Although Secret Space has only toured as a band a few times, the threesome from Toledo, Ohio, already has its own fan base. On Monday night, the rock band will play in the Bishop for the first time.
Dean Tartaglia, lead singer of Secret Space, said it will be fun to play at the venue, especially because his brother has been a student at IU for the past five years.
He said he has done some house shows in Bloomington while playing with other bands, but this will be the first time Secret Space will play in Bloomington.
“I’ve been meaning to play the Bishop for a long time,” he said. “I’ve actually been there to see shows and things like that. It’s a cool spot.”
Tartaglia said Secret Space is touring with fellow Toledo-based band Heart Attack Man for the first time. Drummer Steven Warstler said Secret Space has played some shows with the band in Ohio and they are good friends with the group’s members.
“They’re one of my favorite bands, and we’re all super stoked to be playing with them,” he said. “Great band. They are the perfect embodiment of Bart Simpson and the Beastie Boys.”
Tartaglia said while on tour the band will be playing a lot of songs from its debut album “The Window Room,” which was released in June. The band is constantly working on new material and will play new songs on tour, he said. The band uses tours to try out new songs and see which ones work live.
“I’ve got a bunch of new stuff that’s fun to throw in to see how it goes with the set or see how people receive it,” he said. “Because obviously people want to hear the new stuff because it’s still pretty fresh. So it’s been fun to do that.”
Tartaglia said in terms of songwriting, the band has been doing more collaborations recently. He said he wrote the songs for “The Window Room” before Secret Space formed, and now it’s interesting to approach songwriting in a new way.
“It brings a different perspective to it,” he said. “You can get really set in your ways about how you hear something if you’re working on it for a long time, but if you’re working on it for like a day or two, sometimes it turns out better.”
Tartaglia said when he started writing the album, he isolated himself to avoid the distractions of modern life while writing.
“That’s like my quarter-life crisis right there,” he said. “You kind of are getting old enough to look at your life and start questioning things. I was just really trying to take stock of things and those 10 songs are what came out of it.”
Tartaglia said Secret Space differs from previous bands he has been in because it has already begun to grow a fan base.
He said he likes hearing people’s perspective on the album and what it means to them personally.
“The people who have heard this record seem to really love it, and it seems to be growing on them too,” he said.
“If anyone wants to check out our music, it can definitely be personal, and it can definitely mean something different to people when people listen and relate to it.”
