The Omaha band Tilly and the Wall have gained fans of all ages with their quirky anthems and inclusive live shows. “We have anyone from a 60-year-old man to a 9-year-old girl,” singer/ guitarist Derek Pressnall says. “Seriously, that’s like our fanbase.” On an unusually warm April day, Derek along with his wife (and resident tap dancer) Jamie sat down with me in Madison Square Park to talk about their new album O, working together and getting their own Barbies.

Jamie: Well I was teaching pre-school and it is the name of a children’s book by Leo Lionni, but it’s actually spelled differently (Tillie and the Wall). We’re brainstorming names and everyone sort of liked how that sounded so we kept it. The book is about a mouse that overcomes obstacles and sort of learns to stay true to himself. We didn’t pick it for the story, but over time it kind of became appropriate for us so it ended up being a good fit.

BR: So tell me the story of how the band started?
J: Neely (vocals/percussion) and I have probably known each other longest. We went to school and we were in the band, Park Ave for like 5 years. And I met Kianna (vocals/percussion/bass) when I was in my 20s and Derek and I met maybe 6 months before the band started when I was selling merch for Bright Eyes. And Nick (keyboards) and Derek had known each other for a long time too.
Derek: Nick and I moved up from Georgia and I started hanging out with Jamie. She had some songs she was writing and I sort of helped her arrange them. Soon it was like, “Weird, we’re a band.”

BR: Was the plan from the beginning to use tap dancing as a means of percussion?
J: I used to play guitar in Park Ave, but I would tap dance along to a couple of songs with the drums. I did that in another band after that called Magic Kiss with Kianna. With Tilly we were writing songs and I was playing guitar but we didn’t have a drummer so I started doing it to keep the beat. Then we just never looked for a drummer.

BR: Do you have specific parts in each song or is a lot of it improvised?
J: I pretty much have parts, but there are always a couple of songs where I don’t ever have a solid part. So maybe 6 months after it’s released I’ll find a part I’m happy with. The only time it is adlibbed is if I have been drinking. I don’t drink before we play much, but maybe one time I’ll have a couple of beers and be free styling. That’s the joy of being like the only tap dancer in indie rock because no one else knows except the people that you play with every night. I’m just like whatever is it on beat? If it’s on beat then don’t worry about it.

BR: Did getting married change the dynamic of the band?
J: We started dating about a year after Tilly was started so nothing really changed. We did have a big discussion about if we broke up we didn’t want it to affect the band or affect our friendship. Probably that same relationship everyone has before they start dating someone.

BR: Everyone has a writing credit on each of the albums. Are there specific roles in the band or do you really all work together?
D: It’s definitely a collective. The whole band writes songs, all 5 of us, so every record has a song by everybody on it.
J: I have one song on the record I’d written that I’d tried to get on the last three records and I finally got it on this one.

BR: Which song?
J: The first song on the record “Tall, Tall Grass.” It almost didn’t make it because it’s almost like we’re going to put it on in the beginning or we’re not going to include it at all. I thought, Oh my God if it does not make it on this record I’d be so bummed because I had been trying to get this song on every single record.
D: It was the intro to the 3rd record we just didn’t know it.

BR: Are there any other songs on the record that you had been working on for a while?
J: “Too Excited” which is the last song. We’ve kind of been working on that for a couple of years. I kind of felt like it became complete when we recorded because we were able to do things we could only do in the studio like the taps are me over myself three times. So it’s kind of like a sound we could never really get anywhere else.

BR: Anything else you tried for the first time?
J: It was just fun to experiment with the percussion on a couple of songs on the record. We had like a stomp team which was a group of 8 people. And then I had a tap trio on one of the songs with some people that tap in town. It was just like things that we had talked about doing, but wasn’t appropriate on any of the previous albums.
D: We did it on Bottoms of Barrels (2006 Team Love).
J: But we didn’t do a stomp group or a tap trio.
D: We did a step troupe kind of, except with ourselves.
J: I would not consider that a step troupe, we did layer.
D: But that was the beginning of that sort of idea. We wanted to have a big thing, so we just doubled ourselves doing it.
J: We recorded it in a gymnasium so I think it was a totally different sound. We just did a lot of experimenting on this record.

