Q&A: Denver’s Tennis rides blog buzz to record deal

Tennis has a great back-story about love, adventure on the high seas and making music.

The Denver band’s career is catapulting beyond the borders of Colorado, and Tennis’ vintage brand of music is a blog sensation that’s catching the ears of listeners all over the world.

Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley are the founding members of Tennis — which plays Denver’s Bluebird Theater on Wednesday — and the married duo’s surprised and thrilled with the notice that’s being given their tunes.

These players didn’t have to play the local club scene — they just wrote from their hearts and the band’s career took off.

Moore talked to the Colorado Daily recently and told Tennis’ amazing story.

Q: How did you meet Patrick in a philosophy class ?

A: We met at DU as philosophy majors. We both transferred from different universities, but we never told each other about our musical pasts.

We had amazing professors, and they completely changed our minds and majors. DU has really small classes and I was only one of two women in Patrick’s class. We started dating and traveling — and we never knew that both of us played music!

Q: What made you both want to form a band?

A : We were traveling and sailing, and we stopped off at a bar in Florida. They were playing a ’60s song by The Shirelles, “Baby, It’s You.” People don’t make that Phil Spector style of music anymore. It’s so charming, soulful and fun.

We thought it would be fun to make our own music — and we both surprised each other with our musical skills. A month later, we had written a few songs.

Q: How did Tennis’ career take off so fast?

A: We did a 7-inch record and suddenly we were going on tour. We really liked what we were doing and we had some unique stories to tell. Our songs are about post-college angst, not being able to find work — and how having a degree doesn’t prepare you for the real world.

We wanted to have an adventure, challenge ourselves and share our music.

Q: How would you describe a typical Tennis song?

A: Lyrically, the songs are pretty narrative and they document our travels. They’re a pretty chronological account of the memories of our trip. We sing about falling in love, sailing away and ending the trip in Baltimore. They really tell the whole story of our travels.

Sonically, we didn’t want to duplicate anybody, but we borrowed things stylistically. We use vintage guitar tones and we borrow some elements from the past, but we do it in a contemporary way.

We describe it as poppy, but some people call it lo-fi pop.

Q: How did Tennis bypass playing Colorado clubs?

A: We hardly played any shows at all, but our songs started circulating on the Internet. We started getting contacted from people all over the world. It all snowballed from a MySpace page and a community of bloggers found us. If people like you, the demand will assert itself.

Before we knew it, we were signed to Fat Possum Records. They found us on the Internet and they really understand us. Our record Cape Dory is coming out in January.

We’ve already done a small run of shows on the coasts, and we have a full nationwide tour in February and March.

Q: Tennis is taking off, but what are the band’s future plans?

A: Our plan is to get the album out there, tour — and then go sailing again.

This is a strange world and things can disappear. That’s why we’re going to go disappear on another adventure after we tour behind this record.

We may never go back. It depends on how we like it. We love what we’re doing now, but my dream is to have a farm.

Local musicians interested in being featured in a Colorado Daily Q&A should e-mail Wendy Kale at kale@coloradodaily.com.