The very first time I saw Tetra Collective perform was at the FTG Warehouse in Santa Ana, and their single called ‘Lose Your Mind’ was a song that was well-remembered by the audience from lyric to lyric. The group of tetrad presents singer and guitarist, Calvin Perez, Jacob Mandel on bass guitar and keyboard, Eduardo Romero as the lead guitarist, and Moises Rivera on drums. Tetra Collective is originally from Long Beach, California who formed as a band called The Moderns in 2012 with Calvin, Moises, and Eduardo. In 2018, Jacob later on joined the band and finally changed their band name to Tetra Collective. Tetra Collective is prominently known for their alternative indie rock tone with a hint of modern psychedelic pop; they are the perfect band to listen to when you are trying to feel a mellow vibe on a day where you are seeking for relaxation.
My time with these four is always an adventure. From Jacob telling his sarcastic, yet hilarious remarks on any sort of random thing that pops up on his mind to Moi seeing questionable, odd cults; Tetra Collective are just four friends who are trying to have a great time with one another while expressing their songs and displaying them to people who would want to relate with them. Get to know more about Tetra Collective with questions and answers right below:
How did you all come up with the name “Tetra Collective”? What is the meaning behind it?
We started out being called The Moderns, but once Jacob became a part of our band, we decided to change our name to Tetra Collective. The word ‘Tetra’ means four and the word ‘Collective’ came from a random day when I saw a collection set of silverware, it just had a catchy ring to it, Tetra Collective.
What is your genre?
We would describe our genre as neo-indie psychedelic.
What is the songwriting process like?
We mostly start off our songwriting with us just creating instrumental music, and from there we figure out where the lyric starts off. It’s mainly just starts from all of us just jamming together and creating our own beats and rhythm. All in all, one song will probably take us about a month to finish.
What song has taken you all the longest to finish?
Fake Happy would be the longest to finish. That song was originally 8 minutes long, but we had to cut it down to 6 minutes. This song took us about 4 to 5 months to finish, we trimmed it as much as we could to make it flow naturally.
What do you want people to capture from your songs?
We just want people to vibe out and lose themselves in our music; we want people to get lost in the grooves, get lost in the jam or the technicality. But really, it’s all about the psychedelic experience.
Who are your biggest influences?
When we all started off as a band, we all loved The Strokes, Cage The Elephant, The Arctic Monkeys, The Beatles, and The Voids.
What advice could you give a band who are just starting out?
Number one advice is to play music with your friends and to simply just have fun. The best kind of music is when the artist focuses on just having fun. If you focus on sounding a certain way, then you’ll just lose the point of creating music.
Why is your song ‘Lose Your Mind’ so emotional to you? What does it mean?
So the Spanish lyric that goes “Ya no te quiero, pero no te puedo dejar” it means, “I don’t love you anymore, but I can’t leave you”. I feel like that lyric speaks to a lot of people, it is so general but there are a lot of people out there loving others who they shouldn’t be loving. It’s based on toxic relationships, and I think that’s relatable.
Why do you think having style in a band is important?
It’s huge because no one wants to see a band who is so casual, but at the same time, we’re all very casual, and I think that’s our style. We don’t want come off as trying too hard; what we wear is definitely not contrived. We will show up to a show and we will wear the same things. For example, for our last photo shoot, we were all wearing denim jackets, and we didn’t even plan that at all. We’re just all in sync.
If you guys could have a specific style together as a band, what kind of style would you like to achieve?
Style and fashion is definitely not a theatrical act for us, we would rather have our music speak for itself.
