By Amahli Vivian
On December 4th, I was lucky enough to interview Tom Katsaras, the frontman and vocalist of Twine. Initially a solo project formed in 2021 by Katsaras, Twine later solidified into a full band. The South Australian band’s country-tinted-noise-rock sound creates a cacophony of emotion that walks the line between wall of sound and stripped-down rawness. Their debut album, New Old Horse, released on December 6, 2024.
Twine is: Tom Katsaras (vocals/guitar), Jackson Pagett (drums), Alicia Salvanos (bass), Matt Schultz (guitar), Thea Martin (violin).
ARV: Where did the band name “Twine” come from?
TK: I really wanted to have a one-word name, because I think they’re the best. And I was just naming shit. I think I was just sitting outside my house with my housemates and naming stuff. There was a piece of twine holding up a wisteria flower. It has a good ring to it and it kind of stuck. I’m happy with it.
ARV: It’s definitely catchy.
TK: It’s not egregious.
ARV: Your new album, New Old Horse, is coming out very soon. In Santa Cruz, it’s coming out in two days [December 6]. How are you feeling about it?
TK: Excited! Comes out tomorrow in Australia, which is very exciting. It’s been a long time for a band with no full-length release yet. I’ve just been wanting to get this thing out for ages and it’s kind of relieving to have it out.
ARV: How long have you guys been working on it for?
TK: I think it’s just the culmination of the actual band. There was just an intention as the band just to write an album. It’s the first band I’ve ever been in, so it was a sort of process of just writing songs and slowly adding them. Overall, it was about three years worth of writing and learning. But we finished this record around November last year [2023] and set the foundations down in Feb[ruary 2023]. It’s been quite a while.
ARV: Is there a song you’re most excited for people to listen to off of the new album?
TK: Probably the song “New Old Horse.” That one’s my favorite. I really like “Between States.”
ARV: What’s the process for making a song? Do you write the lyrics?
TK: Yeah, generally. I write the bones of a song and have a basic idea of it. And then I’d bring it to the band and we will all sort of work on it together, change it around to make it fit for everyone. A lot of the time, I will bring a song and it’s a bit softer, especially if it was written with an acoustic. And then it’s a process of making it a bit more gnarly…beefing it up. There are also songs that other people have brought in and then I write on top of the lyrics there. It’s pretty collaborative. Everyone has a piece of the Twine pie.
ARV: You somewhat touched on this, but how do you balance the louder parts of a song with the softer aspects?
TK: I think it’s the push and pull of the self. When we’re writing a song and it is going to be very loud, we’ll wield that as a tool. We don’t want to shove it in willy-nilly. As I’m playing it, I find where it sits and makes sense. It also depends on the lyrics and at the point of the song. Lots of trial and error. I just find that’s the best way, so we just play and run the song lots of times. We get a feel for the flow. It sounds so cringe, but there’s a level of going big here and pulling it back.
ARV: Is it cathartic to make such emotionally charged music?
TK: I’d say it is in a way. It’s cathartic at the time of writing. I feel somewhat disconnected from the songs now, in a way. When we’re playing them live, you can tap into the emotions. Cathartic is a funny thing. I’ve written songs where it’s like a book. There’s this chapter or this phase of life. It’s like summarizing this period of time.
ARV: One of my favorite songs of yours, “My God” is so chaotic and loud, but also controlled at the same time.
TK: Yeah, that song is very…big. That song is about struggling with sexual identity. I think that is a big part of the push and pull, a sort of inner conflict.
ARV: New Old Horse was mixed by Alex Farrar, who has worked with the bands Wednesday and MJ Lenderman. What was it like working with him?
TK: It was great. It was quite a fit. He reached out to us right before we were going to start mixing this album. And it ended up really good! It was easy sending him the songs, which would always come back pretty close to what we already somewhat envisioned. He’s such a sweet guy. Alex is really good at making songs a bit more aggressive sounding. It was the sound we were after.
ARV: I got a sneak peek-listen to the album [before it was released] and was like, “Oh wow, it’s loud and obnoxious and awesome.”
TK: Hell yeah.
ARV: About a month ago [November 2024], Twine supported the band Unwound for their Australian leg of the tour. What was that like?
TK: It was crazy. That was like a dream come true. They were one of the biggest bands for me for so long. Getting asked to play for them was…I’ve never been more scared before a gig. But it was fun. They were amazing. It felt really good to play for that crowd too. When the band [Twine] first started, they [Unwound] were not back together. That was always like a pipe dream to play with them. It was like a cool bucket list that ended up happening.
ARV: You can check it off now. Do you have any current songs on your current music rotation?
TK: I’m loving the new Hemlock album. I’ve been really into that. Lots of Cat Power. She recorded an album in Melbourne with the Dirty Three as the backing band.
ARV Are there any future plans for Twine, in terms of musical sound?
TK: We’ve been leaning more into the country. I think I want to lean a bit more into both country and noise rock, just to get a good idea of where we are at. Emphasize those different aspects.