“We wanted to pay tribute to the original arrangement, because it’s already such an epic track.”
Okay. Confession time:
Yes, I write for a music blog that focuses on dark music. Sometimes that means industrial rock. Sometimes that means vampiric club anthems like those you’d find on Wingtips’ Exposure Therapy. But even though you’re reading DarknessCalling.net, do not think for one second that I will not profess my love for Savage Garden to anyone who will listen.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that “Tears of Pearls,” a song I know all-too-well, had been covered by the Chicago synth duo. And what a cover! It takes real talent to keep the spirit of an original song while also making it distinctly your own, and that’s exactly what Wingtips has done. Swapping out the 90’s electric organ solo for a flurry of synth goodness is just one of their many creative liberties that I fully endorse — and that’s coming from a die-hard fan of the original.
Needless to say, I had to learn more about Wingtips and their process when crafting “Tears of Pearls.” Read on to find out more!
DARKNESS CALLING: Thanks for chatting with us! I'll be honest, my first exposure to your sound was your cover of "Tears of Pearls," which was actually introduced to me by one of our Twitter followers (@soren_grey). Since then, I have listened to Exposure Therapy in full and fully consider myself to be a new Wingtips fan. Excellent stuff!
With all of that said, I want to start by asking about your choice to cover “Tears of Pearls.” My first musical love was actually Savage Garden, and that childhood discovery has remained a constant in my life — Darren Hayes' The Tension and the Spark and This Delicate Thing We've Made had a big impact on my late teen years, for example. Are either of you fans to that level, or was it more of a casual discovery / fun idea that came up one night?
WINGTIPS: We have both been Savage Garden fans since we were kids, and that was something we discovered after we had already been playing together for awhile. At one point on tour, we were listening to them a bunch during the long drives, and we both decided it would be really fun to do a cover. So we decided to go with “Tears of Pearls”!
“ I think that a really vital element in our sound is the instrumentation and how we layer different elements like synths over guitars. Once we’re able to capture an authentically ‘Wingtips’ sound and vibe, we can go in any direction.”
DARKNESS CALLING: How does your approach to a cover differ from your approach to an original song? I feel that your version feels like Wingtips even though it also doesn't stray too far from the Savage Garden classic. That must have been tricky to pull off.
WINGTIPS: I think that a really vital element in our sound is the instrumentation and how we layer different elements like synths over guitars. Once we’re able to capture an authentically “Wingtips” sound and vibe, we can go in any direction. For “Tears of Pearls,” we wanted to pay tribute to the original arrangement, because it’s already such an epic track. So we were conscious not to stray away from what we loved about the song to begin with. It was those two approaches, really, that gave us the finished product!
DARKNESS CALLING: I realize that Exposure Therapy just came out last year, but I promise that your fans (and now myself included) are clamoring for more music. Is "Tears of Pearls" a sign of things to come?
WINGTIPS: We can definitely promise that more new material is on the horizon, and during the shutdown we’ve been spending a lot of time in studio materializing several demos into fully-realized tracks. However, the current state of things has put us in a position of not knowing when or how exactly it will actually make the most sense in terms of a release. Like many other artists, we’re taking things day by day. We’re so used to putting out material and then touring, but we obviously can’t right now. Be that as it may, this experience has taught us to look at and approach our craft differently and simply do what makes sense with what we’re given.
DARKNESS CALLING: All right. I’d like to transition to some fan-submitted questions now, if that’s all right. The question of your influences came up a lot. @_theghoulnextdoor on Instagram wishes to know your top 3 biggest musical influences, and @soren_grey on Twitter swears she can hear some Davey Havok influence in your work. She wants to know if that's accurate, or if it's just her imagination.
WINGTIPS: This is interesting because, between the two of us, we have somewhat different influences individually! It’s very tough to name a top three, so we’ll just pull three out of our imaginary hat! Divine, The Cure, and KISS! Also, not a musical influence, but the film work of Gregg Araki has really been a huge source of inspiration from their various aesthetics and, of course, soundtracks combined. As far as Davey Havok, can’t really say he’s had a direct impact on our sound, but we are fans!
“...stylistically profound music, we feel, is a good way to respond to the atmosphere in our world in current times.”
DARKNESS CALLING: @rootfem on Instagram asks how you two met, and wants to know if you ever considered exploring other musical genres before deciding on goth/post-punk?
WINGTIPS: We both met in Chicago at college, studying theatre! After about two years of knowing each other, our minds sort of linked and we felt it necessary to try a different performance medium — one that was uniquely “us” and that would make us more realized as artists.
As far as the music goes... we never really “decided” on any genre, and I don’t think we are insulated in anything specific right now. We have always just made music through sounds that resonate with us, and we’ve always had an affinity for electronic music. In more recent times, we’ve definitely dabbled with darker tones, which can often be attributed to styles like goth or post-punk, but we’ve never really consciously tried to emulate something.
DARKNESS CALLING: @cutesymonsterdan on Instagram asks if the pandemic and civil unrest made you question what your music's role is in society?
WINGTIPS: Definitely, but not in a way in which we feel disillusioned to what we’re doing. We’ve definitely been trying to find ways to make an impact with our art in any way we can, and stylistically profound music, we feel, is a good way to respond to the atmosphere in our world in current times.
DARKNESS CALLING: @dagger_dance on Twitter asks: What is an unexpected fact about yourselves?
WINGTIPS: One interesting, perhaps unexpected, fact about us is how we toured North America for months combined during our first few years on the road... in a Prius!
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