The lo-fi, indie pop music of husband and wife Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore has been making waves since they dropped their first singles in the summer of 2010. That summer, the duo, better known as Tennis, had just returned from a seven month sailing voyage along the eastern seaboard. Since that time, they released several singles, signed to Fat Possum Records, released a full-length record and won the ears of thousands. Tennis is now set to release its second LP, Young and Old, in early 2012. If Tennis’ new single “Origins”–produced by the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney– is any indication, we’re in for a treat with Young and Old. Amidst onsetting winter weather in Tennis’ current Colorado locale, Alaina chatted with us about sailboat nostalgia, married life and their new record.

Apes on Tape: I know the “sailboat” story is basically band folklore at this point. But do you flash back to those days pretty nostalgically, especially now during winter?

Alaina Moore: I feel like we always are, I feel like it’s our personality. In fact, have you seen Midnight in Paris?

No I haven’t.

You should see it. But I feel a lot of people are like that. And that film kind of brought it out in us. Patrick and I are definitely nostalgic people who always would envision living in the past, and our sailing trip is definitely an example of that. And obviously that’s what motivated writing Cape Doary.

Origins by Tennis

In terms of Cape Doary, a little Googling led me to a location in Massachusetts by the same name. I assume that’s a reference to the sailing trip.

Oh! Actually Cape Doary is—yeah, actually it is a place—but “Cape Doary”, in the sense that we used it, is the type of sailboat we used. It’s the manufacturer of the sailboat.

Speaking of Google, you guys fall into that category of bands such as, say Real Estate, where it was probably pretty tough to find your band originally. It’s less of a problem now, but did you think about that or come across that problem in the early days or what?

No. Actually when we named our bands, we didn’t even really think of ourselves as a band. It was kind of a joke. So at the time, we certainly didn’t think about how easy it would be to find any information about us. And it’s funny you mention that, because we’re friends with Real Estate. They were playing in Denver recently and we were trying to look up their date and we had so much trouble. [Laughs] And it sucked, but their band name’s so cool that it’s totally worth it.

[Laughs] Totally. The band that I’m in, we actually just recently passed the son of Han Solo and Princess Lea from Star Wars. That was the result previously above us.

[Laughs] Whoa!! Wow.

I know, right? Moving past Star Wars… So timeline wise, could you break down when the sailing trip started and ended? And then when you began writing/recording the full album.

We went sailing in 2007, and [asks Patrick]…no, 2010! Yeah we went sailing in 1892 (laughs). So 2010, from January to July. Then we moved back to Denver and wrote Cape Doary in the early winter months. We wrote them piecemeal, like a couple of songs at a time. We released them over time, not really intending to make a full length. But then obviously, the songs were chronological in telling a specific story so we felt we needed to re-release all the songs together as a full length. And that’s what ending up happening that following January, this past January. We toured for Cape Doary until, well all the way up through the summer. And in the interim, on a little time off, we wrote our second full-length called Young and Old, which is coming out this February.

Yeah, I was just going to ask you about that. The new album will be coming out on Fat Possum. I‘ve got to talk to a number of Fat Possum artists, like Daniel of Yuck and Tyler Ramsey of Band of Horses. They seemed just thrilled about the label. Could you talk about your own experience so far?

We really love Fat Possum. They have made themselves a really understanding home for us. We were really tentative and unsure what we wanted to accomplish with Tennis when they first signed us. And they were one of the only labels we found who were not only really excited about what we were doing and wanted to work with us, but they were willing to leave it kind of open-ended and just take it one step at a time. And let us take it as seriously or push it as much as we wanted to. They didn’t force us with contracts or anything into, you know, touring all year and….

Six albums and three singles! ASAP….

Exactly. Just beat ourselves into the ground or anything. They knew that everything was kind of happening on its own accord and we wanted to leave it feeling really organic. So now this time around, we feel really sure of what we want. We feel we’ve learned a lot about ourselves as musicians and a live band and it took this last year to work through that together, Patrick and I and James, our drummer. And we felt like we really wanted to follow up Cape Doary with Fat Possum again. They really invested in us and they’ve been so supportive. So Young and Old will be also released on Fat Possum.

Regarding James, obviously you need a drummer for live arrangements, but in the press release picture for Young and Old I saw him included with the band. How long has been playing with you guys?

We played eleven shows without James. And then we first enlisted him to be our sound engineer for Cape Doary, because we did it alone. But then he ended up becoming our drummer, and then he ended up becoming a 100% permanent fixture in the band. Patrick and I still really do the song writing, but he’s an integral part. He’s not just a hired drummer.

Your marriage is going on at the same time as the band.  I mean it’s been done before. But has that dynamic made it easier? More difficult? And has it changed with James?

I actually think Patrick and I are figuring all the time as we continue to work together in Tennis what that means being a married couple. But really it just means sharing your life passion with your best friend.

What a bummer that would be…

[Laughs] Yeah, I know. It’s horrible, huh? No, it’s really amazing. Sometimes we’ll occasionally realize that we’ve spent every moment together for like six straight months and be like, “Wow! We should do something by ourselves”. [Laughs] And those moments are really weird. Before we were in Tennis, we just had normal, full-time jobs where we wouldn’t see each other for like 50 hours a week.

And what were you guys doing before Tennis, what were the day jobs?

He was the building manager at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. And I worked at a small boutique in retail. I feel it was much like your typical relationships. I think that sailing together first prepared us first for the potential strain on a relationship of touring together and writing together and making business decisions together. I mean it’s pretty similar to making serious decisions while sailing about navigation or….

It’s a good metaphor.

Right. But it really was good practice where, you know, occasionally we would have what could be life or death decisions where if we made a poor decision or couldn’t work together we could be in danger.  And having to make split-second decisions with serious decisions, and learning to do that together, set us up well for being in a band. Not that it’s easy. It’s not. Every time I hear of a band breaking up I’m like, “I could see how that happens”. It’s very taxing on your relationships, but I also think it’s definitely worth it.