SOURCE – The “Importance of Being Vogue” video was widely accepted on YouTube. How was its production, and how was it received by Gucci?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Yeah, it was good, man. Vogue has turned into a mainstay in the set when we play live. A lot of Tuscoma material is over the top and kind of veers into hipster territory often, but Vogue is just one for the pit kids, so it’s always fun as hell to play live. Production for Gu-cci was done over four to five days at a studio in Tauranga, NZ, then sent off to Chris Johnson from Deafheaven. Personally, it was awesome for me—I nailed the bass in a few hours, then just cracked open some beers for the rest of the time there. Haha, it was primo.
The video was a different story—we had no budget and barely any talent. Luckily, Joe’s partner, Stella, works in film, so she came through and got some top-notch footage for us that I edited together with some runway footage I literally stole from somewhere. Haha. Still waiting for that copyright claim.
SOURCE – How would you describe the evolution of your music since your previous album, Gu-cci?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Straight up, we spent a lot more time on actual songwriting. I don’t know, man—maybe it’s just us getting old as hell, but there’s a lot more nuance in the structures, with closer attention paid to dynamics while still being the most cohesive and heaviest thing we’ve ever done. Kurt has leaned more into black metal vocals—real caveman shit—which juxtaposes nicely against Joe and me leaning further towards complex rhythms and structures.
SOURCE – “Mal de Amores” is a phrase in Portuguese and Spanish. Why did you choose this term as the name of the band’s new album?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – While Mal de Amores isn’t a concept album, it technically is—each song follows the journey of a relationship from its beginning to the struggles that we’ve all just kind of learned to live with. For example, relationships that stay together because there is a financial incentive to do so—shit that we’ve just, for some reason, gotten used to and accepted. There’s a real philosophical intrigue to the entire process of a relationship, and it’s a weight that most people will experience themselves. To everyone who has or will experience it: pre-order the fucking album. It WILL fix your relationship.
SOURCE – How was the production of Mal de Amores, and what would you highlight about the album?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Production took place in the same studio where we did Gucci, but this time we had Chris Johnson from Deafheaven behind the desk. It was cool, man. I got real drunk and yelled at him to give us a new Doomriders album. Fuck, how good are Doomriders, man?
SOURCE – In what ways do you ensure that each album maintains a unique sound while staying true to the band’s identity and musical roots?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Truly, man, the identity of Tuscoma is not giving any fucks about what the scene is doing. We’ve been lumped in with the black metal scene basically forever, but we’re definitely not a band for black metal purists, haha. It’s pretty easy to stay unique when you don’t care what the rest of the scene is doing and you’re too old to care what “cool” is anymore. I used to be with ‘it,’ but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore, and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!
SOURCE – In your opinion, how important are music videos in today’s music industry? Do you consider them an essential part of building your brand?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Bro, straight up, I haven’t watched a music video in years. But the way people consume art is just different now—no one wants art, they want content. So, I do think they’re important because people need to be glued to some kind of content. I started typing a tirade, then realized what the next question was, so I’ll rant there instead.
SOURCE – How has the rise of streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music changed your approach to releasing music? Has it altered the way you think about albums versus singles?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – I don’t know, man, I might have a real old-man opinion on this, but fuck it. Things like Spotify are a double-edged sword. Yes, it’s cool that I have access to every Self Defense Family EP at my fingertips whenever I want, but it’s created this attention-span deficit with a massive portion of people that I’m truly not sure the industry can recover from.
There’s a whole second side to making an album that goes unnoticed now—the art, the visuals, the whole package. Buying a vinyl, sitting down with the liner notes, digesting the art, and letting it wash over you before you’ve even heard a second of the music is such a cool fucking experience that too many people don’t want anymore.
For the most part, people were done with albums a long time ago. Now they barely want singles—they want a 25-second snippet for a reel or their TikToks, and the song you pick determines how your damn reel performs. So, performers are literally incentivized to make music that ticks some imaginary box that some fuckin’ nerd at a record label deems digestible. It’s all just content, man. Fuck content. It’s anti-art, and honestly, I hate it.
Luckily, a lot of that shit doesn’t touch the metal scene, because most people here crave having an album to digest. They gravitate toward a sound and then explore it in its entirety—just like you should gravitate to the Landmine Records Bandcamp page and pre-order three copies of Mal de Amores on vinyl.
Jesus Christ, I’m just realizing how old I am.
SOURCE – How do you view the evolution of music consumption in the digital age, and what role do you think physical media (such as vinyl or CDs) still play in your music career?
Craig Leahy (Bass) – Damn, I really just blew my load on that last question without seeing this one, haha—see above.
Honestly, man, the metal scene will continue to create albums as a central piece of art. If people gravitate toward a single and only want that one song, cool, that’s great—I hope you dig it. But the people who listen to the whole album will hopefully be brought along on the journey that went into making it.
That’s what we’ve done with Mal de Amores. We’re telling a story that you won’t fully grasp by listening to just the single—you’ll need to sit down and listen to the entire thing. And we firmly believe you’ll have a fuckin’ blast doing it.
I also firmly believe you’ll have a blast going onto the Landmine Records Bandcamp – page and preordering nine vinyl records.
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