Tom Tom Club on Returning to the Studio: ‘We Just Wing It’
Just days after finishing their European tour, Tom Tom Club have already headed back into the studio to record their follow-up to last year’s Downtown Rockers. Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth, both formerly of Talking Heads, along with keyboard/percussionist Bruce Martin and guitarist Pablo Martin, will continue working in the studio next week on tracks and lyrics.
“We find that when we’re on the road, we get primed by playing more or less every day,” drummer Chris Frantz tells Rolling Stone. “We get our chops working very well. It’s good following a tour because we are in that mindset and physically lubricated.”
Studio sessions have long been casual affairs for Tom Tom Club, and their new album – aimed for 2014 release – is being approached similarly. “We just wing it, you know,” Frantz says. “I give a little instruction before each jam, like, ‘Let’s do something Lee Perry would do, or something in the spirit of P-Funk, or something like Al Green’s back-up band.’ It’s very loose instruction.” He adds, “Hopefully we will have something cool. I have no doubt we will.”
The band also recorded their last album fresh off the road from touring, that time with the Psychedelic Furs. “This time, we did three days where we just improvised various rhythm tracks and came up with six that we’re happy with,” Franz says, adding that the band took a break from recording to do a show with the Go-Go’s in Coney Island, New York.
The rest is up in the air. “We don’t have a title yet,” he said. “Or maybe we do, and it’s just very post-minimalist.”