Tennis is made up of a husband and wife duo and has been a large part of their marriage since their early twenties.
Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley, from Denver, are every part of Tennis. From the talent to the tour bus drivers. All seven albums from the band have been written, paid for and released by them.
While Tennis the music act is coming to an end, Tennis the marriage is not.
“That is getting confused quite a bit,” Riley said. “I think it was unavoidable because our band is synonymous with our marriage at this point.”
The two told CPR News that this indefinite hiatus is opening up the chance for them to explore different creative outlets, but also, a chance to redefine their marriage.
“That has been one of the interesting things about the band is that it's inextricably linked to our relationship,” Moore said. “That's actually what's been so profound about it, and then it's also, honestly, one of the motivations for taking a break is just getting to rediscover what is our marriage outside of the backdrop of this big looming project, this endeavor that we've had going since the year we got married.”
The end of this 15-year project, embracing their marriage and the openness to explore new opportunities are addressed in their upcoming album, “Face Down in the Garden” coming out April 25. Their swan song is accompanied by a farewell tour.
The first song written for the album, “12 Blown Tires,” is the byproduct of their challenges returning home from their last tour. They had blown every tire on their van and one on their trailer.
“And we blew the differential on our axle. There was just so many issues and it really just felt like the world was against us,” Riley said. “It just felt like we were never going to make it home.”
On the side of the highway, Moore looked out at a dozen or so exploded tires. Once they were back on the road, she wrote the song in under a mile.
“We actually didn't want to write this album, we had a lot of talks about it,“ She said. “But we were like, we have to, there's these songs, ‘12 Blown Tires’ was one of them, that are just begging to be born. We had to do it.”
“At The Wedding” and “Weight Of Desire” are two other singles released before the album. Alongside the album, they’re sharing a collection of unreleased demos from 2009 and 2010, when their marriage was new and they were learning each other's musical talents.
“This is literally the most unrefined version of our band. It is loose,” Riley said. “No, we didn't know what we were doing.”
Inside their first shared apartment, Moore and Riley recalled coming home from work and playing music and writing for each other.
These songs are the genesis of Tennis and the beginning of discovering the boundaries needed to work with a loved one.
“I think running a business together is not great for a marriage, but we're really lucky that that's something we've been able to do. There's no turning off. From the moment we wake up until the moment we go to bed we're worrying about, thinking about, making decisions for the band or the business of the band, and I think it has changed our dynamic as a married couple,” Moore said. “I don't think in a bad way, in a way of partners we feel like a team, it's bonding to us, and I think that has been really, really special.”
The two make all aspects of Tennis’ music and the two make every business decision behind the scenes. In the process of making this album, they began an inventory of the last decade and a half as the band.
“We'll have played a thousand shows and because we self-produce everything and self-record and self-release and self-tour manage and do all these things, we just realized we'd been burning the candle at both ends for a very long time,” Riley said.
Looking ahead, the opportunities are seemingly endless for the group. The two are big-time sailors, spending long stints living on sailboats. It’s a cornerstone of their creativity.
Moore is working on a book about the parallels between sailing and performing.
“Going to sea and leaving port feels exactly the same in my body as stepping onto stage to begin a show, and gazing out at this huge, vast crowd. You can swap the other out with the ocean, with the sea that weirdly feels like it can perceive you and has this unified mood the way the energy of a crowd can have.”
As they move on from Tennis, “Face Down in Garden” is all they have left to say.
“We felt like we did have the energy for one last album that at least both of us could stand behind and not phone in,” Riley said. “We both feel very proud.”
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