Typhoon

Short Interview

Photo of the band Typhoon (Source: TenderLovingEmpire.com)

Typhoon are an indie rock band from Portland, Oregon that includes eleven current members, a unique plethora of instrumentation, including (at some point in their career) violin, trumpet, ukulele, horns, accordion, viola, cello as well as guitar, bass, drums, and piano, and profound yet relatable lyrics initially inspired by the health and personal struggles of frontman Kyle Morton.

Kyle Morton of Typhoon (Source: OregonLive.com)

The eleven current members include Morton on lead vocals, piano, and guitar; Toby Tanabe on bass and vocals; Dave Hall on guitar and vocals; Shannon Steele on violin and vocals; Jen Hufnagel on violin and vocals; Pieter Hilton on drums and vocals; Alex Fitch on drums and vocals; Tyler Ferrin on horns and vocals; Ryan McAlpin on trumpet and vocals; Eric Stipe on trumpet and vocals; Devin Gallagher on percussion, ukulele, and vocals.

Past or come-and-go members include Jordan Bagnall on viola, accordion, keyboard and vocals; Casey O’Brien on drums; Conlan Murphy on guitar, percussion, banjo, and vocals; Paige Morton on violin and vocals; Samantha Kushnick on cello and vocals; Nora Zimmerly on vocals and piano; and Grant Hall.

Typhoon has released three full-length albums: Typhoon (2005), Hunger and Thirst (2010), and White Lighter (2013); two EPs: Dearborn Sessions (2007), A New Kind of House (2011); a compilation album: From Boy Gorilla and Beyond (2011); and a live album: Live at the Crystal Ballroom (2015).

Covers of many of Typhoon’s albums (Sources: WeAreTyphoon.com and LyricsWikia)

Not to mention, Typhoon made their television debut by playing on the Late Show with David Letterman on August 4, 2011.

Typhoon playing on the Late Show with David Letterman on August 4. 2011 (Source: YouTube/Late Show)

Moreover, Typhoon, featuring eleven members, is centered around friendship. When asked in an interview with Dave Allen about how Typhoon is best described to someone who does not know anything about them, Morton answered:

You know, they’re all my old friends, and the thing I hear the most about our band is the disbelief about how big we are and how many people are in it. But I just can’t think of it happening any other way. We’ve never… like once we had all our friends join in, it just wasn’t the same going to back to, like, a four-person band or three-person band. And a lot is just the atmosphere it creates. It changes performing from being something of a spectacle to you’re just playing with your friends and people happen to be watching, or something like that. So, I guess people should just know that it’s my old friends making music…

We closed the border on Typhoon this afternoon. We’ve decided no more members. Right now there’s… I think there’s twelve. I don’t ever know exactly — there’s like twelve or thirteen. And we might be having… one of our friends is coming back from Europe this summer, and he’ll be playing with us. He has a kind of permanent tenure in our band, Eric. Then another friend who comes and goes might be coming back, but, after that, I think that’s it — cut it off.

Furthermore, Typhoon’s songs feature an ambitious amount of sounds and instruments. For example, on their song “The Honest Truth” there are prominent strings, horns, drums and group vocals that carry the song while Morton implores:

So be kind to all of your neighbors

Be kind to all of your neighbors

’Cause they’re just like you

They’re just like you

And you’re nothing special

Unless they are too

Music video for Typhoon’s song “The Honest Truth” (Source: YouTube/Tender Loving Empire)

Another good example of Typhoon’s eclectic instrumentation is their song “Young Fathers” that is audibly all-over-the-place. “Young Fathers” seems to momentarily include the sound of every instrument — drums, guitar, bass, keys, horns — whistling, female vocals, group vocals, and changes in tempo multiple times throughout the song.

Music video for Typhoon’s song “Young Fathers” (Source: YouTube)

Furthermore, Morton says the key to managing the recording and practicing of Typhoon is that:

You just have to manage it differently, I think. It’s something of like… like a baseball team or something, rather than a band… We end up doing a lot of sectionals, working with parts of the band. I’m always at all of the practices but rarely is everybody at all the practices… it’s groups… there’s a lot of boredom, we find, if we all get together, even with like — maybe not all of us— but if we get at least a majority, people get bored if we’re working on things, so we micromanage. We’ll work on a drum part just Alex, Peter and myself, then… sometimes we’ll play a show and we’ll all have practiced but not together and it’s kind of a strange phenomenon… it’s really cool when we hear it all because you hear it in fragments and you just hope it’s going to come out right in the show. Usually, it does.

Typhoon’s lyrics are also profound but relatable. In the NPR interview “Songs for a Lost Childhood,” Morton describes how being bitten by a tick as a child and contracting Lyme Disease became inspiration for songwriting. Morton continues that he went undiagnosed for a long time and the disease weakened his body and immune system, which has affected his health from childhood until the present.

