Tiny Masters of Today

Tiny Masters of Today are half your age and rock twice as hard.  Makes you think you wasted your childhood, doesn't it?


Chief Magazine: How’re you doing?

Ivan: Good.

Aida: Good.

You were sick for a little while?

Ivan: I was sick one day last week

Aida: Yeah, I’ve been out sick for, like, two days.

That sucks. Well, I mean, do you like school or was it a good thing?

Aida: Um I like school.

Ivan: Liar.

Aida: Well, I like school most of the time.

How old are you two?

Ivan: I’m 12.

Aida: I’m 10.

So, how long have you to been playing?

Ivan: Well, I’ve played guitar for four years but we’ve been in the band for, like, six months.

Aida: Nooo.

Ivan: We, we wrote our first songs two years ago but the band didn’t really start going any place.

Aida: Yea, we didn’t go anywhere really, but I’ve been playing bass for, I guess, a year now and I played piano for a year before that.

Which do you like better?

Aida: Bass is much more fun.

Yeah?

Aida: Piano is so boring.

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How did you guys actually form the band?

Ivan: Um, well, we’re brother and sister, so you know any time you say, “You wanna form a band.” It’s not like you have to ask all the other band members or whatever, it’s just us.

Aida: And you were having, like, a play date with one of your friends and I wrote a song and then I said, I told you my song and like…

Ivan: We were jamming downstairs in the basement. We both didn’t at all what we were doing and then she came down with this poem.

Aida: It wasn’t a poem.

Ivan: This poem.

Aida: No, it wasn’t. That was, um, book song. It wasn’t a poem.

Ivan: Whatever. So then, this poem…

Aida: It was a song.

Ivan: …This song and then we played parts of the song. We worked on it for about a day. So, we kicked him out and it became just us two.

Oh, really? Poor kid.

Ivan: He really didn’t want to do it, I don’t think. He regrets it now, though.

I bet. What was the name of the song?

Aida: “Pictures.” I think “Pictures” was written first and then it was “Bushy.”

And how many songs do you have altogether?

Ivan: About 15 now.

Really?

Aida: Nooo, well.

Ivan: Yea. That’s how many songs we have for the album.

Aida: Then we have a lot more that aren’t like…that we’ve done.

Ivan: Yea.

Aida: We have a lot of songs.

Ivan: I say like 20 probably.

Wow. And you’ve only been together for, like, a year?

Ivan: About six months.

Six months? Alright. That’s awesome. Who else is on the album? ‘Cause I heard something like a lot of people guest stars.

Ivan: Yea. We have Fred Schineder from the B-52s is on the album. Who else? Kimya Dawson from the Moldy Peaches and I think that’s it.

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How did you guys hook up with Russell (Simmons)?

Ivan: He sent us a MySpace message saying, “You guys rock,” or whatever and then, that’s how it all started.

Really? He just wanted to help out?

Ivan: Yep.

That’s really nice of him. How do you guys like having a drummer?

Ivan: It’s better than a drum machine. That’s how use to play, with a computer

Aida: With the drum machine, if you mess up, you’d have to wait for it to start up again. I think it’s a lot easier now because if we mess up…

Ivan: It’s his fault.

Aida: Yea, it’s always his fault.

Ivan: Even if it’s not, we’ll just say, “Russell, what’d you do that for?!”

I’m sure he loves that. So what kind of music are you guys into now? What do you guys like to listen to?

Aida: You go first. I don’t want to go first.

Ivan: My favorite bands, I’d have to say, are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I like Beck and a lot of other people like that. Her favorite band is Belle & Sebastian.

Aida: My favorite band is Belle & Sebastian. Oh, I really like Belle & Sebastian.

Ivan: They’re sissy.

Aida: Oh, Ivan. You’re one to talk.

Ivan: Don’t put that in the magazine.

They’re sissy?

Ivan: No offensive. No offensive.

I think they know. Oh, how did you guys come up with the name of the band?

Ivan: Well, one of my favorite books is called “Rock Star, Super Star” by this guy Blake Nelson. It’s, like, a young adult book and it’s about a kid who sort of starts this band called the Tiny Masters of Today. So I emailed up Blake Nelson and asked him if I could use the name. He’s come to our shows and all that.

Oh, wow. It’s pretty cool he gave you permission and the whole deal.

Ivan: Yeah.

That’s really cool. So are you guys in the same grade?

Ivan: No.

Aida: No. Two years apart.

Ivan: We’re in different schools. I got to middle school. I’m in the second year in middle school and she’s in her last year of preschool or whatever.

Aida: Haha, preschool.

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So the kids in your classes, do they know you’re in a band?

Ivan: Yea.

Aida: Yea, yea.

Ivan: Last year, in sixth grade though, my teacher, he has, like, a subscription to Newsweek and we read Newsweek, so, like, the whole class read it. It’s pretty cool.

