Today we’d like to introduce you to Tommy Meehan.
Hi Tommy, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been “putting out my own music” since I was 12 years old. Back when I was recording albums in my bedroom with Casio keyboards, pots, pans, and plastic guitars from the dollar store… Tracking everything into the built-in microphone of a Panasonic answering machine that I found in a trash heap near my mother’s apartment in a small town called Novato up in the Bay Area of California.
Before that though, neither of my parents could afford to purchase a “real” instrument so it wasn’t until about five years after I discovered that I had an intense desire to pursue music that I actually acquired any kind of “legitimate” form of musical instrument.
Through a trade deal with my father and agreeing to play what would become my last season of pop warner football, I ended up with a cheap Epiphone strat copy, which then proceeded to envelop my entire existence. The guitar as a main instrument was a 3rd choice of mine. I originally, and still do, felt an inclination toward the drums. My family bounced around between apartments though. We moved about once a year or so and the drums were just too loud and too cumbersome for my parents to envision putting up with. As a compromise of my initial instinct, I was willing to shift my focus to the sounds of the bass guitar. Ultimately, it was my father who ended up making the decision that a guitar was a better choice. (My dad doesn’t listen to music and never has. He likes sports radio and Hannity & Colmes though so he, for sure, knew what was best for my musical destiny. Thanks pops.) In any case I, now, will always say that I’m a guitar player by double default.
At the age of 12 and right around the time that I had acquired that guitar, I discovered this freaky local band called NUCLEAR RABBIT. A kind of “PRIMUS meets MR. BUNGLE” type of band to oversimplify… I already felt like I had a LOT of catch up to do (in terms of technique, theory, etc.) but hearing this band just completely blew my prepubescent mind and made me realize that you could do so much more with music than just power chords… Without any lessons or guidance from a mentor, I simply let this crazy music guide me. I had NO idea what the guitar player was doing (and I had no way of finding out really).
I didn’t have a computer but we did have this obscure computer/keyboard device that you could attach to your TV. It was part of an extremely slow service called “WEB TV” that probably only existed for a 2-5 year span in the late 90’s. Either way though, Nuclear Rabbit wasn’t a popular enough band to have any tablatures online so learning by ear it was. The chords were all jangly and f*cked up sounding (I later realized that they were jazz chords). The bass player was slapping and popping all over the place. The time signatures we’re unlike any Kriss Kross or Garth Brooks song that I had heard before (which was pretty much the extent of my musical exposure at that point…) The vocal wails we’re schizophrenic and hilarious and evil… It felt like total freedom. Nuclear Rabbit changed my brain.
Finding other kids who were into “THE WEIRD SH*T” was my next mission statement. (An adventure that continues to this day).
As you could imagine, locating small-town like-minded weirdo kids at age 12 in a pre-social media landscape of almost entirely radio-friendly homogeny and TRL mundane-ness was near f*cking impossible.
So, I dove into making/composing music by myself. Something I’ve grown extremely accustomed to over the years. Learning how different instruments and sounds interact with one another by experimenting over and over in solitude. To this day, that’s my most comfortable MO.
From there and into my late teens, I recorded a ton of my own silly and freaky projects like “Dogpile”, “Tyrannosaurus Poo”, “The Fearless Pumpkin Warrior”, and “THE BROCKLY TACOS”, among others… Some of these projects grew into live outfits and I was able to get some real-life experience playing shows in and around the San Francisco Bay Area. Going to local shows as a teen was everything. Attending shows and playing the wonderful Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, California (an all ages venue run by Tom Gaffey which still thrives to this day) was incredibly formative. That venue is probably my favorite place on earth. I would go there to see GWAR and NUCLEAR RABBIT and a ton of great bands there every chance I could. It’s just a truly magical and creative place of hope and possibilities for any teen feeling like they’re growing up in a world made up of total idiots…
After a few years of sliming up the scene and exhausting my pool of musicians in NorCal, I decided it was time to find “SERIOUS MUSICIANS” in Los Angeles… (Ohhhh, young foolish Tommy…)
Upon landing in LA, I immediately found myself hurtling through life in a tailspin of chaos and hardship. Poverty, frustration and eventually a short-lived, but very significant, despair. My first five years here proved challenging and formative in their own unexpected ways.
