Localized: Mortigi Tempo

The ice is melting, the sun is out and the flowers are in bloom — it’s about damn time for another SLUG Localized and we’ve got you covered. Witness the sounds of sonomatic sounds of Fiig, melt your face to a punk fusion with Mortigi Tempo and retrieve your soul back from the underworld with Modern Speed. It’s a night you don’t want to miss! Make your way to Kilby Court Thursday, May 21 for one helluva time! Get your tickets here!

I found it fitting that such a high adrenaline, wall-of-noise band as Mortigi Tempo would meet for our interview in the back of a motorcycle garage, but after hearing the diverse range of sounds and emotion conveyed by their latest self-titled album, I had no clue what to expect from the group. The band has a rather sparse social media presence, and from the preliminary research I did, I was under the impression that the group was a trio, which is why I found myself surprised to see four men walk across the street to meet me outside of the yard of the shop. They had just returned from their set at Treefort Music Fest in Boise.

First, there was Chris Fallo on lead guitar and vocals, who I was familiar with from my interview with Modern Speed, who spoke very highly of his work. Then, there was Marc Leach, the bass player, who was by far the most extravagantly dressed of the four. Eric Watson, the drummer and amateur mountain biker, was third. Watson was the most recent addition to the group, and donning by far the least extravagant outfit, that being a Carhartt crew neck, jeans and compression wrap for his sprained ankle. Finally, I met Nicholas Allen on keys, who had recently returned to the group after a temporary hiatus.

“One third recorded here, one third recorded in Portland and one third recorded in Chris’ bedroom.”

Watson told me that when the band originally formed in 2012, Leach was the group’s drummer, with Allen on bass. When Allen went on hiatus, Watson was brought on for drums and Leach filled Allen’s original position, forming the current lineup. They prefer Fender and Reverend guitars, with giant 4×12 Fender cabs from the 60s and 70s and staggering buzzsaw fuzz effects cranked no lower than eight. The result is the wall of sound and driving beat that drove the band’s single releases. I think it makes their self-titled record so much more interesting, which yes, contains the fuzzy, desert rock sound the band is known for but also has more pared down acoustic tracks akin to Bon Iver and near avant-garde drum machine noise rock akin to Big Black.

Fallo explained to me that the diversity of sound stemmed from the production of the record, which Watson said was “One third recorded here, one third recorded in Portland and one third recorded in Chris’ bedroom.” They had pieced together the more refined A-sides “HINDSIGHT” and “FULL SAIL VERTIGO” with Stephan Hawkes in Portland over the course of a day and a half. It was a session that formed a bond between the band and the engineer, who additionally mixed and mastered “INTRO” and most of the B-sides for the band.

“He’s like Mr. Rock!” Fallo says.

“He’s like Mr. Rock!” Fallo says, “Yeah, we went up to Portland, and he was like, ‘How many of these nine different Marshalls do you want to try?’… and he was like, ‘Okay, now let’s pair it with a different cabinet. Which one of these cabinets do you like the most?’” The band also found themselves collaborating with Scott Madsen of Modern Speed, who assisted with bus mixing and key parts on “FLOATED.” Madsen additionally spoke positively of the band. Fallo said “BROKEN HARD DRIVES” was directly mastered from a single demo file, as he was unable to get the project files back off the drive they were originally stored on, hence the name, and that “PROJECT 3 SLUDGE IN C,” the album’s most unusual sounding track, was an in-the-box experiment for the band who opted to use drum machines and preamp distortion for the track.

Fallo says the band will be doing more recordings this year, with the intent to push out more political and emotionally driven songs. Their self-titled record is available on all platforms and in CD format, with plans to release a vinyl version of the album as well.

Read more past Localized features:
Localized: Gracemaker
Localized: The Apathetics