BR: How do you think this record differs from the last two?
D: I think it’s the most unified record we’ve made. We’ve had a lot of ideas and with the first two records we kind of put our hands in different buckets. I think we actually stepped into those buckets with this one.

BR: Anything specific?
D: With the first record (2004 Wild Like Children) percussion and stuff we have a drum song, an electronic beat song and a tap song. It’ all kind of separate but we have the ideas. With Bottoms Of Barrels we kind of mixed those together. I feel like the percussion on this record is like one. There’s taps and electronic beats and drums.

BR: Along with experimenting on O you decided to experiment with the album art. How did you guys come up with the idea of making the cover an individual art piece?
J: We were kind of brainstorming ideas and making the album special. Like the music and the visual. We have so many amazing friends that are visual artists. Wouldn’t it be great if we could get Joey Lynch to do a piece for us? That’s kind of how the idea started. Derek came up with the actual idea of getting artists to do runs of 1,000 and everything would be handmade somehow. So basically what we’ve done now is have artists do it based on what they do. Some artists can’t do 1,000 covers but they could do 100 since they have to paint it. Some have just done one. So we’ve just been asking everybody whatever they’re comfortable doing. It’s just going to be a long list by the times it is done.

BR: Is this a way to get people to physically buy a copy of the album?
J: I’m fine with either, downloading it or buying it. I think this is something that makes it really special because it’s actually a handmade piece of art.
D: We’re encouraging people to take the piece of artwork out and put it on there wall or frame it or do whatever you want to do. I don’t think we see it as a way to sell records. I feel like we think it is a way to have something special for those people who want to buy the records.

BR: Along with being involved with the album art, you guys have made a lot of interesting videos. Do you like making them or is it something you’re forced to do?
J: It’s fun doing the videos. We work with people we admire, but we always have total creative control. A lot of them are our ideas, but they’ll try to help us figure them out. It’s just another medium we’re still learning how to do. Derek has great ideas for videos, but my ideas are like some one should wear these colors.

BR: Would you guys ever think of doing a tour documentary or making a movie a la Hard Days Night?
J: If someone came to us with this amazing idea I’d be totally up for it, but so far we haven’t heard anything. We’d have to be out for a long time and it would have to be condensed into like 15 minutes because there are definitely some really fun moments, but days go by in between where nothing happens.

BR: I know you guys have talked about your fans and how they always bring you gifts. Anything stand out?
J: We’ve actually gotten two sets of these from two different groups of people, Barbies that are meant to look like us. I love it. It’s so detailed. I used to have a silver sign that I tapped on, they have the sign. Kianna has one that has her tattoos replicated in full detail and she has a lot. They said they had to find photos from every angle to see every part of her arm.

BR: So like every girl, was your life long dream to have a Barbie made in your likeness?
J: I’m stoked. It’s like your dream in a way yes. I was really into Barbie’s and now we’re going to be on Sesame Street. You like never know what’s going to happen in your life.

BR: Do you know what you will be doing on the show?
J: Well we’re singing the alphabet song with kind of a twist, a Tilly twist. We’re green screening it with kids singing along. It’s cool because I work with Pre-K so it’s like oh my God they’re going to think I’m like famous, which is totally like not the case.

BR: Do the kids know you play music?
J: We have a lot of nieces and nephews and the older ones understand, but like my little nephew I told him we’re going to be on Sesame Street and he was like okay. I think he’ll be excited when he sees it, but he’s not quite picking the connection up.
D: He probably thinks it’s real he’s like, “Oh she’s going to go to Sesame Street.”

BR: Do you feel like you have a kid’s connection? Where parents can listen along with their kids?
J: Parents do come to the shows with their kids every once and a while which is awesome.
D: We try to connect with the youth inside of us when writing our songs so maybe that appeals to younger people and maybe people who have younger spirits.

BR: How do you feel about being defined as a pop band?
J: We have a fun poppy energy. I think it’s good to have a happy outlook on life and to keep in touch with what your dreams are. I think with our music a lot of it is that.

BR: With the release of the album I’m sure you’ll be touring…
J: End of June to August. We just confirmed a tour with CSS in September. We played with them in Europe and they’re so much fun. It’s just going to be a 2 week mini tour, but we’ll be around this summer.

- Shannon Carlin