At the young age of 15 a little poser named Rob was introduced to a band that instantly became one of his favorite bands he’d ever hear. The band had a style unlike anything he’d ever heard before, their musical influences were a wide ride range of sounds and genres fused together like some form of previously unknown magic. At first he heard some silky-clean vocals performing layered harmonies over hooks, and catchy, well structured riffs that just radiated energy.

Then they mixed in the scintillating melodies akin to bands of the late 90s pop punk style, and somehow, they deliberately amalgamated all this with some trademarks you’d expect to hear from a hardcore band: raucous vocals being shouted over the song, double kicks and double time, heavy tom drums, bouncy grooves, two-step rhythms, hostile breakdowns, and of course, some classic gang vocals.

What more could ya want?

Seriously, what more could I ask for? They had it all. Countless other bands at the time attempted this fusion genre and style but none ever did it, or ever will do it, like Tiefighter.

Cali’s own beloved Tiefighter have surprisingly returned (they’re so back). The band released a newly recorded version of their song “143” last year, unleashing it on the world just because they could. Naturally I harassed the members of my favourite childhood band to inquire about their next move. Is the 16-year hiatus over? Would we be getting more new music from Tiefighter in 2023? Even now, typing this still boggles my mind.  

So we fast forward to 2024 and Tiefighter have emerged again without warning to debut a new collection of songs for an EP titled: Walk The Plank. A brand new, self recorded, mixed and mastered, and independently released album with three new songs and one Lil Nas X cover of “C7OSURE” that’s fully decked out with auto tune.. I dunno man, Tiefighter’s been doing whatever they want since day one and now they’re doing it exactly how they want it done. 

Today we get the privilege of debuting that cover here and I caught up with their vocalist Eddie to discuss the band’s origins, their reunion, the new EP, and if they have any plans for the future of Tiefighter hidden in those high ass socks.

SO WHY NOW, AFTER 16 YEARS, DID YOU ALL DECIDE TO WRITE NEW MUSIC?

“I’m not sure if there was an intentional act or idea to put out new music. After so many years in the game, music is intertwined with pretty much all aspects of my life. Most of my friends I’ve met either through music or jiu jitsu. Throughout the day, I’m constantly thinking of melodies, drum patterns, and have recently been reading up on song structuring. 

We never stopped writing, even after the band ceased to exist from 2010 till now, we just write songs with a different flavor, or better suited for Anchorless.”

ANY PREVIOUS PROJECTS WORTH MENTIONING? DO ANY MEMBERS IN TIEFIGHTER HAVE ANY OTHER MUSICAL PROJECTS CURRENTLY?

“We played in a few local bands in high school, but nothing notable. After high school, we played in a metalcore band called Yourlastbreath. Robbie Smith, (vocalist of Heavy Heavy Low Low), was an old friend of ours and passed a few of our songs to Jihad @ Twelve Gauge Records, who loved the songs. Twelve Gauge ended up releasing an EP for YLB and eventually put out the Tiefighter / Countdown split EP as well. Post-TF, we also formed Anchorless, who has a split out with our Canadian friends Elder Abuse out of State Of Mind Recordings.”

WHAT’S BEEN THE WRITING PROCESS FOR WALK THE PLANK?

“Our writing process is a bit different than what I’d imagine is considered ‘normal’ for other bands. 99.9% of the time, one of us will write an entire song on our own, then send it to the rest of the crew to learn and listen to at home so that once a practice session rolls around, we’re already ready to go with it. If there were any kinks of changes to work out, we would probably do it right there at practice, but I can confidently say not even once have we ever showed up and started trying to write music together on the spot. Everyone in the band is a competent songwriter in their own right, so it works well for us. 

Trying to align the creative ideas of five separate individuals in a confined space usually leads to a lot of unproductive downtime, in my experience and opinion. It’s difficult enough to get us all in the same room as it is, so it’s always good to get most of the writing done outside of that space.”

“WALK THE PLANK IS A METAPHOR OF SORTS, AS IN WE ARE BACK AND JUST GOING FOR IT SAYING ‘WELP, HERE GOES NOTHING.’ IT PERSONALLY MEANS A LOT TO ME BECAUSE OF EVERYONE THAT HELPED OUT ON IT, OUR SOUND AND OVERALL PRODUCTION HAVE ALSO COME A LONG WAY SINCE BACK IN THE DAY AND THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM TO EVOLVE AND PERFECT THE CRAFT.”

- EDDIE @TIEFIGHTER

HOW WAS RECORDING FOR WALK THE PLANK?

”Recording came together pretty seamlessly. It was a change to hear my voice with vocoders and overloaded with auto-tune for the Lil Nas X cover, but I wanted to maintain some resemblance to the original and I think it served it well. It was great to get back to tracking in-person with Mike, and working together with some of our old friends to help out on guest vocals brought back some great memories.”

(I helped do gang vocals on some of these songs by yelling shit at my iPhone and sending that file off to Eddie, just wanted to flex that cause I’m still really stoked on it.)

“Everything was recorded, mixed, and mastered in house. As in, my actual home studio. I’ve been recording bands since the mid-2000’s, and Chad, Jessie, and Mike all have their own recording setups, so there’s quite a bit of experience under our belts.”

SO WITH A SURPISE COMEBACK AND A BRAND NEW EP RELEASING NOW, CAN WE BE EXPECTING MORE MUSIC OR ANY REUNION SHOWS?

“No shows on the horizon yet, although I did promise the good folks at Mosh For Youth that if we ever did another show, it would be a MFY event. Never say never! As far as tours go, we all have careers nowadays but I’d be totally down for a Japan run! Not sure what’s next exactly but as far as releasing new music goes, this is for sure happening! As a matter of fact, we already have another round of songs in the last stages of pre-production and are just about ready to go.

I think the new 7” kind of opened the floodgates for us, musically. We’re writing and trying new things that we haven’t even thought about before. We’re stoked!”

ANY CLOSING WORDS?

“I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone who is still listening after all this time. It’s been 16 years since our last release and even till this day people still email and message us telling us how much our music meant to them. It’s awesome that people still know who we are and ask for new tunes, new merch and all that. I hope at the very least we represented our area well and showed friendship, loyalty, and respect to those who have generously offered theirs to us over the years.”

Walk The Plank drops November 22nd on Don’t Leave Cali. Dont Leave Cali was formed by Mike & Eddie back in 2013 and they’ve released music for a few of their friends’ bands over the years. Today we’re psyched to be debuting the Tiefighter cover of C7OSURE by Lil Nas X. Check that out below and hit that Don’t Leave Cali link to grab the vinyl!