Yeah, what’s their reaction to it?

Ivan: Well I said something about it I wish I didn’t say. I’m not going to talk about it.

We won’t talk about it.

Ivan: It didn’t make them happy.

Do your friends ever come out to see you play?

Ivan: Yea, a lot of times actually, sort of. They say they will. Sometimes they’ll come.

So for the music you guys have, like, already written, is one of you kind of more of the writer or is it kind of collaborative?

Aida: Um, I think Ivan writes most of the music.

Ivan: I wrote all of the music.

Aida: Well, yea, basically.

Ivan: I write all of the music and we pretty much spilt lyrics. Like, she’ll write a song. I’ll write a song, you know, we don’t usually work together though. We don’t usually collaborate.

Aida: We don’t say, “Oh, let’s write a song.” I’ll write lyrics or he’ll write lyrics and someone will write the music.

Ivan: She’ll go hide in her room and writes a song.

This is kind of like a Christmas issue, like a holiday issue anyways, so is there anything you two are looking forward to gift wise, kind of really want more than anything?

Ivan: I was a little late with the whole Christmas list thing, so, you know I did, like, two days ago and I was too late.

So, was there any, like, big thing that you want?

Ivan: Not really.

Aida: From Santa, I want Santa to get me a red iPod nano because there the ones for the AIDS charity and 10 percent of your money goes to the charity

That’s very responsible of you. Well, that way she gets a nano and helps someone.

Ivan: Nice, that’s what you need. Well, I got a iPod mini when I was in fifth grade. That was my graduation present. So I have one. She’s jealous.

Aida: I’m not jealous.

Okay, what’s the biggest show you’ve played so far?

Ivan: Um, probably, like, the biggest place or the biggest crowd?

Um, yeah, both. What’s the biggest place you’ve played?

Ivan: The biggest place we played was McCarren Pool.

Oh, you guys played the Pool?

Ivan: Yea. It’s pretty crazy. Like, when you’re in sound check, it was just like us two little guys up on the stage.

Aida: Yea, like, if you turned a certain way, you could hear your echo and it was kind of scary, like, it’s this huge stage and there was, like, close together.

Ivan: There was, like, a slip-n-slide or whatever it’s called.

Yeah, I almost broke my neck on that thing.

Ivan: Really?

Oh yeah.

Ivan: You were going a little too fast?

A little bit too fast.

Aida: I couldn’t make it, I was too small. I kept running out and made it, like, one inch.

Ivan: There was, like, a 60-year-old guy there in a bikini or in a speedo or something.

Aida: Yeah and, like, he hit the side. He fell off.

Ivan: He was, he was good but he was very old.

I got going to fast, I think, or I jumped too deep but I just went right over the end, you know that ledge. Went right over that thing.

Aida: Yeah, I’ve seen people do that.

Ivan: Like, the end? Like, there’s a little wall. You went over that?

No, no. You know, like, there’s that ledge and then there’s that wall?

Ivan: Oh, yeah.

I meant that wall.

Ivan: Oh.

Well, it was a nice stab. It was alright. You got up. You just do it again. You just don’t jump that far.

Ivan: Get the dirt off you.

How many is the most you’ve played to?

Ivan: Um, hmm, that’s hard ‘cause we’ve played pretty small places and they’re usually packed. So it’s very hard to tell.

Which do you like better?

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Ivan: I like the small place. Like, we’ve played Cake Shop. We played Union Hall and those are both, like, really small places.

Aida: But, I think, the craziest crowd we’ve had was at Sarah Lawrence.

Ivan: Sarah Lawrence College. They were marching very violently.

Really?

Ivan: Yeah.

Aida: Yeah.

Ivan: They were, you know, crowd surfing.

No kidding.

Ivan: No.

I totally didn’t see that coming. Any big shows coming up?

Ivan: Um, not really. My dad’s just confirmed a show with this band Matt & Kim. I don’t know if you ever heard of them. We’re playing Union Hall again January 20th. I think that’s all we have so far. Oh, we’re playing with the Dirtbombs at Maxwell’s, which we might play with the Mooney Suzuki at Maxwell’s. Russell says he’s gonna hook us up. But he’s said that before.

Aida: Yeah, he says that all the time.

Ivan: Yeah. He said he was gonna hook us up with tickets for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Didn’t happen?

Ivan: Nope.

It stings.

Ivan: Yeah.

Have you seen Matt and Kim's videos?

Ivan: I’ve saw the video, the funny video.

Aida: Yea, we saw the funny video.

Ivan: Have you seen it?

Which video?

Ivan: The one where everybody’s throwing food at them.

Yeah, Nick (Chatfield-Taylor) directed that.  We're all friends of Matt and Kim.

Ivan: Oh, cool.

So do you hook them up with free tickets and stuff like that?

Ivan: None of the shows are, like, expensive. There’s enough tickets.

Aida: Yeah.

