Interview: Televangelist

Tele has gone through a few members in the past years. What’s your current lineup?

Mark Anthony Esquivel - Guitar/ Vocals

Kyle Cooper – Guitar

Marcus Shoults - Bass/Piano

Mario Alvarado – Drums (not present during interview)

How did you decide on the name Televangelist?

MA: Honestly, this band was supposed to be a side project. It wasn’t supposed to be anything serious. At the time I was in another band, Daytes, and didn’t care too much what the project was gonna be called. I was only planning on recording one album, and that’s how Televangelist coincides with the album name Crime Wave.

July 2015 you released Wild, Jealous, Youth under Ozona Records after two years of putting it together. What was that writing process like?

MA: I had most of the album written before I had the lineup that recorded it. Like I said, it was a side project and I was just writing by myself. After Daytes disbanded I was at a loss and didn’t know what to do, so I decided to make Televangelist my main thing. I was hoping to have material written to show the new members, “Hey, this is what I want to sound like” so it really became a waiting game on finding people who were able to play the music. That’s one of the main reasons it took so long to put together.

Last year you guys kept productive performance wise with your own Texas Tour and opening for bigger bands such as Tricot, Stolas, and Hail the Sun. Should we be expecting a tour in 2016?

MA: What we’ve decided to do as of right now is play as much as possible outside of San Antonio. Even though they aren’t necessarily through tours, we just want to play different cities every weekend. Coming up, we’ve got shows in Corpus Christi, Harlingen, San Antonio, and two SXSW shows. One of them is with A Lot Like Birds, Alaska, and a bunch of badass bands that are also signed to Ozona Records.  As for the other, we can only confirm bands such as Covet and Tides of Man. I can’t really say the names of the others yet.

(If you’re following the So What lineup it’s safe to assume what other bands they’ll be joining...!)

Who are some of your biggest musical influences and why? Have they changed throughout the years of your writing?

MA: My influences have changed quite a bit. When I first started writing, I was really into The Fall of Troy, Circa Survive, but then I started getting into bands like Gauntlet Hair and Purity Ring and those inspired the weird whammy effects like in our song Hospital Beds. Right now, one of my biggest influences is still Purity Ring, along with Foxing and From Indian Lakes. I like Drake too. I’m pretty stoked about his new album coming out, even though I didn’t really like his stuff with Future. Yeah, that’s pretty much what’s influencing me at the moment.

K: I used to listen to a lot of Backstreet Boys, kind of got me hyped and shit. I found Mark-Anthony in a fan club online, so he recruited me and we touched hips. I used to listen to a lot of As Cities Burn, The Dear Hunter, and Circa Survive, but as I got older I started listening to more of From Indian Lakes, Foals, and stuff like that. Compared to back then, I now listen to a lot softer stuff.

MA: I feel the person I’ve got the most similar influence with is Kyle. We like the same old school bands and grew up listening to Thursday and shit like that. As Cities Burn was one of the first bands that showed me what it is to play off time. Mario, not even joking, jams straight up classical music. I can’t drop any names but I know that he loves it.

What’s your favorite song to play and why?

K: It’s kind of hard to pick. Each song is challenging in its own way and we obviously haven’t gotten every kink out. Forget Her is fun, Letters is fun, but I’d have to say Save Your Breath is my favorite because I feel it’s the most dynamic at first.

MA: It changes. Right now, my favorite to play live is English Subtitles because it’s the crowd favorite. As people are getting more familiar with the new songs, I notice them getting down more so it’s always gonna change.

You guys have often been referred to as Swancore. What’s your take on that?

K: Well it’s funny because when I think of Televangelist, a lot of what I think of is based off the comment of an article I read years ago about Mark’s old band, Daytes. They tried quoting Tropic Thunder, hating on the music the whole time saying “You never go full retard!” So every time I hear a part that goes pretty hard, or a little more “Swancore-passionate,” Tropic Thunder is the first thing that comes to mind.

MA: Tropic Thunder sounds like a badass name for a genre. Being compared to the bands on Blue Swan is really cool. I take it as positive feedback and I think it’s an honor that people would even take their time to associate us with great bands like that. It’s cool with me.

Kurt Travis shared the release of Wild, Jealous, Youth on Instagram and called it a masterpiece. That’s pretty intense. Has the thought of signing over to Esque Records ever crossed your mind?

K: Absolutely. I love A Lot Like Birds, I got super into them back in the day and still jam them. That’s why I’d love to be on his label now.

MA: It has. I didn’t even know he had his own label until our current label told us about it. I knew Kurt from A Lot Like Birds, and even Five Minute Ride. I remember being a kid and jamming Five Minute Ride on road trips, so Kurt saying our name at all is pretty insane.

What’s next for Televangelist, aside from SXSW shows and playing outside of San Antonio? Any plans for writing?

MA: Yeah, we’ve got four or five songs that we haven’t really fleshed out yet but they’re there in our pockets. We’re really trying to push Wild, Jealous, Youth, now that we’ve got the vinyl in the mail and are able to sell it. We’ll probably sit on it for another two months before we completely focus on recording new stuff.

K: Yeah, most of the time Mark writes all the music first, tabs it all out, and makes us go and learn it on our own and we don’t get together till later. It’s really awesome, it’s amazing, but it’s nothing I’m used to. I’m much more organic and used to sitting in a room with guys, coming up with ideas and bouncing them back and forth.

MA: I’m all for being organic, but when I started Televangelist it was just me. I had to be able to hear it out so when I used Guitar Pro, I was able to hear the guitar and write leads over it so I was sort of jamming with myself. For once we’re gonna sit and write as a band together and maybe push the direction a different way.

Be sure to catch Televangelist at any of their upcoming shows!