Introducing: Mothertapes

WHO: Pete Bosack (vocals, guitar, bass, synth, Ableton), Tommy Franzen (drums, synth, samples)

SOUNDS LIKE: What would happen if Tune-Yards started dabbling in math rock.

FOR FANS OF: Passion Pit, Grizzly Bear, Wax Fingers.

Pete Bosack and Tommy Franzen, the duo behind Mothertapes, admit they're not always the easiest people to get along with.

"I'm definitely a bit of a control freak about stuff," Bosack says. "It's no accident that I've ended up in a band with just me and another guy."

Although Mothertapes is on the verge of releasing its debut, the self-titled album is not even close to the first record Bosack and Franzen have recorded together. They've performed together in different projects for nearly 10 years, since Franzen moved back to Portland post-college and started seeking other musicians to jam with.

"I put some Craigslist ads up like, 'Yo, drummer looking to play music with people,'" he says. "I got a crap-ton of responses, and most of them were pretty lame. But Pete was also putting ads up on Craigslist, and I responded to one of his ads and then we played. And that was it."

"It's all pretty romantic," Bosack adds.

The pair's original post-rock band, Wax Fingers, released an album and an EP between 2010 and 2012. But as others members started leaving—amicably, they maintain—Bosack and Franzen compensated with increased use of synths, drum pads and a computer loaded with the sequencing software program Ableton.

As a result, the sound of Mothertapes rests in the balance of the complex hurricane of notes and the melodic comfort of pop. Live, the layering of different sounds that defines the group's music is re-created in the moment. "Typically, Pete will start a song with a guitar line," Franzen says. "Then he'll maybe loop another guitar line on top of it, and then he'll play a bass line. And then I'll come in on drums, and he'll play the synth and then vocals. It all happens on the spot."

Bands sticking together for a decade are anomalies these days. Regardless of what happens with Mothertapes, though, Bosack and Franzen consider the fact that they haven't killed each other yet success enough.

"Tommy's pretty tolerant of me," Bosack says. "He's a pretty patient dude."

Franzen chimes in, "I've come close!"

SEE IT: Mothertapes play Holocene, 1001 SE Morrison St., with Bearcubbin' and Just Lions, on Thursday, Oct. 1. 8:30 pm. $7. 21+.

Willamette Week