Interview Tiny Masters of Today

Sitting behind the Rough Trade stall at the Underage Festival, Ivan (13) and Ada (11), the brother-sister core of the Tiny Masters of Today, are busily autographing posters and records for teenage punters who are still considerably older than them. With Ivan laid low by hayfever, we managed to ask Ada a few questions about music, youth, and sibling harmony..

You’re obviously a very young band – what’s it like coming to the Underage Festival, and seeing so many other young people being involved with music too?
It’s really, really cool. We’ve loved getting into music and being a part of all this, so it’s pretty cool to see that other people kind of have the same thing going.

Have you always wanted to do music?
Uh… well, it’s not like I want to be a rock star when I grow up. We got into it because we were kind of bored, so we started the band. It’s not something I really want to do when I’m older. I can’t imagine that the money will always be coming in either – someday, I’m going to have to get a real job!

But you’ve already had such enormous success – you’ve already come over to Europe, and had people like Karen O and Russell Simins work with you. What’s that like? Don’t you think you might be in it for the long run?
It’s good, but at the same time I don’t think it’s going to last forever. And I don’t really want it to – I can imagine that, after a really long time, it might get boring. You see all these bands that are keeping it going, and I wouldn’t want to be in one of those bands that get bad towards the end because they’re keeping it going for so long.

Who are your musical heroes?
A big inspiration for us are the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Ivan’s idol is Karen O.

What was it like working with her, having idolised her?
It was great, she was really, really nice. She’s such an amazing performer, singer, artist – it must be hard to do everything like that, but she just does it so well.

Have you come across any difficulties through being a young band?
I think the main problem is that people assume that because we’re young, we won’t make good music, or that we’re just being cute. I think we have to prove to people that we’re more than that, that we want to be taken seriously.

What’s it like being siblings and being in a band together? Are there ever fights on tour?
laughs All the time, all the time! Now we’re over here, we have to share a hotel room, so that can lead to some fights, yeah!

What does the future hold for the band?
We’re going to keep doing what we do, for as long as we’re able to do it well. And hopefully we’ll have fun doing it.