Downtown Phoenix Voices is an ongoing series of profiles on the many diverse and inspirational voices in the downtown Phoenix community. To read the previous installment in the series, click here.
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Tristan Jemsek and Erin Caldwell are enjoying a late-afternoon lunch of avocado sandwiches at Bragg’s Factory Diner on Grand and 13th avenues when it happens.
Caldwell is chatting with Jemsek about her job at the Metropolitan Arts Institute when his eye contact goes blank and emotionless — as if his mind were taken by the body-snatchers in a B-level sci-fi movie. Jemsek leaves what is happening in the room and slips into an almost comatose trance.
This is not unusual for Jemsek. Caldwell, Jemsek’s girlfriend, knows that his music-writing process is taking over his consciousness.
“It’s kind of mysterious,” Jemsek said. “Sometimes it’s just like a phase that comes in from out of nowhere and kind of go from there. Sometimes they come really quick, like almost all at once, and I just have to write it down as fast as I can before it’s gone.”
Jemsek is a musician who helped shaped the downtown Phoenix music scene over the past decade with his unique polka-punk flavor. Right now he plays guitar for Dogbreth, a band that consists of Jemsek, Caldwell, Tyler Broderick and Nathan Leach. He also plays drums with popular local band Diners.
What Caldwell sees is the beginning of a Tristan Jemsek song in its infantile form — a mere seed of an idea in a random moment. Over the next few days as the idea begins to sprout its roots, the song will mature and grow from initial lyrics to beats to choruses, while Jemsek recedes from everyday life into the comfort of his secluded bedroom.
The frequency of his appearances will go from common to far between as he is only seen “noodling” his guitar in rare instance for inspiration, said Bragg’s co-owner Liam Murtagh, who Jemsek has played with in previous bands.
The serene strumming of the guitar, over the course of hours, will eventually morph into strong notes and melodies that will form the foundation of the mix of electric guitar, drums and strong vocals that Dogbreth is known for.
“Tristan is into fun, family, friends and growing pains as a young adult,” Caldwell said.
Jemsek is currently working on bringing new content to his act and performance, with a new album set to debut next month. He enjoys recording songs and albums and sees it as a massively important creative process in his music. He spent one day at a recent Diners session meticulously playing drums to a metronome, he said.
“Some sessions we will just record live — just mic it up and set it up and record it from there and do vocals afterwards,” Jemsek said. “Recording is fun because it is an art form in and of itself. Playing live, being a performing musician and a recording musician are almost like two different things.”
Over the past few months, inspiration seems to come to Jemsek from all over. Recently he’s been on a big Replacements kick, along with Joni Mitchell. Jemsek has also found inspiration from classic rock landmarks like ‘70s Rolling Stones and Thin Lizzy. It seems that, lyrically and thematically, Tristan is writing about things that he observes in everyday life, that he is inspired simply by the human experience of growing up.
“(The songs) are really about pretty simple things, I think; just kind of day-to-day experiences,” Jemsek said. “They’re not always autobiographical or personal, but they usually are.”
People familiar with Jemsek’s music, such as Caldwell, Murtagh and Broderick, note how Jemsek is able to capture a sort of paradox in his music: the lyrics and sound are youthful in nature but yet have a mature take and edge.
One example is the song “Blueprints,” which tells the story of a young couple who learn to lean on each other as they travel through the tumultuous times in their lives. Jemsek has a unique way of conveying events and elements in his own life, said Caldwell, in a way for people who have not had the same life experiences to understand.
In the 10 years he’s been present on the downtown Phoenix music scene, Jemsek finds himself inspired from his friends and his brother, Andrew Jemsek. Since they started making music, Tristan and Andrew Jemsek have always been partners in crime: brothers that draw inspiration from each other, their relationship together and their shared events and experiences.
“He’s one of the most talented musicians I know. He has always been able to play by ear, which is something that I was never able to do,” Tristan Jemsek said. “He’s incredibly passionate about music and things that he loves.”
Andrew Jemsek was inspired by Lawrence Welk and Weird Al Yankovic. Tristan Jemsek attributes the brothers’ odd tastes as children to the fact that they were home-schooled.
“We were only influenced by each other, with no worry of being made fun of,” Tristan Jemsek said.
Each has played a monumental role in the other’s life, as friends Murtagh and Broderick attest. Murtagh remembers when he first began playing with Tristan and Andrew Jemsek — he struggled to tell them apart, using the difference between Tristan Jemsek’s straight hair and Andrew Jemsek’s curly hair as a visual mnemonic.
“They couldn’t be more opposite but still exactly the same. Andrew is the guy who is talkative and up all night, while Tristan is more chill and gentle, but then when they are together and talking, they are so similar,” Murtagh said. “They have the same sense of humor that they got from their grandfather. It is more the shtick and cheesy one-liners than anything else.”
The two opposites seems to fit perfectly together with their music that captures young-adult life. Through the years, they have matured into a duo that builds off of each other’s creative strengths to find inspiration.
“The relationship is very solid and cemented, they feel as if they will always have each other,” Caldwell said. “As someone who did not grow up with siblings, I think that it is a very beautiful thing. When they are together, there is not room for anyone else, because they are so quick and with it with each other, and they have layers and layers of history.”
It has been years since the brothers first started to experiment with drumsticks and accordion in hand in their parents’ living room, playing whatever came to their minds or whatever they were inspired by. It was not long before they got a local show through persistent pestering and nagging.
Their first band was called Haunted Cologne, a polka-punk band that they had for a year or two before playing their first show. They originally tried to write parody songs like Weird Al, Tristan Jemsek said, as a callback to their strange childhood tastes in music.
Recently, the Jemsek brothers had a 10-year anniversary show at the Trunk Space on Grand and 15th avenues that celebrated all that they have accomplished since their first show in 2004. Tristan Jemsek’s motivation to continue as a musician and artist comes from the feelings of excitement from that first show, nearly 10 years ago.
“There were six people there, three of which were great friends. I don’t remember a lot of the set,” Jemsek said. “I just remember it being the most fun I ever had.”
Contact the reporter at Noah.D.Smith@asu.edu
