Tiny Kingdoms is a Chicago quartet that possesses a rather unbridled sound. Never straying from melodic guitar riffs, the band brings their own interpretation of Alternative Rock and the Chicago sound. Getting ahead of their latest single, “Daydream,” that drops May 15th, drummer Jake Newling chatted with Chicago Crowd Surfer about music, mental health, and all the kick ass bands to play with when COVID is finally in the rear view mirror.

 -Aaron Pylinski

JN: Jake Newling

Your latest single “Daydream” does a really good job of capturing a re-emerging 80s summer sound. Tell us about the process of putting that sound together with a rather mature message of removing oneself from a bad situation.

JN: In terms of that 80s, summer-ish vibe we are approaching a more pop, bright sound with our releases. It seemed like a natural progression to go that route. We’ve been a band for about five and a half years now, and we're not in our early twenties anymore. Nico [Miura] has written a song that captures that maturity about all four of us. It’s something that we all deal with as we go through life, just trying to let something go that might not be the best for us whether it's mental health or what have you.

It's really cool to know that there is plenty of love in the music community as far as mental health is concerned. Why do you think that's so important, especially as musicians?

JN: I don't know if I can speak for every musician, but I know for me personally, mental health is something that is an important issue. It's a lot of the reason that I personally got into music. I was an anxious and insecure person.

I understand what you mean, and I appreciate you sharing.

JN: For sure, and that seems to be for folks in general that are having issues, as long as they know somebody's out there listening. We want to let them know they’re not alone and stuff gets better. That makes a ton of difference. The one person that hears our song and it helps them in a dark time or something. That's what it's all about. That's the coolest thing about music.

I totally agree. That said, the band has been together for over five years now, and have garnered some pretty good press along the way. What can you tell your continually growing fan base about the band that might pique their interest a little bit?

JN: First off, we love every single person that listens to our music and supports us. It means the world to us that people truly care about what we’re doing. I don’t know, though. We’re really not that interesting (laughing), we’re just four nerds who like to jam, man. We like anime and fucking video games. We’re just four introverted dudes.  

Songs like “Stay” really capture a great deal of the passion in your music and message. What about this song and others like it symbolize the essence of Tiny Kingdoms?

JN:  “Stay” is kind of a fan favorite. I feel like it features a pretty prominent guitar lead, and Nico’s vocals really shine on that song. I think looking back, that first batch of music we put out was heavier. Now we're putting out music that’s a little more on the pop side. This band was started on the basis that we would write whatever the fuck we wanted if we as a collective thought it was cool. We were not going to put constraints on ourselves, genre-wise or instrumentation-wise. So, looking at [“Stay”] and then looking at everything else we’ve put out since then, it shows such a wide spectrum of influences and sounds. When we first started we were influenced by a lot of math rock and some of the hard core music and now it’s almost the opposite side of the spectrum. I would hope that when people listen to us they can take away that “these guys are all over the board, but at the end of the day, this is still Tiny Kingdoms.”

You guys have a lot of singles and EPs out. Do you have any plans to get tracks together for a full length album?

JN: It’s definitely been discussed. I think the plan right now is to keep going with the singles for a little bit. It seems to be a formula that's working for us. We like releasing music on a regular basis. It's like one song here and then two months later, we put out another single. We like giving people content and music, frequently. I think personally, I would like to do a full length at some point down the line. It would just have to seem right, though.  

Have you guys had a chance to play your new single live?

JN: (Laughing) Ah, yeah we have not.

What’s that going to feel like, when you guys can get back on the stage and just let it go?

JN: It’s going to be fucking amazing. I think about it every day, man. It’s like: Fuck, dude. I just want to play a fucking gig. We were so bummed because we were supposed to open for Lucky Boys Confusion, who we most absolutely love, and that was two weeks after this whole fiasco started. It’s been rescheduled, but it’s tough, man. I’ve been playing in bands consistently for a decade and I don't think I've ever gone this long without playing a show. It’s really weird.  

What would be your dream gig coming out of this? Venue? Lineup?

JN: Oh god. Personally, I have always wanted to play the Metro. That’s one of the few venues in the city I haven’t played at. It’s just so legendary. You think of all the bands that have played there over the years. In terms of a lineup, I don’t know. There are so many Chicago bands I would love to play with after this. There’s a band called Willmette that’s fucking awesome. Our good friends in Action/Adventure would be fun to play with. Homesafe is another cool band that would be awesome to play with.

Are there any bands out there right now that you’re into and would like to share?

JN: There are so many (laughing).  We’re really good friends with the band City Mouth, and they just released an LP and they’re from around here. We’ve been playing with them forever, but their new LP is absolutely amazing. It's the brainchild of The 1975 and Jimmy Eat World, it’s so cool. Another band is August Hotel, I don't know if you've heard of them. They’ve been doing their thing in Chicago for a hot minute. They released two new singles over the last couple months and they are so fucking good. I’m buddies with their drummer and every time I see them I’m like: “Damn, dude. How are you writing songs this fucking good?” There is so much good music coming out of Chicago right now.