I barely had time to do music because I was working sh*tty job after sh*tty job just to avoid being homeless… The imminence of that was real. I had no safety net or savings whatsoever. That lasted for years. At the worst of it, I was working 60 hour weeks between 2 miserable minimum wage jobs but still living paycheck to paycheck in a cockroach dungeon/studio apartment that was run by sheisty slum lords over in Koreatown… “Luckily” I didn’t have a car otherwise parking would have been a nightmare. When I DID have a night off to play a show here and there my two-man electro-grind band “CHUM OUT!” would have to hunt down shopping carts earlier in the day in order to transport our gear. We’d load our guitars and electronics (and Jimmy’s desktop PC, monitor, mouse and keyboard) into the carts and hit the subway stations/bus stops to schlep ourselves and all of our sh*t across town… We didn’t know this at first but you’re actually not allowed to take shopping carts onto the subway platform. This omnipotent voice would always come on over the loudspeaker down in the station to tell us that the police would be coming if we didn’t remove the carts. So, we’d have to unload everything onto the train, then, once we got to our stop, unload our gear OFF the train, and then one of us would immediately run to the surface to frantically look for a SECOND PAIR of shopping carts while the other stayed back and guarded the gear. It was pathetic and ridiculous but we always made it on time to our shows.
After a couple of years of this complete and total desperate absurdity, I reconnected with my pal Myke Chilian (whom I had met a few years earlier when my short-lived band “RAZZLE BLASTER” would play shows with his band “CO-OP”). An accordion player, show creator, animator, creative genius, total freak, and definitely one of the most genuinely kind people I’d ever met, Myke was somebody whom I’d immediately felt compelled to collaborate/spend time/ become friends with.
We started a band called “THE MANX” (in 2009, I believe it was). I scrounged up a few hundred dollars and bought an acoustic banjo. The band started out playing folk punk shows in parks and abandoned houses. On train tracks and at vegan cafes. Stuff like that. This folk punk scene was something that I, previously, knew absolutely nothing about. We started really getting into it because it felt like a refreshing departure from our previous projects which were all very grand, conceptually. All we needed was our instruments and we could play anywhere. No amps. No PA’s. It was manageable. And it was immediate… I still didn’t have a car at this time so I was riding my bike ALL over LA with my banjo on board. We’d have rehearsals in my apartment and things were simple.
After a couple of years of folk punk life, I ended up getting into the world of working in animation via Myke… Editing, compositing, design clean up, and eventually music composition. I worked on shows like Rick and Morty, Looney Tunes, Uncle Grandpa and a bunch of others. Currently, I’m composing music for a show that Myke runs on Cartoon Network called “TIG N SEEK”. Getting to work for these animation studios has given me the opportunity to live a somewhat financially stable life. Sort of… (Every couple of years or so, the show that I’m working on ends and then it’s time to find another gig… This can be stressful but it also keeps things interesting and fresh.) Having a little bit of extra cash for the first time had and has allowed me to invest into the things that I’m passionate about like my own bands and artistic endeavors…
I supposed because we were then logistically able to… THE MANX got louder, nastier, weirder, and more colorful… Before we knew it, THE MANX had transformed into this wild f*cking crazy beast. I don’t even know how to describe it. We ended up playing these custom built electric folk instruments through homemade ARCADE CABINET amplifiers. We rocked a bubble machine, sparkly shorts, and songs that I don’t really know how to describe. During the last few years of THE MANX we would have audience members willingly participate in our “GOO DOWN” sessions (This is right before we would take the stage. We’d spit food coloring onto everybody so for the rest of the night you’d just be covered in this vibrant slop.) The live shows were ridiculous and silly and a lot of fun.
We also spent more time than your average band shooting and producing music videos together. This ended up being a logical compromise to our lack of ability to tour (because of our career obligations, etc.) THE MANX did get to tour a fair amount, but nothing like we would have needed to in order to really make an impact for ourselves, in my opinion. Our pal Mike Manasewitsch was our go to collaborator in the music video realm. A truly unique and amazing one man freak show of hilarity. We also worked with Jen Ruiz. I would direct and edit stuff. Our mandolin player Zach would direct. Max Winston, our drummer, directed an amazing video called “HATEFUL GOO”. One of our favorite artists, Mark Thompson, made an amazing video for us for a song called “BEFORE SHE WAS A MOTH”. (I first discovered Mark’s work back when I stumbled upon Nuclear Rabbit btw. He did most of their artwork throughout the 90’s!) That was another great part about THE MANX… Getting to work with musicians and artists that we all admired/looked up to. We worked with Justin Roiland, Derek Mears, Gregory Jacobsen, Buzz Osborne, Paul Christensen, Cody Votolato, Justin Pearson, Toshi Kasai, I mean the list goes on and on really.
