Meet Tan Universe | Independent Surf/Psych/Shoegaze Band

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tan Universe and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tan, we’d love to start by asking you about lessons learned. Is there a lesson you can share with us?
The most important lesson I’ve learned through pursuing my band for almost seven years now is that if you are truly passionate about something, it is always worth chasing. Though Tan Universe has never paid my bills or been my main job, it has given me so many unique and special experiences that I never would have had if I had never given it my best shot. Being the manager of the band as well, it has also helped me develop many useful life skills such as networking, using social media to promote a business, negotiation skills, and knowing how to sell yourself.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Tan Universe is a band started in Asheville North Carolina, and relocated to Los Angeles after about five years in NC. We spent those first several years cutting our teeth playing small shows around North Carolina and occasionally going on small tours of the east coast and the south. From 2021 to 2022 we started hosting house shows out of our basement to help revive the DIY scene in Asheville post-COVID. Eventually we felt ready to record our first studio album, which eventually became our 2023 debut “Tastefully Quaint Trinkets & Antiques.” Shortly after the release of this record, struggling to continue to grow as much as we wanted to in NC, the project relocated to Los Angeles and underwent a few lineup changes.

Tan Universe is a band that doesn’t like to stay tied down to one style. With our first record covering a vast variety of rock genres such as surf, psychedelic, grunge, punk, and dream-pop, we plan to transition to a mostly shoegaze sound for our next project, which will be a five-song EP hopefully dropping in late 2025.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would definitely take a friend to some of my favorite spots for live music like The Smell, Permanent Records Roadhouse, and the Echo. For food I would take them for some pizza at Secret Pizza or Weirdough’s, or maybe some tacos from Angel’s Tijuana Tacos. If we had a night out, I’d probably take them to some fun dives like 4100, Zebulon, and Cha Cha Lounge. If they wanted to see some iconic LA spots, I would take them to Griffith Observatory and Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to shout out some of the venues back in Asheville, NC, where we were based before moving to LA, who were willing to book us even before we had any sort of real fanbase. Static Age Records, The Odd, The Mothlight, and the Sly Grog Lounge are a few of the venues that were willing to give us a shot even when we were brand new and didn’t have a reputation in Asheville yet. They were all a big part of helping us get our foot in the door with the Asheville scene.

Website: https://tanuniverse.bandcamp.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tanuniverse/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tanuniverseband

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tan.universe/featured

Image Credits
Bryce Wallace