L.A.-based DJ and producer Allie Teilz, who performs and records as Teilz, started on her musical path in Phoenix, AZ.
"I originally wanted to start a band, but I couldn’t find anyone to join, so DJing became my way of connecting with people through music," she says. "I was collecting records, working at the local record shop, and producing local concerts, which eventually led to producing arena shows. Following the cosmic thread of life thru curiosity kept opening doors. I was making my own music quietly for years, but coming out from behind the decks took longer. Becoming a mother and nearly losing my life brought everything into focus. I had something I wanted to say, and I didn’t want to keep waiting for permission. The dance floor was my education: how to build tension, when to give people release, what makes someone experience ascension."
Teilz's come to mommy debut album dropped at the start of October.
"come to mommy is the sound of everything I was holding: love, loss, pleasure, pain, wanting, missing, yearning," Teilz says. "Death and rebirth. Darkness and light. Lush, sparkling punk pastures! There’s tenderness and mischief and a lot of physicality. I wanted the low end to move through your body, and the songs to give you somewhere to put all your feelings. To inspire wonder and awe. It’s a story told in twelve chapters, and I spent a long time finding the way through them. All those years of DJing and producing events shaped the sequencing. I wanted room for desire, grief, absurdity, and the joy of finding yourself again. Something you can dance to, cry to, fall in love to. Something that makes you feel held."
The album was recorded at Smart Dumb Studios inside Kingsize Soundlabs.
"Three songs [were] recorded at Jorge Elbrecht’s home studio," Teilz says. "The brilliant Nick Sylvester enticed me out of my cave and helped me fall in love with making songs again. Jorge Elbrecht, the genius, helped coax out a softer romantic side. There was so much room to play and follow strange little ideas until they became their own worlds. Neil Krug was my partner in sound and vision, helping me see the world around the music."
"The Channel Tres collaboration came completely out of the blue," sh continues. "I got a call saying he loved “type of girl” and was going to send a remix, and I had to pull over to freak out, cry, dance, all of it! I love his music, his energy, his ethos. There’s something so beautiful about another artist hearing something in your world and bringing a piece of their own into it. That spirit of collaboration is ecstasy. Some of my favorite ideas arrived in the shower after I’d put the kids to bed. After giving so much of myself all day, that was a little moment to return to my own body. I’d sing into voice notes on trains, in the park, in the shower, wherever the inspiration arose, and bring those fragments into the studio."
As for gear: "I love my Technics SL-1200 series and Pioneer PLX-1000 turntables, with a Pioneer DJM-900 mixer, or a Pioneer XDJ-XZ setup. I use AIAIAI TMA-2 DJ Wireless headphones for DJing, in the studio, and for live shows. At home, I write a lot on my Fender Rhodes. I bought it at a vintage gear shop the day I moved to LA, and later found out it had belonged to Lamont Dozier! That feels like a little piece of magic to have in the house. In the studio, we play with everything and work in Pro Tools."
"I love experimenting with vintage gear and newer plugins. Bringing the best of the past into the future. One of my favorite things is spatial audio mixing: creating a feeling where the listener is being held by the sound. I want you to feel like you can step inside the music. One of my most useful tools is also the simplest: voice notes on my phone. Melodies arrive in the shower, playing with the kids, wherever, and I want to catch them while they’re still fresh. My record collection is a huge part of the process, too. Years of listening have given me this library of sounds and feelings to draw from."
Teilz has plenty planned for the coming months. "TEILZ & THE TIGERZ! We’re bringing the live show into the world, and I want to take it around the world," she says. "Singing, dancing, sound, vision, fantasy… a place where people can come together, sweat out their troubles, and have a wild amount of fun. There are more visuals taking shape, too. I’ve lived inside these songs for so long; getting to see other people enter them and make their own memories is something I care about deeply."
Teilz's come to mommy album is out now.
Photo by Neil Krug
