Brooklyn – Caleb Karvountzis is the 23-year-old, altruistically genuine founder and front man of the Aussie band Tiny Little Houses. Though yet under the radar, this is an act that comprehends the deepest depths of truth-slinging, affecting expression. Emotional intelligence such as Karvountzis’ is rare. And coupled with skilled music writing, his work is an elevated, tell-all sonic tableau of the highest caliber. Already a mainstay of Melbourne’s bourgeoning music scene, this band has the potential to skyrocket to global plains if the boys can guard their sterling, authentic intentions close to the chest. And like the best, Karvountzis gets by with a little help from his friends.
Karvountzis spoke to Best New Bands about his debut single, the thriving music scene down under and what lies at the core of a musician’s responsibility to his or her listeners. Read on for more weighty glory.
LIZ ROWLEY: Let’s hear it, the history behind Tiny Little Houses.
CALEB KARVOUNTZIS: I started by myself, doing demos online. Then I got a bit of attention on Soundcloud, and got voted Soundcloud’s pick of the day. That was the moment I started to think there might be something to my music. So, I got my friend Sean [Mullins] to help, and we started working on the songs more intensely. We played some shows and did some demos together. Sean’s helped out a lot, in terms of maturing our sound. Afterwards, I got my other two friends to come along. Al [Yamin] plays bass and Clancy [Bond] plays drums.
You’ve listed Neutral Milk Hotel, Elliot Smith and The Microphones as some of your influences. Who else inspires your work?
I really like Manchester Orchestra and lot of older stuff like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Those two are probably my biggest influences.
How would you categorize your sound, if you had to jam it into genres?
I think it’d be low-fi, noise-folk, pop? That’s probably what I’d call it.
Can you speak about your debut single, “Every Man Knows His Plague; And You Are Mine”?
The song is about addiction in general. In this case, it’s written about a girl. But it could be about any sort of addiction. The line “every man knows his plague” is a scripture from the Bible, which I randomly came across. I thought it was a really interesting line, and I was taken by the idea that every person knows what the plague of his or her heart is. That’s what the song is really about, I suppose, knowing your addiction. And every person’s individual struggle is different from everybody else’s.
Every person has their own affliction that they have to deal with. I suppose for some people it’s drugs, and for others it’s alcohol. For some people, their addiction is women, or it’s gambling. Some people thrive on lying or cheating. “Every Man Knows His Plague; And Your Are Mind” is about anything that relates to a personal struggle.
Your debut track clearly draws from personal experiences. Do you think it’s the responsibility of a musician, or an artist in general, to mirror sentiments that reflect the most important parts of being human?
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think the most relatable and reliable thing is love, I suppose, and loss, because everyone can relate to those emotions. But in terms of a band’s responsibility, that’s a bit more complex. I really dislike pop music when it doesn’t voice something in a different way from how anyone else has said it before. I think we hear too much music, with too many recycled sentiments. Saying ‘I miss you,’ to me, is too generic. I think it’s more important for a band to mirror human sentiment in a different way. I would like to write more about the state of the world, but also, I think it’s helpful for a listener to hear about personal struggles. I’ve certainly related a lot to artists that write from instances in their own lives.
It’s the same as in literature, isn’t it? To provide a platform where everyone can meet on the same page.
Yeah, and every time we hear a song we relate to, or read a book or story we relate to, it’s like living another life. It gives you another perspective on an issue, an emotion or a complex. That’s really cool.
If you weren’t a musician, what would you like to be?
If I wasn’t a musician, I’d like to be a writer, I reckon. But I don’t know if I’d be any good. I think writing nowadays, or at any time, has been such a hard profession to become successful at. It seems to me like you’d need to have a lot of commitment. As a musician, you can get a piece of work completed quite quickly. But as a writer, it takes a project of three or four years to reach a product you might be really happy with. That would be pretty daunting.
Can you describe your songwriting process in general?
In general I just sit down with the guitar and I play around until I like the sound of what surfaces. Usually, I’ll sit there for like an hour, with my recorder going. Whatever comes to my head in terms of lyrics generally sticks to the song. I don’t really write a song and add lyrics later on. I generally have most of the song done pretty quickly.
“Plague” actually took a bit longer. Almost six months after I’d written it, I tacked on some additions. But most of the time songs get written in one sitting. I’ll take what I have structurally to Sean, and he’ll add in little lead guitar bits and tell me which bits need to be build up or backed off.
What’s the music scene like in Melbourne?
Melbourne’s music scene is really good; in fact it’s awesome. I don’t know who said this, but recently a lot of Australian-based music blogs have been going on about how someone said it was one of the world’s best music scenes. Maybe some random guy just said it and everyone’s propagating it! But it’s really good. It’s probably one of the best in Australia, I would think. We have a lot of talent coming out of Melbourne that’s going to go international in the next couple of years I reckon.
It’s quite easy to make waves in the Melbourne music scene, because there are loads of little venues hosting events throughout the week. That helps build a lot of support, and all of the bands are really supportive to play with here as well.
Who are you listening to now, who would you file under best new bands?
There are a couple really good ones from Melbourne. There’s a band called Bored Nothing. They’re really, really good. They probably sound like Elliot Smith, and they’re the best when it comes to really lo-fi stuff. All their music is recorded in a bedroom and on four tracks. There’s another group called Sleep Decade that’s really good.
What are you working on now, and what’s the long game for Tiny Little Houses?
Right now we’ll be pushing our single and we’ll be playing some shows in Melbourne. We’ve done a launch show, too. I think we might do a video for our single, and we’ve got another track that we’ve recorded with Steven Schram, our producer [Little Red, San Cisco]. We’ll release that towards the end of the year, and probably go back to the studio and finish recording an EP. For the long term, Sean and I are pretty happy to play shows as they come and record as we can. We don’t have massive aspirations or anything, we’re just happy writing stuff and recording it. We get a lot of joy out of it.
Liz Rowley
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