behind. And It’s also a symbol, like everything is coming full circle.

The other thing that is kind of weird is that it’s usually hard for us to make a decision as a group. It’s hard to come up with a name, or on a cover, but the funny thing with this is that we just all agreed.

SIS: Is the full agreement of the whole group how you write songs as well, with everyone having input?

KA: Yea, same exact thing. I think it works that way because we came together as friends drinking beer and hanging out so it’s always been a kind of group effort. And we all came from different bands, so everybody came to the band with songs already written. That’s how most of our songs started, and it just so happens that this is how we continue to write.

SIS: Do you find that hard, each person bringing elements to the table?

KA: The song doesn’t just belong to that person, they may be the director of the song, but since we all support each other the song changes and becomes something completely different. And it’s always right. Like, I’ll come up with a melody on guitar, and then bring it to everyone else to try and build on that.

SIS: So you only bring parts of a completed song, and then everyone else helps to flesh it out or add different aspects?

KA: Yea, usually I bring the melody or all the lyrics, or write something on guitar, and we all just go from there.

SIS: If you each brought songs from other bands to the table, is there an initial idea to Tilly & The Wall as a project that you are trying to hash out, or are you guys just having a good time?

KA: We don’t really think about it. Like I said, that’s how it started, and it just never changed.

SIS: All of the awesome videos that you have, what is behind the amount of them? Does the label push lots of videos, or is that all you?

KA: Well we have a single, of course, but we have lots of friends who do videos, so if they come to us with an idea, then we try to go for it. But, no, no one is behind us pushing our videos to get done or anything.

SIS: In looking back at your older records, do you still listen to them?

KA: No, actually I don’t even have copies of our older stuff. I like to listen to them, I mean- I listen to them all the time when they come out, a lot, but I just haven’t kept the older one’s or they’ve been misplaced or something. We write songs that we want to hear, so it’s really fun to check them out!

SIS: So out of all of them, which is your favorite?

KA: This one! I mean, its interesting to see how everybody changes and what we’ve added or picked up along the way. I mean none of us are actually trained musicians, actually far from it, but now I see myself as an actual musician, as a songwriter. Whereas even though I wrote songs on all of the albums, with this I can just see improvement, it’s really cool.