Interview: Tetchy wrangles the unhinged nature of existence

Maggie Denning was “neck deep into long Covid” when her band Tetchy‘s new song “Psychosomatic” struck her fingertips like a bolt of dry lightning. During its creation, the singer-songwriter experienced Covid “symptoms every day for about six months and then symptoms for most days for another six months after that,” she admits over email. “It was (and still can be) absolutely brutal. It changed me completely. And I’m a much better, smarter, kinder, happier, and more free person for it.”

With a word like psychosomatic, which relates to a physical condition or illness that is “caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress,” there’s an innate heaviness to the song that’s raw and pounding. “That word is very complicated because it ends up meaning different things to different people. And to so many, it ends up feeling like a denial,” Denning tells B-Sides & Badlands.

Personally, the performer sees it as a “liberation” of sorts. “Psychological and physical experiences are so deeply and incomprehensibly intertwined,” she says. “And this is coming from someone who studies the psychophysiology of trauma, and the relationship between body and mind that arises from and informs how we cope with things.”

Through her experience, Denning continues to navigate and process how she relates to the word — “always working towards unlearning any kind of value judgment I’ve placed on that word, and trying to move towards just believing and trusting myself, and surrounding myself with dear friends (and fans) who believe and trust me, as well.”

With the song’s accompanying video, featuring plenty of stop-motion effects, director Nick Clark Tanner reveals that stop-motion was something that was always on the table even “before we had settled on an idea for it,” he says. The creative team included Taylor Browne, known for making stop-motion videos all over Austin, Texas for years. The stop-motion was combined with “breathtaking shadowbox” from Ani Kapreilian who “constructed [the effects] using Maggie’s literal sick clothes from that time in her life.”

“We created this little world within the world of the video. That little box is loaded with big feelings by nature of the way it was put together,” Tanner adds, “so we wanted to externalize the internal within that realm in a way that felt both relatable and unreal, which made stop motion a perfect fit for that environment.”

A visceral quality radiates from the visual (below), forever embedded within the song itself. “We’d talked about finding a way to keep that weight grounded and really let the song breathe into itself. We are hearing music but there is a sort of silence to things at the beginning of the video,” says Tanner. “I think there is a stillness that lets the viewer connect with the song, what Maggie was going through when she wrote it, and maybe something within themselves, as well.”

Once the stillness settles into the bones, the song ejects from there into a “rollercoaster [that] sort of flies off its tracks into an emotional fever dream. We also tried to capture a sense of time not feeling real, which for me always occurs in dreams and memory, particularly when reflecting on a rut. Hence the use of stop motion and several timelapse sequences. Reflection can feel like a blur, but the weight of the emotional scars remains.”

“Psychosomatic” anchors the band’s new EP, All in My Head, an agonizing, bedeviling scrape along the base of the skull that provokes and crushes. Below, Denning and Jesse French (mixing, drums, lead guitar, backing vocals) further dissect their work in our Q&A. Take a look.

The EP title is ripped from a lyric in the song. Why did that line feel like the backbone to the project?

Denning: This line ended up being the perfect title because really… it was the only thing we could point to that felt like it encompassed or spoke to every song. The songs are all so wildly different, but each delves into some weird, unearthed corner of the mind. And they all stem from a place of needing and deserving to be externalized.

What are the emotional threads that run throughout the EP?

Denning: The EP really goes everywhere. “Voices” happens to touch on some really intense grief spiraling that I was experiencing around the loss of my father. “Hands” is a look into how sexual trauma had been manifesting in my body and in the ways that I was trying to connect with people I loved. “Psychosomatic” is another tale of grief and trauma and anger…

And “Married”? Well, “Married” is kind of a barn burner that aims to kill any gender-related pigeon-holing I’m doing to myself in any given moment.

At the end of “Voices,” you have a countdown to the new year and a line about resolutions. Did you make any for 2024? What do you want?

Denning: That’s a great question, and to be totally honest with you, I haven’t really landed on anything exact… But I definitely know the feelings that I’m after: Freedom. Connection. Trust. Liberation. And chaos, of course.

With “Hands,” there’s a cosmic feeling to the arrangement, as though a spacecraft is beaming you up into the stratosphere. How did this one evolve, musically?

Denning: I’ll let our lead guitarist and engineer on the project, Jesse French, take this one. Jesse was originally the drummer in Tetchy, so they actually played drums on this, but also have lead guitar parts and backing vocals all over this thing. [laughs]

French: The shape of this song evolved as we played it live, but the spaceship textures and the sonic worlds it journeys through really only came together as we were recording it. Beginning with the recording of the Shooting Star New Year’s Eve set.

Denning: That’s my parents’ disco band from the ’70s and ’80s. I was actually in a really bad/dark grief place at some point while making this thing, and I stumbled across this old cassette of one of their last shows— New Year’s Eve, 1987. It was just so special and so healing to hear it, so we decided to make it part of the EP.

French: And the second sound we hear is our original bassist and founding member of Tetchy, Dylan LaPointe, playing bass with a stone egg, heavily effected. All of the textures began with guitar, bass, or vocals, and got processed and warped until we felt like the soundscape was as enveloping as the song itself.

What is your biggest personal takeaway from creating this project?

Denning: That somehow I have the most mind-blowingly giving people in my life, who have the smartest (and most unhinged) brains and hands, and for some reason, they’ve chosen to make music and art with me.

“Married” sticks out for its aggressive vocal performance. What leads you to make certain vocal choices as you’re writing a song?

Denning: Ahh vocals are probably my favorite thing to write and record. Honestly, it’s just like a big ole playground to me. And then whatever is cool and fun and gets Jesse and me jumping up and down and grinning a bunch, usually wins.

Who is this song about? Why write it?

Denning: Just as a magician never reveals their secrets, a punk singer never reveals the subjects of her songs. But like I said, it’s a big kick in the a$$ to that traditional life script of degree, husband/wife, house, kids, taxes, die.

Are these types of songs difficult to perform live?

Denning: Absolutely. Well, in some ways. But in other ways, not at all. These songs are very much so from the core of who I am… So in that way, they can be really emotionally exhausting. (And sometimes physically exhausting if I’m feeling particularly messy / unhinged / excited / alive ..) But more than anything they just feel super healing and liberating to perform. It’s my favorite thing to do.

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