We write songs for nature-loving city dwellers.
Like Grizzly Bear, Tortoise, Flaming Lips, Andrew Bird, and the Arctic Monkeys, Tinca Tinca creates ambient, melodic indie rock that aims to inspire joy, connection, hope and progress. The band’s name is the Latin classification of a type of fish commonly known as the Tench, the bandleader’s last name.
Tinca Tinca was started by multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer Travis Tench, Owen Tharp (guitar and harmonies), and Elyssa Hollifield (bass). Like Spīñal Tap, they play with a different drummer each month.
Though Travis spent much of his life working as a teacher abroad, then running an environmental non-profit and farmers' market in NYC, music has been an integral part of life and he’s played and sung as a member of an array of groups around the world. As part of those groups, he’s had the good fortune to sing in Carnegie Hall, share the stage with Joan Baez, and open for Neil Young in the US and Canada.
Since beginning in Knoxville, Tennesse, Tinca Tinca has played an array of wonderful venues and festivals such as The Tennessee Theatre, The Bijou Theatre, Sunset on Central, Dogwood Arts Festival, and they've been featured on WDVX, WUTK, and live on WATE Channel 6. In the summer of 2023, Tinca Tinca joined the roster of artists on the Performing Arts Label at the Old City Performing Arts Center.
Funding for Tinca Tinca's debut album and release show was generously provided by the TEAM, via the Petri Project Program:
The TEAM's Petri Project Program was launched in 2017 and its goal is to foster a pipeline of inquiry and development into new work led by our artistic community. The program provides funding, rehearsal space, and producing support to seedlings of new work. This program has received generous support from the Axe-Houghton Foundation and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.