Tactics is the culmination of members from the local bands Zlam Dunk and Equals.  Brett Thorne, Daniel Vega, Ross Bennett, Glynn Jordan and Logan Wexler originally all met years ago at Texas State University.  Later, while working together in the now four year old Zlam Dunk, “Brett, in his own time would still write all these songs and we all like different music… It got to a point, if he was going to write all these songs, let’s just try and do it,” Vega said.  Thorne decided to jokingly categorize his new venture as cinemacore.  “I didn’t want to put post rock because nobody really knows what post rock is…  What does that mean?  So, cinemacore I guess just because we all like movies and we’re all somewhat inspired by movies,” Thorne explained, “Not saying that our whole goal is to be licensed for movies… We want to make stuff that could fit into our favorite movies.”  Many of the things the two friends and founding members, Thorne and Vega, enjoy are apparent in the music and their titles.  For example, all five song titles, which can be found at http://wearetactics.bandcamp.com, were Harry Potter inspired.  

Before they were Tactics, founders Brett Thorne and Daniel Vega played with such names as Harlem Grave Robbers and Douglas Bubble Trousers.  Though the names were silly, the music Thorne was writing had more depth.  It was this, the myriad parts of each song and lengths ranging from over five to almost nine minutes, which has taken the first album slightly longer to come together.  “It’s hard to balance all the bands,” began Vega, a sound engineering student who also records, mixes and produces most of the tracks for Tactics.   “Especially with Zlam right now, Zlam just finished recording an album so we’ve been really hard at work.  [Vega] He’s been mixing that pretty much every day,” Thorne further explains.  The members had to set other things aside in preparation for Zlam Dunk’s label deadline and now that the album is set to release in the very near future, more work can go into Tactics. 

So, what can we expect from Tactics in the future?  They are very nearly finished with their first EP and Thorne is already working on three new songs for the next release.  They plan not putting a time limit on this next project and don’t want to cut any corners.  Thorne clarifies, “Not saying that we cut any corners on this one, but it was a little more of us getting our feet of the ground.”  Thorne and Vega are hoping to work with John Congleton, who previously worked with the bands, Explosions in the Sky and This Will Destroy You, on the next album.  They also very recently received an email from a film maker who is looking to license a couple of their songs this year.  Currently they have three of the five songs for their first release done and intend to have it out in some form, digital if not physical, soon.  The two seem to prefer the DIY music community that has emerged over the last two decades and is prominent in Austin.  “There’s no need to wait for [a label] someone else,” Vega begins.   “You control your own destiny,” Thorne finishes with a shrug and a smile. 

-Erica Brokaw