Living A Thousand Lives: An Interview with Taken By Tides

Texas-based rockers Taken By Tides may have formed while the world stood still during the 2020 pandemic, but the four-piece outfit is overflowing with a sense of camaraderie that’s impossible to fake. A group of friends with deep roots in their respective local cities’ scenes, orbiting around one another for years before Taken By Tides took shape, they’ve steadily broken out with a sound at the intersection of soaring alternative rock choruses and gritty metalcore edges. Their most recent singles “A Thousand Lives” and “Ghost Vibrations” are particularly strong case studies in their ability to write sharp, intensely catchy cuts across genres, that settle into their own signature blend.

Now prepared to head out on a co-headliner with CZYK and finally take their new music to the stage this summer, End Overdose spoke with Taken By Tides about how the band organically assembled, the lightning-fast manifestation of “A Thousand Lives,” their methodical approach to music videos, and much more.

End Overdose: I know Taken By Tides came together during the pandemic. Did founding this project give you a sense of connection and purpose during what was an otherwise isolating experience for much of the world?

Omar Martinez: It was really interesting, because all of us knew each other pre-pandemic. We all played in different scenes, in different bands, going all the way back to, like, 2015, 2016, like, and so Jayden and I had this idea of joining together, because he was in in a band in San Antonio, and I was still in the first iteration of Taken By Tides. We were still figuring things out, and then by by the pandemic, we formed together, and it was great, because it gave us all time to really level up our craft. I just screamed back then, and I started learning how to sing. I took vocal lessons … it was interesting. A lot of internet talking back and forth, a lot of Discord.

End Overdose: What were your backgrounds in your respective like local scenes? What were you up to before Taken By Tides?

Jayden Mermella: I started playing drums when I was still in my single digits, I was probably like three or four. When I started playing in bands, I played my first show, and I was like eight years old, but I was playing with like, 18, 19, year olds. I’ve just always done it. I made friends with these guys in, like, 2016 or 2017. We just built a relationship and it ended up working out that [it] kind of made like a like a super group.

Jack Strunk: I think it was me and Omar that were the first two dudes to converge out of our scene. We had two different bands, and then my band kind of fizzled out. The pandemic happened, we picked up Jay, and the rest is history. And Memo came along and really completed the picture. It’s been fun. But, yeah, it is funny, because we all do come from completely different aspects of music, as far as what we were doing on our own,

Omar: What’s funny is, it was that show where we met. I think it was the show I booked Memo’s, first band in junior year of high school. It was like 104 degrees outside, and you guys played a 3pm slot in the sun.

Memo Rodriguez: Yeah, a 3pm slot in the sun is nothing crazy. There was two Line 6s on a stage, and we were sizzling like bacon.

Omar: It was like 12 bands bands for the festival [in a] small backyard – a super DIY show,. We’ve all known each other for almost a decade, if not a decade for some of us. Lineups change, and people figure out what they want, what they don't want, how serious you want to take music, and then we just end up together. You know, by just nature.

End Overdose: I know your most recent single “A Thousand Lives” was written in your home studio – can you speak to the upsides of an intimate songwriting process and how that results in such a massive sounding song?

Jayden: Initially when I made the demo, it was a lot different than the first iteration of “A Thousand Lives” was. The chord progression was there,the verses were there, the bridge was there, e still had no chorus. And then I ended up sending over the stems to Omar. And this literally happened within a week where I sent him the stems, I flew to Australia to do a tour, and then as I was leaving, he sent me the first iteration of “Lives” with the chorus, and I literally, freaked out on the phone. I was in the airport, about to board the plane, and I was like, “Yo, what the fuck is this? What did we just do?” I don't think we've ever written a song that fast, but “Lives” just happened. It went from from its infancy to like a complete song in maybe eight days.

Omar: The vocal hook just came to mind. It just, it came starting with the lyrics, “Would you sacrifice a thousand lives?” And then it just came to be. It sounded cool. I don't know how I even came up with it. It just rolled off the tongue really well, and then it just built on that. You have a foundation, then you just build on that and expand on that idea. It’s like the universe just gave it to us.

End Overdose: I feel like that's how a lot of the best music happens. It just appears. With “Ghost Vibrations” having come out this year as well, did that one also manifest quickly?

Jayden: I feel like that one took a lot longer. I literally made that demo like years ago, before I even showed anybody, before I even brought it into Omar. I just had it on my desktop, and we were just poking, around seeing what was cool, what we could have recycled and made a new song, and we took that, we looked literally through the stems and from there we we made the hook, and then the then the riff came, and then the next chorus just happened. There was still no bridge, but that was another one where it just got from, like point A to point B so fast.

Omar: Yeah, [it was a] cool process, too. With Jayden going on tour every so often for his job, and half of us being in different cities at different times, we were in Jayden’s house, and all four of us were there writing that one. And it was a cool process, because it was right around the time Memo had also joined the band. So it was his first real writing process together. For “Ghost,” you had that demo, Jayden, and then I had some vocal ideas, and you're like, “Track that.” Now he just handed me the microphone, we plugged it in, and we're just like, “Track it.” And the first thing that came out, the first melody is really close to the end. Once we hit the actual full chorus, we were like, “Okay, I think we got a song here.” We we had something to flesh out. Because a lot of times we'll make demos, some of them won't make it out that phase where it's like we have 40 seconds of an idea and we just hit a wall, and it's like, “Well, let's try to revisit it later.” And we never do, because it just never inspired us. This idea for “Ghost Vibrations” same with "A Thousand Lives.” They were just ideas that kept flowing and almost wrote themselves. And it was great having all of us in the room.

