Music

Tasseomancy talk blog buzz, Timber Timbre and pursuing something "completely different"

by Anne T. Donahue

You should know better than to call Tasseomancy a buzz band. Between their years performing as Ghost Bees and recent live stint with Austra, twins Sari and Romy Lightman are quick to deny that they’re the products of well-marketed media hype or benefactors of the gothic bandwagon. Because that would involve their interest in both those things.

“I don’t think either of us are that concerned [about blog buzz],” begins Sari. “I mean, yeah, there’s buzz, but I think the people that are attracted to our music are pretty faithful because it isn’t something you can tap your foot to.”

“The Internet realm isn’t really our place,” agrees Romy. “So when you say [blog buzz], I didn’t even really know about it. I don’t really know what other people are saying . . . if people have a misconception and they’re disappointed, I don’t really worry about living up to that.”

One of the most notable misconceptions has been the infamous “goth” label, a title that’s grouped together everyone from Zola Jesus to Austra to the twins themselves, likely as a result of the sisters’ collaboration with the infamously haunting Timber Timbre on the duo’s recently-released, Ulalume.

“To us, [the gothic label] is kind of a joke,” Sari admits. “If you want to talk about going gothic, our last record was about goblins and old German fairytales. We’ve always been doing this. This is where we’ve been coming from our whole lives.”

“We’ve talked about how Austra’s been grouped in with goth,” Romy continues. “But if you actually listen, there’s nothing goth about it. Of course, Sari and I write sad music and there are some dark elements to it, and I love gothic literature and there are all kinds of gothic elements that inspire us. But it also feels like it’s a bit played out, that idea of ‘witches’.”

So don’t expect Ulalume to set the tone. As musicians determined to progressively evolve, the sounds we’ve equated to Tasseomancy so far are only a fraction of what they hope signals a detailed legacy, one built solely around their own agendas.

“The next record may be a calypso record, Romy’s been playing steel pan,” Sari says. “We hope that we have attracted fans and listeners who are open enough and forgiving enough… well, maybe not forgiving.”