But all whacky and absurd things must come to an end and, during the pandemic, THE MANX decided it was time to direct our individual focuses on some other projects.
Adam joined this crazy new band called DROSS.
Max is working hard on his stop motion short film for LOONEY TUNES CARTOONS.
Zach released a sick new album for his solo project “SLAM CHUNK”.
Myke is wrapping up season 3 or 4 or 5 (it’s tough to keep track) of his Cartoon Network show “TIG N’ SEEK”.
I started playing guitar again (after years of only playing banjo) and joined a band called DEAF CLUB, which I absolutely love. It just feels so right and the dudes in the band are absolute savages/ sweethearts… Amazing musicians and cool motherf*ckers.
I’ve also dived straight into investing more of myself into my record label SWEATBAND RECORDS. Getting to work with and release artists like WACKO, DUKE STAMINA, HUMAN FLUID ROT, HURT HAWKS, CANCER CHRIST, MELTED BODIES, MAJOR ENTERTAINER, QUI, and everybody has just put me so much more in tune with the community and what’s actually going on in the scene. (Los Angeles or otherwise.) We’re a small team of weirdos but we’ve been able to do some pretty big things in the year and a half, or so, that we’ve been fully functional… Emily Howard, Dillon Vaughn, and DJ EMBRYONIC PETIT SAC are constantly on top of things and I could not run the label without them.
I’ve also been “producing and doing artist development” a bit, most recently working with Anthony Mehlhaff and his band CANCER CHRIST. Anthony is an amazing photographer who’s been f*cking up the LA scene for the last several years. We realized that he’s also an amazing frontman and we decided to get him up and running with an insane lineup of anonymous Snake Boys for what is now known as CANCER CHRIST. I’ll never miss a CANCER CHRIST show.
My latest undertaking has been putting together a band that I’ve been wanting to do for 16 years now called SQUID PISSER. So far, it’s me on guitar and Seth Carolina (of STARCRAWLER) on drums. We’ve just written/recorded about 25 songs and we’re getting ready to mix and release them (most likely before the year is up…) We’re still looking for a bass player, a second guitar player, and a vocalist btw.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I feel like the most difficult, yet potentially the most rewarding, part of doing any creative work is collaborating with other people. That’s where the magic happens. The melding of worlds and ideas. The fusing of elements to create something new and colorful. The comradeship of going through the sh*t together. Coming out on the other side CHANGED… The beauty of collaboration is always what’s been my favorite thing about being creative. As totally f*cking frustrating as it can be.
There are so many things that can go wrong. It’s why most bands and relationships break up, right? It’s why 90% of businesses fail. It’s like, you need to figure out a secret recipe for success. You need to attain a state of reverse entropy. Most things are destined to fall apart and into chaos. But if you can get JUST the right amount of eggs and flour and sugar and everything in order just so… And if you, then, know how to massage it all together just right and if you figure out how long to incubate it for… BOOM! You’ve got a tasty a*s cake! And that’s just the first step. Okay. We’ve got a cake. Now we have to put this cake into the cake contest and somehow have it stand out as exceptional too. The next step is making it OUTSTANDING right? So you do that… Then you’ve maybe made a reputation for yourself, which is helpful, but then you’ve gotta uphold that reputation and continue pump sh*t out that rocks.
Or don’t. F*ck it do whatever you want! Get experimental and say, “f*ck what anybody expects of you!” I think you gotta follow the line. Follow your gut.
I feel like Metallicas 1996 album LOAD was them just FEELING it, ya know? They were like, “We’re on this Southern rock thing right now. We’re on this truck driver sh*t right now. Let’s ride this, baby. It feels right let’s groove on this”…
1997’s RELOAD however was obviously all leftovers and b-sides from the LOAD sessions. That should have been left on the cutting room floor… Putting that album out wasn’t a great idea in my opinion. They should have held onto that record for at least 20 years and then dropped it out of nowhere…
But who am I to say what Metallica should and shouldn’t do? They’re METALLICA… But Metallica can make mistakes too.
