Q&A with San Fermin’s
Allen Tate

The brainchild of chamber-pop composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone, San Fermin’s self-titled debut is a sweeping, operatic concept album that tells a love story of sweetness, sincerity, and complexity. Since the group’s highly lauded album dropped in September, they’ve taken to the road and will be playing in Madison at the High Noon Saloon for FRZN Fest this Friday night. Lead male vocalist Allen Tate took the time to speak with us about the process of creating the album, the live performance, and the importance of living in the moment.

You’re lead male vocalist on the record and on the tour. I know Ellis wrote the part that you’re singing exactly for you — what went through your head when he approached you with the project?
“You know it’s funny, the first time the project came up it was very nonchalant; he said it kind of in passing. I think he had the idea for it early on. It was actually for his senior project at Yale. That didn’t quite manifest and he graduated and right after that I think he said he was going to go away and write this thing. He’s done classical projects before and I’m self-trained — really untrained is the better word for it — in music, so I didn’t know really where it would fall. If it would be a classical project and it would be way out of my comfort zone, or if it would be more like some of the other stuff we’ve done. You know we’ve played in bands together before then, writing together, but I didn’t know where it would end up.”

So you guys have played in bands together before this?
“Starting when we were 15 or 16, so most of them were pretty bad so we don’t like to talk about them. This is definitely the first really serious project we’ve doneut we’ve worked together as we were exploring music and growing up together.”

Yeah, how did you guys become friends?
“We met at Berklee College of Music — they do summer sessions and we did a week-long songwriting workshop. I think we were both 16 that summer.” 

Is San Fermin your main project right now?
“San Fermin is the main project. This year’s been so crazy for us; I think a lot of us have found it really consuming. It’s been really exciting. We did a lot of stuff and played a lot of shows, so we were pretty short on time. I’m beginning to demo. I’m sort of writing my own stuff; there’s kind of a long plan for that. But this has really been some of the first time off over the holidays that we’ve had, so San Fermin has been the main focus.”

What was it like going from the framework of the record, which Ellis wrote at the Banff Centre, to really fleshing it out with all of the artists on the album?
“It’s interesting — so he went away and he didn’t have cell phone service or anything for most of the day. Once he did some of the early writing he sent me a sort of a round of mini files, and then he would check in with me at night. Because you know, at night he would call home, call his girlfriend, call me… so I guess I fall into the girlfriend category, too. But he would check in with me, and we would review whatever he had, change lyrics, change this or that thing, and it was cool to be involved that early on.

“It definitely changed a lot; the songs were all the same, save for a couple of them, as how he wrote them there. But little pieces of lyrics, if I thought something would be smoother this way or that way… I was really lucky in that I have a lot of leeway with Ellis. Because we’ve worked together so much, we sort of knew each other so well. He was trying to fit it to me in the first place so if I had an idea for something that would make it a little more comfortable he was really receptive to that.”

And for the most part, did that process go smoothly for everyone else?
“Yeah, I would say so. Aside from me, everybody else we went out and found. They played some sheet music, some things changed more than others, but for the most part it’s pretty much what Ellis wrote. So as it came together and we were recording the album it became this much bigger thing that had 20-some musicians on it. And if you can believe that with as many things that are on the album, after the first narration there was the commentary that Ellis needed to strip some things out of it, that there were too many things going on, so there used to be even more.

“That’s how we went through everything else, and now that we have the band we had to rearrange the way it was for 20-some people down to eight. Now everyone has their part, a lot of things have changed. Like the song ‘The Count’ we had to rearrange live, and now there’s a live version that’s become really popular. But that’s the one that’s the most different than it is on the album.”

How does the live show differ from the album?
“Well, the album is really big and grand and cinematic, whereas in a lot of shows there’s a lot more energy. Our first show there were 13 people on stage, we all had music stands, it was very stiff. It’s embarrassing to look at the pictures now. But now everyone moves around more, and when we have space on stage for eight people — which isn’t always the case — everybody moves around and feeds off of the crowd. I don’t know, there’s a lot more energy to it.” 

How did you guys make the difficult decision of what stuff to bring on tour and what to leave just for the album?
“That was mostly up to Ellis. The biggest change came with the brass — the first time we played we had a trombone, too. I think it was kind of a difficult choice, choosing which one to take out, but it came down to the middle band, between the baritone and the trumpet. But yeah, it was mainly up to Ellis; he took some time, maybe a couple weeks, and changed all of the arrangements. But it was definitely a daunting task.”

Going back to the story of the album, how do you relate to your character? To the story in general?
“Ellis wrote it. We were talking on the phone a lot, and I was really close with him to begin with so I knew what he was writing about. And even though a lot of the ideas were big ideas, they were things we’d had conversations about, things which either one of us or both of had strong opinions about. They were familiar ideas to me. Because the characters mock each other it’s very much a set-up of an inner conversation you would have about a subject. I think that it came out in two different chapters for him because that was a good way to express it.

“Me personally, I guess the male character is a little dramatic for me. I’m kind of a low-key guy. ‘Renaissance!’ starts off on this epic point to the album, and it all kind of goes from there. But I try to embrace it, and because I get where the ideas came from — it’s easy for me to associate with them, things I’ve sympathized with in the past, so it’s been fun to embrace that and get out of my shell and do that kind of a thing.”

What is your favorite song on the album?
“I don’t know but when I heard it, when everything was sent to me the first time through when Ellis sent me the files, ‘Torero’ is the one that I reacted to right away. That’s the one I had an immediate attachment to, so I like that one in particular I guess.”

So you’ll be coming through Madison —  we’re a college town with a lot of people going through transition periods, and this album kind of tries to tackle that panic and uncertainty. Do you have any advice for college students?
“Oh god, no. I’m not far enough along myself; I have sympathy for them! I have been dealing with a lot of the same things. A year ago I was working for a non-profit and thought I was going to go to law school, and now I’m on the phone with you doing an interview about a rock show. So maybe ‘hang in there’ is the best advice. Don’t worry too much and try not to miss the present.”