Sean Tillmann is sitting outside his Los Angeles apartment as we talk. “Hold on,” he says as he begins to talk to someone nearby, “Excuse me, What? I can’t hear you… Sorry, No… I’m doing an interview right now.” He shifts back to our conversation, “Sorry about that, someone was trying to buy a cigarette from me.” Such is the life of the music industry’s Bruce Wayne.
Sure, Sean’s musical career is nothing to sneeze at, but he lives in the shadow of his larger-than-life alter ego, Har Mar Superstar. In fact, if you search Wikipedia for Sean Tillmann, it will send you to the Har Mar page. Surprisingly, none of this seems to faze Sean. “I guess that’s just the way it turned out.”
As much as Har Mar’s weapon of choice is style, Sean Na Na’s is substance. Sean’s latest release (Family Trees – or – CoPe We Must on Dim Mak Records) is from Sean Na Na, a more traditional indie-rock expedition that showcases a deep gift for melody composition. He keeps the clever edge that makes Har Mar so enjoyable, but puts it to work in much more subtle methods. “When I work on an album, I totally put myself to it.” Sean’s projects have until recently been released in the same years: 2000, 2002 and 2004 all had albums drop from both Sean Na Na and Har Mar. This, I discover, is a product of Sean’s unyielding tenacity. “I just try to move on to bigger things each time.”
Sean was born in Marshall, Minnesota, in 1978. In nearby Roseville there was a shopping mall called the Har Mar Mall that would serve as inspiration for his stage name. Originally, he perpetuated the explanation that Har Mar was actually Sean’s twin brother Harold Martin Tillman, but now the genesis of the persona is all but irrelevant. Har Mar receives fairly little attention in the states, but he is a notoriously electric showman to those who have experienced his live performances. Utilizing nudity and dance moves, the 5’5” tall provocateur plays like a pop anti-icon indulging in his own sexuality while running his fingers through the thick patch of hair on his lower back. Har Mar’s music, though it generally receives only left-over attention, is just as difficult to ignore. His beats are solid and infectious, and he delivers his hip-hop verses with more melody and swagger than most dare to. He vacillates easily between R&B croon-spoitation and switch-fast hip-hop versework, with a hyperconfident groove everpresent.
I ask about the possibility of a Har Mar/Sean Na Na team-up, with Sean singing and Har rapping. Sean compares it to Linkin Park, and all of a sudden we realize that we both know far more about Linkin Park than we’d care to. “Chester Bennington, that’s a great rock name.”
Aside from writing music, he’s lent his Har Mar persona for commercials and ad campaigns in Europe and appeared as Dancin’ Rick in the film Starsky & Hutch. “The director was a Har Mar fan and so I got a call asking if I could come to Los Angeles… I ended up dancing to my own songs in front of a room of strangers.” And for the future, he’s got plans for “…a lot of things I can’t really talk about,” but there are whispers of a TV feature. And whispers of Adult Swim.
Of course all this discussion of branching out inevitably leads to the possibility of new musical personas to join the Har Mar stable, “I jokingly said once that I was going to make a hardcore rap character named Sweaty Snowsuits.” After some debate, it was generally decided that the name has too many S sounds to really work. “I had an idea to do a project called Sean Tillmann, and I would just play drums.” He’s also considered joining a band silently as its bassist just to avoid being a frontman for once. And as usual, there are some collaborations and projects that he can’t really talk about.
We part our telephone ways with laughter and good spirits.
“I gotta go sell some cigarettes.” Sean says.
“See, you’re branching out already.” I reply.
Family Tree – or – CoPe We Must is out NOW
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