Interviews: Tauk

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By Tiffany Razzano

he music world is no stranger to hype, with bands making it and breaking it every day, many not lasting any long than their 15 minutes of fame.

One could easily see this happening to recent Oyster Bay High School grads, Tauk, who have been all over the local media this summer, being featured in nearly all of the area publications, as well as having their music played on WLIR and Q104.3. To top off the media hype, they had a recent show at the Aqua Lounge in Glen Cove taped to be aired as the inaugural offering on the new Fuse OnDemand channel in October. But unlike other bands that faded away from the intense coverage of local media, Tauk is definitely here to stay.

Vocalist Alessandro Zanelli attributes much of the glaring media attention to the band recently hooking up with manager and Iridesense vocalist/guitarist, Rick Eberle, who they met through friends and the music scene.

"We're just trying to get our music to as many people as possible," Zanelli said.

Tauk, which takes its name from Montauk so that the band will always remember that their roots are deeply trenched within the Long Island scene, has been playing its funky, neo-soul for nearly four years now. Cool and groovin', the group can't help but escape the 'jam band' moniker, but anyone who hears them knows that they are much more than that.

The group, which has such wide-ranging influences as Led Zeppelin, Phish, Herbie Hancock and Nirvana, has an ever-growing fan base, even while the punk rock/hardcore/emo scene thrives on Long Island. "A lot of people are receptive to us," Zanelli said. "Younger bands are doing the punk or emo thing. We've been getting fans from all age groups who are digging what we're doing. We're getting at a different niche that a lot of bands forget about."

Even now, as the five band members each head to their respective colleges this fall, they know the group is far from over; in fact, Zanelli said, this is just the beginning. All of them will be attending schools for music, though in different states: Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts. But this distance won't be a problem for the band, especially with the help of technology. "In the fall we'll be writing a music a lot together," Zanelli said. "We'll send tracks through the internet."

These songs will be on the follow-up album to their debut Ride, which came out in June (the band has been donating all the proceeds from this album to charities). Their next album will be out sometime next summer.

Long Island can also expect to see the band playing as many shows as they can when they are home for Thanksgiving and Christmas break. In fact, the group is planning a mini-tour to Philadelphia, Boston and other areas of New York in January. Zanelli also is hoping to latch onto a larger tour next summer, joining some festivals and opening for some bigger bands. "It's all up in the air," he said, "but it's definitely something we want to do."

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