Songs For A Lost Childhood

He said that his experience with the disease has given him a lot to think about — both negatively and positively. In the positive sense, he has been able to write songs that he can share with his friends who help bring his words to life, creating all the different parts of each complete song. The process of sharing these songs, then, starts with Morton, goes to his circle of friends, and then, lastly, to fans. Morton says that he becomes more comfortable with vulnerability he expresses in songs, and that songs become more than personal projects once he shares them with friends:

There’s a weird disconnect there with mostly music I’ve written about my illness and about… well, remarks about what people think of it is that it’s kind of depressing subject matter, but then when we’re playing it with our friends, it changes things a bit…

I take those songs and bring it to my group of friends and they’ll just cheer me up and we’ll play and write parts for it and somehow it goes from being a personal song for me that I probably wouldn’t want to play for many other people, and it turns into something that we kind of do as an orchestration. It becomes separated from me.

Typhoon’s songs become useful for fans, too — in more than the typical sense of entertainment. For example, an article in The Huffington Post by John McCormick explains the value of Typhoon to he and his son:

Like Morton, my son is a guitarist who composes songs for his own rock band. But there was another reason we attended the concert. Morton and my son have something more in common than a love of guitars and rock music. They share an illness that infects 300,000 people in the United States each year — Lyme disease.

The lyrics of Morton have become a testament to our ability to confront and endure enfeebling illness. It shows how illness and personal struggle may be transformed into art useful to others; Morton’s songs are personally and publicly therapeutic.

However, the negative aspects are that illness still affects Morton’s health and, because of its impact on his childhood, has caused him regret for a person he never became.

Morton says that getting sick “obliterated any sense of these kind of monumental… truths that I had as a kid, like, that I would grow up and that I would be strong and tall.”

This, too, creates a kind of deficit of opportunity cost, so to speak. Because of illness, Morton says that he feels this

sort of this regret or this feeling of loss over a person I never became. And so that’s, I mean, that’s the only thing I find worthwhile to write about, because not only is it important to me, I think it’s a feeling a lot of people can relate to, a sense of wanting to be something and not being able to achieve it.

In other words, this negative aspect is that it still affects Morton’s health and causes regret for a life he never had the chance to experience. Also, about how illness still affects his health, he says that

I had a kidney transplant about eight years ago, and it’s something that kind of affects me in waves — like I get healthy then I get sick again. And the music, for better or worse, comes a lot from that and comes from that and that sense of resentment almost… I don’t know if that’s what I want people to know about our band. I usually kind of keep that quiet, but it’s been on my mind lately especially.

Typhoon’s song that unites both the positive and negative aspects illness has given Morton is “Morton’s Fork.” It is demonstrative of how he has (alone) written personal songs of pain and has been able to share them with friends and fans (together), like the chorus of the song:

And they’ll come through the fold

This is the sound of a wild pack of hungry wolves

I won’t lie to you

it’ll be painful

It’s in your nature to fear what is natural

and the sun will explode

(I told you all I’d keep you safe)

but not before you and everyone that you’ll ever know

(I told you)

will be gone

(I broke my back just trying to live your way)

long ago

You are alone in this together

You are alone in this together

Typhoon’s song “Morton’s Fork” (Source: Bandcamp)

Finally, and inspiringly enough, Devin Gallagher from Typhoon was generous enough to answer nine short-interview questions after I reached out through Facebook:

Photo of Devin Gallagher of Typhoon (Source: OregonLive.com)

1) When did you form Typhoon? Where were you expecting it to go when you formed it?
We started in 2005 and we just set out to make a record. But then we kept going.

2) What do you consider your influences? What are some of your favorite bands and/or albums? Books? Movies?
There are too many to list. We love Built to Spill and Wong Kar-wai.

3) What is one of the best experiences you’ve had playing a show? Explain.
One time we played in Port Townsend, WA, and no one was there. But people came in from the street and by the time we were done there was a small crowd.

4) What are you most grateful for?
I’m really glad we’ve stayed together.

5) Are you optimistic for the future of music, especially with the influx of technology, the Internet, and file-sharing?
The music industry is doomed. Popular music is doomed. Teach your children to play the piano.

6) What is the most interesting dream that you have had that you remember?
I often have typhoon-related nightmares.

7) What is the album you’ve made that you’re most proud of? What seems to be fans’ favorite of your albums?
White Lighter is the best thing I’ve ever been a part of. But our next album will be better.

8) Are there any contemporary artists that you really like? For instance, bands that sound similar to you? Label-mates?

We love Kickball, Wild Ones, Hollow Wood, My Body, Genders, Ages and Ages, Sun Angle, Pure Bathing Culture, Naomi Punk, LAKE, Lost Lander.

9) If you could give one piece of advice to young people today, what would it be?
Keep doing what you love. Don’t stop.

If you liked the article, then hit the ❤ button below, and, if you cannot get enough of Typhoon, you can support and learn more about them by following the links below:

You can visit their website for info about shows, merch, and buying albums here.

You can follow them on Twitter here.

You can like them on Facebook here.

You can listen and buy their music on Bandcamp here.

Sources:

McCormick, John. “How a Rock Musician Inspired One Family Dealing With Lyme Disease.” TheHuffingtonPost.com. The Huffington Post, 7 July, 2014. Web. 2 April 2016.

Morton, Kyle. Interview with Dave Allen. Vimeo. Vimeo, 2010. Web. 2 April 2016.

Morton, Kyle. Interview with NPR. NPR.org. NPR, 31 Aug 2013. Web. 2 April 2016.