SAINT ANGER in 2003… You can SEE them making ALL of the mistakes in the documentary, “SOME KIND OF MONSTER”… They were just trying so damned hard to remain relevant in the evolving landscape of metal during a time when SLIPKNOT, and all those NÜ METAL bands, had re-invented what heavy was.
My point is, There are always struggles along the way. Even if you’re in the biggest band of all time…
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I play guitar, sing, and write music for a handful of bands in Los Angeles (Deaf Club, Squid Pisser, Chum Out!, The Manx, and more…).
I tend to inject a lot of noise elements and chaos into my music and into my playing. Traditional melody and harmony are things that I appreciate immensely. But, in general, I really gravitate toward organized-chaos in every sense of the term including musically but also in my everyday life. I for sure have ADHD and I think that’s one of the reasons why I’ve always enjoy listening to bands like Meshuggah, Fantômas, and The Dillinger Escape Plan so much. Stuff like that is like evergreen, you know? You can listen to some of those songs 1,000 times and maybe never learn that one exact, precise, little, f*cked up thing that they’re all locking in on. It feels like you’re listening to it fresh almost every time because it’s keeping you on your toes and then knocking you off balance. I just love that sense of danger in music and in art in general.
I try and bring those sharp edges to all of the projects that I do for sure. I want the art that I make to be disgusting and shrill and beautiful and goopy all at the same time. I want it to gore you and punch a hole through your chest and then rip of your head and then staple it back on and spin it around and rip out all the staples and then your body sews it back onto your neck and then you rip it back off and throw it into a microwave and then put it on for 10 minutes and the microwave explodes your head and then your body goes and gets your head out of the microwave and has to kinda scrape all the bits out of the microwave and then your body has to kinda like stick all the bits back together onto your skull and then you superglue your own head back onto your stump… I’m trying to do that (but more stuff too) with my music.
I’m also running a record label with my friends called SWEATBAND RECORDS. We’ve been putting out vinyl and cassettes by a bunch of amazing and totally weirdo musicians. HUMAN FLUID ROT out of Miami, MELTED BODIES, CANCER CHRIST, WACKO and HURT HAWKS in LOS ANGELES… We’ve also just released our first FILM SCORE for a movie called DUDE BRO PARTY MASSACRE 3… That’s probably my favorite movie ever so it’s an exciting one. But ALL of the releases are from my favorite bands so things are feeling really great.
I think we’re doing something different in that, no two releases really sound the same at all. Our artists occupy a wide spectrum of weird… But it’s all got the same kinda of “F*ck you… I am me…” attitude. I feel like it’s all absurdist art and that’s my absolute favorite type of art. I think that if you can appreciate the bizzaro cartoon noise chaos of an artist like DJ EMBRYONIC PETIT SAC, then you can totally get down with the aggressively gay hip hop of DUKE STAMINA and so on. It’s like a f*cking circus of total oddballs and I love it.
Another thing that occupies a lot of time and creative energy for me is my day job. I’ve been composing music for animated television on shows like “Uncle Grandpa” and “Tig N’ Seek” on CARTOON NETWORK for the last seven years or so. It’s incredibly demanding of my creative energy so juggling as many creative projects as I do can be a challenge at times. I often have to step back and take look at where I’m at and how far I’ve come. Deadlines, stress and pressure are real and they can lead to the sacrificing of things like healthy habits… It’s something you need to be very careful with. I’ve gone days without sleep. And weeks without seeing sunlight.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
No risk, no reward. Everything you do is a risk. Everything you stand to gain, you will attain from taking some kind of risk. You have to put yourself out there. You can’t stand on the sidelines and watch everyone else living their lives and making amazing opportunities and experiences for themselves. You need to get your chips onto the table and into the game.
I was JUST talking with a friend about how so many people seem to be conditioned to expect (and accept) disappointment. I’ve suffered from this in ways that I wasn’t even aware of until recently. I think it’s important to always be learning about yourself. You need to be open to growing. And sometimes in order to grow, you need to tear sh*t down… Conquer self-destructive habits. Go to therapy. Micro dose on mushrooms and LCD. Spend time with yourself and with friends who want to see you succeed.
Gain wisdom. Take risks. Get reward.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@sweatbandrecords.com
- Website: https://www.sweatbandrecords.com/
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/koalaslices
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG05-RvgpB6EHtwXjFmi7Yw
Image Credits
Becky DiGiglio, Anthony Mehlhaff, Raz Azraai, Aaron Story
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