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Arts & Music

Gimme Five! Seth Martin of the Sinful Savage Tigers

Truth be told, the Sinful Savage Tigers began on a lark. Seth Martin thought he’d play a one-off gig at a folk festival in Alabama with his friend Rob Guthrie and that would be it. That one gig, it turned out, was just the beginning.

Truth be told, the Sinful Savage Tigers began on a lark.  Seth Martin thought he’d play a one-off gig at a folk festival in Alabama with his friend Rob Guthrie and that would be it.  That one gig, it turned out, was just the beginning.

Inspired by that opportunity, Martin assembled a band, began rearranging and  re-imagining his old tunes and playing out as The Sinful Savage Tigers.  Soon after, the band recorded a debut disc, 2008’s Rain is the Soup of the Dogs in Heaven.  Martin’s since moved and left behind the friends who helped the project get on its feet, but The Sinful Savage Tigers live on.  With David Bernay (Holler) and Seth Barden (Brand New Life), this new incarnation* of Tigers bring the raucous string-band sound to any venue that dare welcome their savagery.

This month, there just so happen to be a few places willing to take the risk.  Hear the Tigers play a set live in studio on WCOM on Saturday, July 24th (3:00-4:00) and at the Local 506 on Friday, July 30th when they’ll open at The Tell‘s farewell show.

And now just your routine five questions throw-down:

1. If your band were one of the seven sins, which would it be?

The deadly sin festering in the heart of the Sinful Savage Tigers is vainglory. Our songs and the characters in them are full of boasts, big promises, boozy swagger, false oaths, false bravado, narcissism, and the blindness necessary to write paeans to how good looking we are.

2. When was the moment you first thought music was something you might like to try?

Well, I knew spending time with the ladies was something I might like to try and MathCounts wasn’t making that happen.

3. Describe the first time you realized SST was something special/you needed to share.

Two come to mind. When I listened to a fully arranged mock-up of “Town and Country” for the first time in my monitors, I thought it was a song that deserved a chance to be heard. Another came the first time we hit upon our live arrangement for “Natural Ghost”; it differed so much from the album version and contained all these subtler elements and moods. I’d never heard a song quite like that before. I thought we had something at least a tiny bit different to say.

4. Who/what might be a few inspirations or influences that might really surprise people?

The name of the band comes from a stray line in a BBC radio comedy from the 1950s called The Goon Show that I became obsessed with it when I was twelve or so. I believe very strongly in the idea of counterweights in songwriting. If we’re working in a very rural Southern genre and with folk arrangements, I wanted to have a (seemingly) alien point of reference for the lyrics and concepts for the songs. A lot of my writing begins with ideas or notions pulled from postwar British radio and teleplays, even if they don’t end up in the finished song. Kind of like hitting a tennis ball against a backstop; it’s fun to see how your ideas get thrown back at you.

5. What did you dream of being when you were a kid? (how ’d that turn out?)

I wanted to be an impressionist or a voice actor. I still do a good impression of a dude who can sing and play the guitar poorly.

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Be sure to head over to the Local 506 on Friday, July 30th to catch the Sinful Savage Tigers in action. And by all means, give Seth a high five when you see him!

*PS: Martin also divulged that there’s an even newer incarnation on the horizon. The Tigers will be on the hunt for a new mandolin/guitar player/backup vocalist beginning August 1.  If you feel up for the task, get in touch!