Ivan: You know, they say they might charge but they never really do. If they do, we do passes.

It’s important to remember your friends.

Aida: We’re nice.

Ivan: At McCaren Pool, we had a guest list.

Aida: At Union Hall, we had a guest list. We, like, had all our friends on the guest list and I remember everybody kept asking me to buy them free drinks with my little wrist band, to buy them Hurricanes.

What’s a Hurricane?

Ivan: It’s a kid's Hurricane. It’s Sprite. There’s some Gummy Worms, Skittles and, like, cherry flavoring. It was delicious.

Aida: When it got to the bottom, it froze and then they took it out and it was all disgusting.

Ivan: It was, it was good.

That’s an interesting drink. What’s it like playing in a band with your sister, with your brother?

Ivan: In fact, it can be pretty disruptive, I’d say. It can be, not usually are. Well, usually are, but not, like, all the time. We’ll occasionally fight.

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Aida: Yeah, occasionally.

Very occasionally?

Aida: Yeah. I think it’s much easier ‘cause, like, if we were in a band with a bunch of people from different families, we’d wouldn’t be able to practice as much, but I think now, like, if we either us wanted to practice, we could whenever we wanted basically and we could talk about, like, our show, what we can do…

Ivan: Our schedule, our practice.

Aida: We don’t have to schedule anything.

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That’s great.

Ivan: It makes it a lot easier.

So, what do you two want to be when you grow up?

Ivan: I want to be a rock star.

Aida: And if that doesn’t work out?

Ivan: If that doesn’t work out, I’ll be a rock star by day, an astronaut by night.

Night astronauts.

Ivan: Night astronaut.

And day rock star.

Ivan: When you’re on the moon, it might be a little weird, you know, time changes and stuff.

Time is strange up there.

Ivan: Yeah. I’ve got a band but you never know.

You have high hopes.

Ivan: Maybe I should have a concert up there or something.
 
You know, like, space tourism is happening.

Ivan: Really?

Oh yeah, it’s getting cheaper and cheaper.

Aida: Yea, we’ll see what it’s going to be like... an astrocar to the moon.

Okay, and you?

Aida: Um, well I want to be part-time in a band but I want to be an archaeologist or a writer on the side.

Cool.

Ivan: She also wants to be a ballerina slash lawyer.

You got a long list.

Aida: I never, ever wanted to be a ballerina.

Do you have funny stories you want to tell? It could be about your brother or sister. It could be about school or a show or anything. Is there a little funny story that you want to get out there?

Ivan: You want to tell some funny story about me you think?

Aida: Hmm, let me think.

Ivan: When I was misquoted in Newsweek.

Aida: Oh, the time that you step on the rake.

Ivan: That wasn’t me. That was the band. So me and my friends, well, my friend, my bestest friend because he didn’t tell me not to do it. So we were out in the backyard and there was a rake and, you know, I was thinking, “Let’s go step on it,” and I stepped on it and caught it and I was like, “Oh, that’s really cool,” and he did and he was like, “Wow, this is awesome,” and then I was like, “Alright, I’m gonna go get the helmet.” So I grab the helmets and we put them and we’re smacking each other in the forehead with it, with helmets on and I was like, “Alright, I’m going to take the helmet off,” and he was like, “Yeah, do it,” and I took my helmet off and stepped on the rake and it smacked me in the forehead and I was sitting there, feeling like it’s the dumbest thing I’ve done.

Aida: Do I have any funny stories like that?

Ivan: She’s very cautious. She thinks twice about things like that.

Aida: Yeah.

Ivan: She’d say, “What would happen if stepped on the rake without a helmet on?”

Aida: What would happen?

Ivan: Yeah, she would… she’s not like that. She doesn’t make mistakes like that. She’s perfect.

Aida: Oh, I make mistakes. I’m not perfect. You know why?

Ivan: She makes no mistakes.

Aida: Perfect people are neat. Like that’s true.

Ivan: I’m not neat.

Aida: When I get my iPod, I’m gonna organize all the songs on it.

Is there anybody that you would want to play with? That you really want to do a show with but you haven’t gotten the chance to?

Ivan: Bob Dylan.
 
Dylan? No, I asked him already.

Ivan: But, can they be dead?

They can be dead. Anyone living or dead.

Ivan: The Velvet Underground ‘cause they’re like my favorite band.

You didn’t say them when I asked who your favorites are. The first thing out your mouth were the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Ivan: I thought you meant, like, new music.

No, I don’t care. Overall favorites.

Ivan: Velvet Underground.

Aida: I want to play with Belle & Sebastian.

Ivan: No you wouldn’t, then it would be like turning into wuss rock.

Downloads

Bushy.mp3
Sticking it to the....mp3
Pictures.mp3

Websites

www.tinymasters.net
www.myspace.com/tinymasters

Photos

Nick Chatfield-Taylor
Ed Zipco
Tod Seelie

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