End Overdose: You also have a killer music video alongside “A Thousand Lives” – can you speak to the importance of a cinematic component to the new single that drives home its themes?

Memo: Leading up to the music video, shooting the music video, we like to have these meetings where we gather up like maybe some theoretical story plots for a music video. If they're going to be a story, they're not going to be a story. If there's not going to be a story, what can we show to kind of encapsulate the sort of environment, or this ambience that complements the song itself. With “A Thousand Lives we kind of branched off this idea like the film Interstellar – quick synopsis, the dad goes into space, goes into a black hole, goes back in time, tries to change timelines. With this one, we wanted it to be a little bit more interpersonal, more about somebody that means dearly to you, maybe add some ominous elements to it, make it look kind of like ritualistic with the candles, or even give it this sacred essence. I feel like a lot of dim lit scenes and the shadows over certain scenes really encapsulated this sort of weight that the song itself carried that we didn't necessarily know how to project it, besides building the environment for it.

Omar had a really good idea about having a b-plot outside of the visuals where he's lighting a match, and towards the end of the music video, you kind of see some hints of a storyline in there. During the making of it, there were times when we would look at each other, we would pause and look at what we were filming, and we were thinking, “Dude, this is crazy. This is probably the biggest project that we've done ever.” And it felt like such a fever dream. In the most minuscule aspect, it felt like we were on an actual set, and this set was ours … One thing that I wanted to mention about "A Thousand Lives” and “Ghost Vibrations" is that these songs had a life within their own – these songs had this energy to them, that that acted as this vehicle, and we were in it, and we trusted all of our feelings going through its and we ended up with this project, or this video, this entire package of production that I would have never thought we would have had at the end. I want to credit that a lot to like the sharing of ideas and constant communication with one another, and being on the same page, and I feel like that really allows us to fully immerse ourselves in what the songs are about … There's just so much that we poured into it, of where the guys wrote it, or Jayden and Omar wrote into it. And there's just so much that goes on behind the scenes, to the point where just feels like all of our baby, you know. The making of that music video, it did a lot of world building for us.

End Overdose: I was curious if there was a world building aspect to the visuals.

Jack: I definitely think at this current iteration, we don't have any long term narrative being really told. Each project is its own, and they get their own love and care. And then when they're out there, they become their own thing. If somebody finds a through line, I would love to hear it, because that'd be great.

Omar: That happened with a couple bands where they don't intend to have a through line, and then fans kind of figure something out, and the band's just like, “What?” That’s insane.

Jack: I retract my previous statement, and when the fans come up with that, I knew it all along, and it was me that came up with this genius idea [laughs].

Memo: We try to not superimpose a narrative or feeling onto the audience. We express what the song is to us, even just visually or when we're playing it live, and and my favorite aspect of it is allowing the audience and the listeners, the fans, to connect the dots on their own. I love to hear what the song means to them and what imagery comes to mind whenever they hear it. I love the openness of that aspect as well, and I feel like approaching it that way also allows us to be a little bit more open minded and take more creative risks. I feel like we're definitely a little bit green in terms of the world building, but it’s the first step, and there's going to be so much more to come.

End Overdose: You just announced a co-headliner US tour which is exciting news. How are you feeling as you prepare to hit the road?

Jayden: Really good. I think it's definitely going to be like the biggest kind of production that we've ever put on, a whole new set with a new intro, new songs. We're also bringing out a lighting package, we're going to do it right this time. We’ve done headliners, a few shows here and there, and we did a tour last year, which was fine. But this one is just going to be so much bigger than it's ever been, you know, and with the fans receiving it too, like the DMs that we get every day, and people that are anticipating the shows. It just seems like it's going to go over really well. I feel like we're just all really stoked and excited to to play the new music, to let people hear it in a live setting. I feel like one thing about us is we take our live shows so so serious, and we spend so much time making sure that we're tight as a band, and that everything translates, our mix sounds great. We take all these things into account. So by the time you guys are hearing it live, it kind of transcends. It’s a whole different thing, versus just listening to the record. We can give those songs a whole new life.

Omar: We get to hear these songs, no pun intended, 1000 times before they even come out. And it's like, not that you get tired of them, but you get a little bit like numb. As much as you want to try to feel that excitement when you first wrote it in the room, it's like, you just can't, and you don't get that back until you play the live show, and you finally see people connect with it. You see the comments, and they mean a lot, right? But you don't see people's facial expressions and like their bodily reactions. When you connect at a show, it just brings so much more excitement to us. I feel like we do all of this just so we could play the show. We are spending months on creating a live set with the lighting and the production and the practicing and everything, and the tour, the booking, the shows, and it's like, just for 30-40, minutes on stage. But it's worth it, there's no other feeling like it, and I'm very excited to go out on the road again, finally show these people, because we've been holding “A Thousand Lives” for like, a year and a half now. We were like, we could we play it live and just kind of leak it, and were like, nope, we're not going to play it until it releases. And it was very hard, because I've always wanted to play the song live, and it's finally going to happen. So I’m very excited.

Head over to Taken By Tides' official website to purchase tickets for their 2025 tour here.