We’ve been dreaming of the day that the elusive Tristan Thompson — better known as Diamond Café — became The Zone’s Band of the Month. Since day one, we’ve known that Quazar’s Arcade would be the perfect setting for our photo shoot.
Between photos, we pumped tokens into our favourite pinball machine, Attack From Mars (as far as we’re concerned, there are no others) and arcade games like Burger Time, Fix It Felix Jr. and Marvel vs Capcom. Our new friends at Quazar’s made us feel like we were at home and were super welcoming. Kirsten is even considering joining their women’s pinball league.
Afterwards, Tyson Elder and Tristan Thompson chatted everything Diamond Café over iced coffee.
Tyson Elder: Congratulations on being August’s Zone Band of the Month and the final Band of the Month for 2019.
Tristan Thompson: Thank you!
TE: Tell me a little bit about Diamond Café. There isn’t a huge wealth of knowledge online about you or the band for me to dig through. You seem fairly enigmatic and secretive. I feel like I’m doing other people’s homework for them by doing this interview [laughs]. We’ll be that resource people come to when looking you up.
Tristan: Basically, Diamond Café started in my bedroom. I had acquired a bunch of recording equipment over time…
[pauses]
I was trying to keep this secret, but I’m never going to escape it… I used to be a teen pop singer.
TE: Okay, wow. I didn’t see that coming.
Tristan: I got signed to a record label out of Toronto and these guys wrote a bunch of songs for me; a ten track album. They were hoping I’d be the next Justin Beiber. I was like the whole package. I had the hair and everything. I looked the part.
TE: …you were threatening to punch Tom Cruise in the face.
[laughter]
Tristan: I was 15/16 when this all happened. I signed a 6-year record contract that I’d still be in to this day if things didn’t change. At the time it was what I thought I wanted.
Tristan: Eventually I started to find my own taste in music, search things out online and listening to music and thinking, this is the shit I want to make. That’s when I started writing my own music on the back burner. When I presented it to those record label guys…. they did not like it at all. They thought it was too sexual or whatever and basically started rewriting all the songs I had written. I got so fed up that I just started ignoring them and not singing all of their lyrics. They got really uptight and thankfully they dropped me. It was what I wanted and I didn’t want to go through lawyer shit.
TE: It’s so strange that they had issues with your sexual lyrics. I find your sound now more in the vein of contemporary pop music. If they had gone the direction you’d wanted to you’d have been ahead of the game. You could have been defining the genre.
Tristan: Right? It’s crazy. It was just an unhealthy relationship and I was 18 at the time when they dropped me and that’s when I was starting to work on the first Diamond Café EP. I had all this recording knowledge from when they brought me studio in Toronto. I was familiar with Logic so I recorded a bunch of demos until I found my sound. It sounds really cliche and cheesy, but Diamond Café came to me in a dream.
TE: Despite dreaming it I think Diamond Café is a catchy name and it suits your sound very well. It’s got that pop and avant-garde indie rock feel to it. Sometimes sleep and dreams are your body’s way or mind way of pushing an idea forward.
TE: Now let me get this straight: your first EP and most of your music is all recorded by you.
Tristan: It’s all recorded by me in my bedroom.
TE: That’s very impressive. Your recordings are so crisp and polished. It feels very produced… don’t take that the wrong way. I mean it in a good way.
Tristan: No, I totally get what you mean.
TE: They sound like they are straight out of a big studio and not a bedroom closet. Most bedroom recordings are close, but not quite. Yours feels very professional.
Tristan: Thank you very much. To be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing. [laughs] I kind of go into making music not learning too much. If I know too much I’ll over analyze it and hit roadblocks creatively. It’s all about feeling to me. I’m not overly technical. I don’t know how to read or write music. I just kind of comes out of how I feel at the time.
TE: That’s a great way to make music. Being technical is great but your way certainly has more of a personal touch. We aren’t all Steely Dan.
TE: You do everything yourself on your records. Singing, guitar, drums, keyboard and whatever else you have on the recording.
Tristan: Everything.
TE: But you do have a very talented live band.
Tristan: I want to give the band a huge amount of credit. If it wasn’t for them, the live shows wouldn’t be what they are today. We rehearse about 6 hours a day just to the live concert how it is.
TE: Holy shit, is that all the time?
Tristan: We take breaks every once in a while, but I try to make it as serious as I can. I want us to be bang on when we play.
TE: That’s super professional and it’s not something that’s standard. Especially in an indie band. A lot of bands practice here and there maybe once or twice a week, but it’s astounding to hear you put in that much time with the band. Who is in your band?
Tristan: Jasper Miller is probably one of the funkiest bass players out there because he gets right into it. We have the great Angelica Peddie who plays keyboards and synthesizer. We got Brennan Doyle on drums. There is Adam Stothart on guitar and Lily Margison on backup vocals. The only people who have played in other bands are Brennan and Adam. The rest kind of came out friends of friends and they’ve never played in any other projects before. It’s refreshing to have a band that isn’t made up with familiar faces and to have a group that is relatively unknown, but super talented.
TE: You and your band are very revitalizing. You are of this group of that is coming out of this city right now acts like Quarterback and Electric Sex Panther that are very groovy, funky, and sensual, but remain very meaningful and profound at the same time. It’s fun music to watch, listen to and enjoy but you take something away from it after the show. It’s very much appreciated right now.
Tristan: I’m very happy to be part of the music coming out of Victoria right now. There are some really caring people in this city.
TE: Speaking of your stage show… you are quite animated on stage. You almost embody that glam era front person with a dash of soul mixed in. You’ve got some Bowie, some Iggy Pop, James Brown and Prince in you. You’ve got the moves. Where does that come from? Is it just a spontaneous and in the moment?
Tristan: A lot of it comes from audience feedback. The energy goes back and fourth and it’s makes it magical. Also I used to be a Michael Jackson impersonator as a kid.
TE: Whoa! That’s crazy. You are full of surprises.
Tristan: I used to busk on Government Street in downtown Victoria. That might be where I get some of the performative aspect of my shows from. I used to act out those music videos. Starting at such a young age it’s all so natural now.
TE: It’s great that you have this experience with the pop music and the dance. It brings you to the next level and it shows performance wise. To have those things instilled in you at 21 is already a huge perk.
Tristan: I have to thank my parents for that because they put all that time and effort into teaching me If it wasn’t for my dad showing me old James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Prince videos I wouldn’t be who I am today.
TE: That’s fantastic. It sounds like your parents have a great taste in music too.
Tristan: They do. It’s great.
TE: I know last year at the Phillips Backyard Weekender and Rifflandia Music Festival you had some serious eyes on you. Do you think having those platforms have helped you out with your career? Creating more buzz and people at your shows.
Tristan: Definitely. Without those shows I don’t think I would be the Band of the Month.
TE: I was standing next to Dylan Willows during your Rifflandia set and he knew right there that you would be Band of the Month.
Tristan: I remember that. He came up to me about it right after my set to talk about it.
TE: It took almost a whole year, but we are here now. Congratulations on everything Tristan.
Tristan: [Laughs] We got there. I’m glad we could make it happen.
Diamond Café’s single To Be Loved, will be featured for the entirety of August, and you can download it and two more of their songs at The Zone @ 91-3. Rocktographers is proud to be a supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.
On September 7th, 2019, you can find Diamond Cafe at Victoria’s Vinyl Envy for an intimate concert. Tickets are going fast for this one. Get yours here. They will also be performing at this year’s Westward Music Festival in Vancouver on September 13th.