Although she grew up writing songs and singing in bands, Tess Stevens said she wasn’t sure she wanted to continue making music as she got older. “I was in groups in high school and college, but no one had the insane drive I have,” she said. “They became very unfun. I stopped making music for five years; even looking at a guitar made me sad. Then, I realized it was my happy place.
“I love doing creative things,” she added. “I’m never happier than when I’m on stage. I sometimes get nervous playing for small groups, but I’m never jumpy in front of large crowds. It’s weird.”
When she returned to music, she decided to make a solo album. She looked up local studios and found Jacob Light, the producer and engineer at ModernTone in Lafayette.
“Jacob really heard the songs,” Stevens said. “He didn’t just record them and take my money. He listened, played bass and made them better. He introduced me to drummer Gideon Burger, who became my songwriting partner.”
That solo project, Patient 139, was released just as the pandemic shut everything down. Since the trio couldn’t play live, they began writing together, slowly evolving into Tess and the Details.
“We all labor over every sound, every detail,” Stevens said. “Hitting a note harder, playing tighter and better.”
Unable to play live and promote her first album, Stevens went on TikTok and told the story of the songs on the EP. She informed people that the song “Patient 139” was written in a mental hospital, after she had a “mental implosion.” People began responding and posting their own stories. Her page took off.
At the same time, the Details were putting together the songs that became Runaway, their debut album.
“Gideon and I were writing feverishly,” Stevens said. “He’d send me a melody with some chords and, in half an hour, I’d turn it into a demo with lyrics. We’d meld them together and give birth to a song.”
The demos were sent to Light. They worked out the arrangements, polishing them until everything was perfect. Light played lead guitar. They multi-tracked a choir of Stevens singing backup harmonies and added a few subtle keyboard flourishes.
“The songs on Runaway all have to do with the idea of escaping or running away from yourself,” Stevens said.
Although she’s not religious, she said she often finds inspiration in the Bible or religious texts. She said it’s a natural parallel, since rock has its roots in gospel, as well as R&B and country music.
“There’s a lot of duality in religion that mirrors real life,” she said.
The 12 tunes on the album are all short bursts of punk energy. “Take a Number” is pure, political punk, taking shots at capitalism, self-destruction and ecological disaster with a driving bass line, aggressive drumming and Stevens’ irate vocals.
Burger’s cracking rhythms and Stevens’ belligerent guitar chords drive “Mania.” Steven delivers the tagline with a driving intensity: “Life is precious, it’s the saddest thing, we’ll die without learning a goddamn thing.”
“Blondie’s Gonna Die” describes the process of a nervous breakdown, with wailing, distorted guitars, an aggressive backbeat and a lyric that describes being strapped to a gurney, with the feeling that there’s no salvation, except in music.
After an intro that alternates between Stevens’ solo prayers for redemption and bursts of noise from the band, Burger plays a straightforward hard-rock groove on “No Grave.” Stevens sings urgently about the tension between intemperance and its consequences, using a troublesome relationship as the template.
“We became a band during the process of making the album,” Stevens said. “There’s not a sound on the album that wasn’t labored over for a very long time. I also became a better guitar player because of the work we did in the studio. Jacob told me I needed to practice more. I always felt I had this ‘natural gift,’ but I put that aside and started playing every day.”
As things began opening up, the Details added Dustin Galecki on lead guitar and Lawrence Hood on bass to flesh out the live version of the band.
“I’m a big devotee of the Elvis approach,” Stevens said. “It’s like a circus when we play. We like punk because the barrier between the audience and the people on stage is down. We want to give each person an experience they’ll never forget. If we’re tuning up, I’ll make conversation with the folks in the audience. We don’t have a lot of time between songs; we keep the energy high.
“Sometimes we play new songs to test them out and experiment with new things, but we’re never afraid to put on a show,” she continued. “It’s my duty as a frontperson to take you out of your day-to-day and give you something that makes you feel something. We play with the same intensity whether it’s 20 people or 20,000.”
For upcoming dates, visit Tess and the Details online: tessandthedetails.com.
