Press Release: Indie Pop Duo TANDM Return with New Single & Video ‘The Man in the Sea’

MEDIA ALERT

INDIE POP DUO TANDM RELEASE FANTASY-SHATTERING NEW SINGLE

STREAM “THE MAN IN THE SEA” HERE

WATCH + SHARE THE DREAMLIKE STOP MOTION VIDEO HERE

Link to single artwork HERE 
Photo Credit: Akash Jones and Bronte Brazier | Artwork Design: Maxine Beck-Sinderby

(Toronto, ON – May 24, 2023) – Indie pop band TANDM’s songs seem to transcend time, place, and even stylistic categorization. They unveil “The Man in the Sea” today, an emotive single inspired by a poem that vocalist/guitarist Maxine Beck-Sinderby had written as an assignment when she was in high school. Charming in their sweet simplicity, the Toronto duo’s music is effortlessly compelling thanks to graceful melodies, heartfelt lyricism, and syncopated synergy.

Stream “The Man in the Sea” HERE

Watch and share the music video HERE

“It was inspired by a story from my grandmother: that what caused the ocean waves was a man with a big spoon, stirring the sea,” Beck-Sinderby elaborates. “Intended to convey the sensation of a childhood belief or fantasy that shatters upon discovering the realities of the world. Similar to realizing that the tooth fairy was your parents all along; discovering that the ocean waves were not caused by a man stirring with a spoon all day / every day, however far-fetched the idea may have been, felt like a heartbreaking part of growing up.”

She continues, “With its sentimental subject matter, I wanted to explore having a piece that was minimal in instrumentation. Most of our songs feature a minimum instrumentation of guitar, drums, bass and vocals; whereas this song only includes vocals, an upright piano, and small synth / production sample parts. The airy audio that sets the mood is actually a guitar ¼ cable that we had accidentally left sitting on the floor during the recording. As we were testing takes of the piano part, we heard the humming, and rather than remove it (once we had discovered it to be the cable), decided to utilize it in the track.”

They partnered again with collaborators Akash Jones and Bronte Brazier on the music video (previously “Warm Me Up”, “Accidentally in Love”) to craft a completely handmade, breathtaking stop motion visual of a man stirring the ocean with a large wooden spoon. The man stirs the sea, until his spoon breaks. He then looks at the floating ships in disbelief, as they continue to navigate the sea and its continuing waves. He looks up to the sky and realizes the skies are so much bigger than he is, and that his understanding of the waves had been a fantasy all this time. He falls back into the water with a final call for help at the moon.

As summer approaches, the duo hints that a brand new EP titled Sirens is on the horizon. Their forthcoming collection finds them teeing up their most engaging and enveloping output to date – a potent distillation of the magical individual components that comprise TANDM’s masterful take on alternative pop but with a newfound polish and elevated production style. The rhythms are entrancing and engaging, drawing the listener into a warm, dreamlike world of stirring melodic dynamism and delicate-but-dauntless vocals. “We definitely took the opportunity to experiment with a more expansive spectrum of sounds and influences this time around,” muses Beck-Sinderby, with Franklin adding: “It’s still TANDM at the core, but we tried to open things up a little bit and it led to some rewarding places.” As with each subsequent release before it, Sirens shows a clear maturation and musical deftness that seemingly packs a decade of experience into a few short months, putting TANDM on an unparalleled tangent to consistently higher plateaus.

Credit: Kate Dockeray

The core duo of vocalist/guitarist Maxine Beck-Sinderby and drummer Thomas Franklin first met in their mid-teens and quickly united over a unique creative chemistry. As it happened, Beck-Sinderby’s band was seeking a drummer, and Franklin not only enrolled at the same high school, but started taking lessons at the same music studio.“There was this natural progress anytime we would play together,” Beck-Sinderby shares. “That eventually led to the two of us working on some of the songs I’d written, and then into actually writing originals together. It always seems like we know where we want a song or part to go, so we can bounce ideas off each other until we get it there.”

The two carried an impressive musical pedigree into their burgeoning partnership. Both are talented and formally trained multi-instrumentalists, with Franklin having studied under heralded jazz drummer Bill Ransom during his teen years in the U.S. and later with Toronto jazz scene staple Anthony Michelli upon moving to Canada. Beck-Sinderby, on the other hand, took piano, guitar, and singing lessons through her formative years and honed her skills in bedroom studios and open mics, developing a dynamic songwriting prowess well beyond her years. What’s more, she’s benefitted from the guidance of her accomplished uncles: prolific Hollywood composer Christophe Beck (Frozen, Ant-Man) and iconic pianist and polymath Jason Beck, better known to the world as Chilly Gonzales. “Having formal education in both classical and jazz has been really valuable in coming up with unique arrangements in our more pop-centric world,” Franklin offers. “The better understanding of different genres, the more of a base you have to build on when writing, regardless of the style or complexity of the material.”

TANDM dropped their debut single, “Dreamworld,” in 2018, introducing a sound defined by sparse but seductive instrumentation and Beck-Sinderby’s dulcet vocal style. Their influences are as subtle as they are diverse, weaving tinges of genre-bending modern innovators from Alvvays to Regina Spector to even Vampire Weekend into their work. Twin EPs Reflections, Vol. 1 and 2 came next in 2019, followed by a string of increasingly impressive single releases and a breakout 2022 cover of Counting Crows’ “Accidentally in Love” that propelled them to hundreds of thousands of cross-platform streams and swarms of attention and accolades from fans and industry insiders alike.

Their stock is already soaring in Canada and Sweden, achieving festival slots and having performed alongside famed guitarist and songwriter Janne Schaffer (ABBA, Bob Marley) during one of their annual trips to the latter. Closer to home, they’ve worked with top-tier producers including Tim Abraham (Laila Biali, Royal Wood), been featured on prominent playlists from the CBC and other outlets, landed spins on SiriusXM satellite radio and high-profile sync placements in popular series, and performed live on Canada’s beloved Breakfast Television. They’ve also made names for themselves independent of their shared project, with Franklin earning a strong social following for his drum videos as TheRedHatDrummer and Beck-Sinderby drawing big audiences to her SwedishB3rry Twitch channel on a regular basis.

Embodying the next phase of TANDM’s artistic flourishing, Sirens is sure to send their delightfully whimsical, simple-but-substantial sounds further around the world, and fans will surely relish the opportunity to dig deeper into the adept, label-defying pair of artists behind it.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | Apple Music

###

Listen Harder Music Publicity
Jessica Santa | 
jessica@listenharder.com
2938 Dundas St. W.
P.O. Box 70704 Junction Gardens PO

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *