“It’s a shared endeavor with my life partner”: Tennis on Love, The Sea, & Their Final Record, ‘Face Down in the Garden’

Tennis’ lead singer Alaina Moore sat down with Atwood Magazine to discuss the band’s process, her marriage to her musical soulmate Patrick Riley, and their seventh and final record, ‘Face Down in the Garden.’

Stream: ‘Face Down in the Garden’ – Tennis

Indie pop duo Alaina Moore and Patrick Riley have been releasing music under the name Tennis since 2011.

Occupying a space that is just as sonically unique and dreamy as is their story and career, the couple have amassed a dedicated fan base thanks to a sound that seemed novel, an exciting journey into the world the couple created.

With their seventh and final release, Face Down in the Garden (released April 25 via Mutually Detrimental), Moore and Riley give their fans one last record filled to the brim with poetic, retrospective lyricism backed by the hybrid of synth-pop and rock that listeners have come to cherish over the past 15 years. With the duo performing at their best, from the writing to the vocals and grand production, Face Down in the Garden serves as a bittersweet goodbye from the beloved band. Lead singer Alaina Moore sat down with Atwood to discuss their marriage, the beginnings of Tennis, and how the band has shaped her and Riley.

While creating their final project, Moore tells Atwood Magazine, “Patrick and I felt out of sync with the world, as though we had been ejected from the flow of life. My response was to bury myself in my own memories. Those years weren’t easier or better, but I could make sense of them. In Face Down in the Garden, I trace the arc of my life through a series of vignettes: a first moment of connection, a conversation at a wedding, a night offshore, a tour diary.” With the record diving headfirst into the past, longtime fans can expect to feel a deeper sense of connection to the duo, making Face Down in the Garden as intimate of a goodbye as it must’ve been for its creators.

Tennis may never have begun if Moore and Riley weren’t in the same philosophy class while in college at Colorado, a run-in that seems so deterministic and driven by fate. It only serves to bring more meaning to their discography: “We met in analytic philosophy class, became fast friends, and then fell in love,” she smiles.

After meeting in class, Moore explains, sailing quickly became a part of their creative process. As disconnected as it may seem, a sailing trip that the two embarked upon post-graduation was a journey that helped them to begin their careers in music. “When I met Pat in college, his coffee table was stacked with books to teach you how to sail, books like ‘How to Sail Around the World Alone.’ And I was like, ‘What are you planning on doing? We’re in Colorado.’ I’d never been on a boat or anything,” says Moore.

“By the end of that school year, I was somehow tagging along on this sailing trip that he had been wanting for about 10 years that I had only just considered… Yeah, it was really… insane. We didn’t know how to sail. We had never been on a boat. It was like pure chaos, but so much fun. It’s the kind of reckless adventure you could take when you’re 22 and you don’t understand mortality.”

Shortly thereafter, taking to the seas became a somewhat consistent creative routine for the couple – the ocean and its vast unpredictability serving as a fantastic setting for their process.

“We usually do it maybe every other album because it’s just a huge commitment. It’s months of our time. We sail to a very remote place and it’s a bit of a survivalist situation… Weirdly, the stakes of being living off the grid in the middle of nowhere on a boat, on the water with only your own resources to protect you… it’s just a really fascinating backdrop for creativity because there’s just an intensity and urgency to your everyday experience… It’s very humbling and really scrambles your priorities.”

Would have Moore begun her career in music if these fateful crossroads were never presented to her, if she had never stepped foot on that sailboat, or taken that philosophy class? Moore says, “I wonder that sometimes too, it’s weird because I feel like making music was my destiny, but I don’t think I would have done it if I hadn’t met Patrick. I wouldn’t even be interested in doing it without him. I wouldn’t write a song and I certainly would never play a show. If it wasn’t for him… I love music so much but, for me, what is so profound about it is that it’s a shared endeavor with my life partner.”

Moore’s love, respect, and admiration for husband is endlessly clear. His expert, seemingly divinely guided, knowledge of musical production and his ability to create captivating soundscapes is a distinct aspect of Tennis. “Even after all these years, my favorite thing to do is just to sit in a chair behind him while he’s mixing and just listen to him make sounds out of nothing, just like some kind of a signal. And then he turns it into the most interesting thing.”

Moore credits much of Tennis’ success and people’s particular interest in the overall sound of the band to Riley and his ability to bring the one of a kind edge to their tracks.

When you hear a Tennis song, it’s clear that it’s distinctly theirs. Whether it be synth that takes you into a separate dimension or perfectly arranged instrumentals that bring home the impact of a lyric, Riley is critical in making Tennis tracks as textured and memorable as they are. The production is even more memorable thanks to Moore’s vocals, which she tries to build alongside Riley’s sounds that he conjures up.

“I actually think one-third of the band is his ability to sculpt sound and capture sound. He was so good at it instinctually from the very beginning… I like to commit to the sound he had first and it’s usually very limiting because it’s like extremely decided tonally, but it’s so interesting. It’s like, I think it’s what brings uniqueness and like an edge to our music because I bring a more – I don’t want to say conventional – but maybe a more refined melodic contribution to the band. So I try to meet him where he’s at because what he will have done is so unique and I think it’s what has given our band our sound.”

Thanks to the couple’s commitment to having total agency and freedom over how they create their art, Face Down In The Garden shapes up to be an incredibly contemplative and sonically unique record, from the hushed whispers on the bridge of “The Apartment” to rock centric tracks like “Through The Mirror.”

Takes more to be your man
I’m the one who understands
Sleep, tide, blue dunes
Blue ruins, salt dunes
My pallor, salt in my eyes
Takes more to be your man
I’m the one who understands it
Oh, no, no, no, no
Constellations falling
Takes more to be your man
I’m the one who understands it

With the record acting as a final send off for Tennis, both the lyrics and the production have a grandiose melancholy to them.

While this has always been a part of Tennis’ overall vibe, the tone that the tracks inhabit may have resulted from the hectic process Moore and Riley went through while creating their last album: “We felt a clear pull to write new music, but ran up against a series of bizarre setbacks. We blew tires and lost an engine. I developed a chronic illness. We took a doomed voyage that culminated in an attempted robbery at sea. Fragments of songs that first arrived like gifts from the universe later refused to be completed. Our days were awash in major and minor crises that dragged the album out endlessly.”

Revisiting these past memories amongst all the chaos while writing the nine songs on the record resulted in unforgettable tracks. One of the most cathartic and career defining pieces to come from the record is “12 Blown Tires,” the track acting as a sweeping and all encompassing recap of the journey that has been Tennis, “That’s really the song,” Moore muses. “It felt like we zoomed out, like a bit of a career retrospective… It’s just kind of like tap dancing through memories large and small of all the many years that we’ve been doing this project and not just of the band, but also of the dynamic of our relationship unfolding against the backdrop of Tennis. You know, half of our marriage has existed on tour and in the studio… it’s a very interesting dynamic as a married couple, so I spent a lot of time reflecting on that because we did feel while we were writing this album that it felt like Tennis was just coming to an end.”

Press my desire to the margins
I’ve been face down in the garden
You’re quick but time moves faster
Love like a natural disaster
When I walk I’m barely touching the pavement
You smile and laugh while you’re waving
To me again, I go on counting

No flower withers
No flower withers in your hand, in your hand

I know you are the golden son
And where you walk new lifе has begun
Waiting for fate to make it fast
Hold mе so long without having to ask
Twelve blown tires in under a mile
Twelve blown tires in under a mile
Looking for a stone in a dust pile
Counted twelve blown tires in under a mile

Over the 15 years that Moore and Riley have been creating their art together, their process has remained one that upholds the music at all costs.

“We are double alphas,” Moore explains. “We’re both extremely uncompromising and didactic and we’re really hard on each other… And that’s for both of us. I’m not going to let him put a bad idea in the record and he won’t let me put a bad idea in, at least according to our own judgment. But that is very hard. And that’s sometimes why I think that’s why our albums have gotten shorter and shorter because our standards get higher and higher and we’re very hard on each other. We’re not letting most of our ideas pass the test. So half of our songs get thrown away.” Face Down In The Garden is certainly reflective of this sentiment, its nine tracks home to some of the band’s most spellbinding production yet. Coupling that with the lyricism and knowledge that this is Tennis’ last album only makes the record feel even more sentimental.

The years have not been without their enriching and fulfilling bits as well. Creating a creative project with your life partner over years and years has allowed Moore and Riley to deepen their connection and admiration for one another. “The most rewarding parts are when you hear your partner make something and you’re like, ‘Wow, how did you do that?’ It’s already someone you love but… then they surprise you again… There’s the opening guitar part on this song ‘Through The Mirror.’ He just was like fucking around in our living room with this really cool pedal… I was in another room with the phone and I recorded it. I walked out and I was like, ‘That is the beginning of a song!’ I don’t know how you just shit that out, but it’s so cool. Because he wasn’t even trying to do anything. He was just manipulating a pedal.”

How is it you said you were lonely?
Salt in my hair as you hold me
Through the mirror, you and I are falling now

I wear your ring, I am loyal
I wear your ring, I’m impossible
You drag me down into your dreams

How is it you said you were lonely?
Can’t stop my teardrops from falling
Through the mirror, you and I are falling now

Throughout the process of creating Face Down In The Garden, Moore and Riley intuitively knew that this was their final project.

The last thing the couple wanted to do was to continue making music for the sake of creating it rather than doing so as an authentic means of expression, as something they were called to do.

From the early days of Tennis, Moore says, “We had no intention of sharing the music with anyone. It was just something we did for ourselves and then to suddenly realize like, oh, that’s our creative moniker into our 40s… We don’t want to ever make an album that feels derivative or is just rehashing old ideas. I feel like if we aren’t bringing something new to the table, we would like to just put it away and move on. And so while we were making this, there was just all of this tension, all of this reflection of our past. It really felt like this was the end and we were tying a bow on everything.”

Now that Tennis is coming to an end, Moore and Riley are both simultaneously grateful and eager to see what their relationship will evolve into outside of upholding Tennis. “Every tour informs the work and the work informs our marriage, and it’s been so powerful… we joke and talk a lot about how our music is like our legacy. It’s like the children we never had.” Refining the band’s sound and creating the distinct parts that make up the band helped Moore to become closer to herself as an artist. Throughout the years, she found herself asking, “What is my voice, what does Alaina Moore write like? I didn’t know… with Face Down In The Garden, I felt very confident this is my voice. This is what I do… I love knowing that for 23-year-old Alaina, who was really stressed about it, I’m really happy to know that I got there.”

With Moore’s conviction in her creative voice, Face Down in the Garden fortunately won’t be the last we hear from Moore and Riley. Moore is currently working on a memoir, “comparing and contrasting my tour diary with our ships log… There’s tons of artists who have written memoirs and there’s plenty of sailors who have written memoirs, but I’ve never read one that comes from both perspectives.”

Drawing comparisons between sailing and touring, Moore says, “Facing the crowd is a lot like facing the sea. It just becomes this vast energy and you feel perceived by it. It can reward you and it can destroy you either one you know the crowd and the ocean it has so much power over you without even necessarily being aware of it.”

With a journey as tumultuous and simultaneously stunning and powerful as the ocean itself, Face Down in the Garden is a beautiful goodbye from a band that so many listeners have come to love.

Moore and Riley have allowed fans to grow alongside them and their marriage with each release. This final record is an extension of the intimate pieces the duo chose to share with us over their discography. Tennis’ legacy will undoubtedly live on, their sound and impact on the indie-pop scene a remarkable and one-of-a-kind moment in music.

Face Down In The Garden is available on all streaming platforms, and Tennis’ farewell tour begins in May.

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A CONVERSATION WITH TENNIS

Alaina Moore: We did, yes.

Alaina Moore: Yeah. When I met Pat in college, I visited his apartment and saw his coffee table stacked with books on how to sail, including How to Sail Around the World Alone. I was like, “What are you planning on doing?” We were in Colorado, and I’d never even been on a boat. Sailing was his fantasy, something he’d been saving for. We met in analytic philosophy class, became fast friends, fell in love, and by the end of that school year, I somehow got roped into this sailing trip he’d been planning for ten years.

We sailed from St. Pete, Florida, around the tip of Florida through the Keys to the Bahamas, crossed back to Florida, and went all the way up the Intracoastal Waterway to the Chesapeake Bay. It was pure chaos. We didn’t know how to sail and had never been on a boat, but it was so much fun. The kind of reckless adventure you can take at 22 when you don’t fully understand mortality.

Alaina Moore: Yeah. We loved music as fans and shared similar taste, but it wasn’t something we explored at first. Philosophy and sailing bonded us early on. It wasn’t until later that we started making music together.

Alaina Moore: That’s a great question. I wonder about that sometimes. I feel like making music was my destiny, but I don’t think I would have done it without Patrick. I wouldn’t have even been interested in doing it without him. I certainly wouldn’t have played a show.

What’s profound for me about music is that it’s a shared endeavor with my life partner. I have a lot of other passions and dreams beyond music, and I think I would have pursued those if I hadn’t met Pat.

Alaina Moore: This was the first time it felt like the universe was really blocking us. We had the songs; they came easily and wanted to be manifested, but so much life got in the way. I struggled with illness for the first time. Then, during our normal writing sabbatical at sea – something we usually do every other album – we faced crisis after crisis.

Our engine kept dying. I got really sick. We had an attempted robbery at sea: a gang of teens on a powerful fishing boat shook us down for money and fuel. We also had a death in the family; my grandmother passed away, and I had to make an emergency trip home. It felt like every time we tried to write, something terrible happened. We came back feeling depleted. It felt like the album needed to be made but didn’t want to be made. We were in constant tension with it.

Alaina Moore: Yeah, “12 Blown Tires” was really that song for me. It’s my favorite on the record. It feels like a zoomed-out career retrospective – memories large and small of our years together, both in the band and in our relationship. We spent a lot of time reflecting during the album, and it felt like we were tying a bow on everything we’d built.

Alaina Moore: Exactly. It slowly revealed itself to us over time. It took a year to finish just eight songs. We scrapped ten more that were really good, but didn’t fit. At first, we didn’t announce it was our last album. We wanted to bow out gracefully. But eventually, we realized we owed it to our fans to let them know this was their last chance to see us headlining.

Alaina Moore: It depends on the track, but Patrick’s sonic background is a huge part of our band. He usually writes a guitar part, or sometimes drums or bass, and I’ll write lyrics to what he’s created. His early recordings are very tonally specific, which I love. I think that tension—his experimental sounds meeting my melodic instincts—is what defines our music.

Alaina Moore: Every iteration has changed. Our marriage informs the work, and the work informs our marriage. We often joke that our albums are like the children we never had; they’re our creative lineage. I’m excited to see what our marriage looks like without the band because running Tennis is a full-time business. It’s been beautiful but exhausting. I’m ready to see us without that constant commitment.

Alaina Moore: The most rewarding part is when you see your partner create something brilliant and it surprises you – even after all these years. The hard part is that we’re both alphas, extremely uncompromising. We work alone in the studio, and it can get harsh – no filtering, no niceties. But it’s because we’re so protective of our work. Even if we hurt each other’s feelings during the process, we never carry that outside the studio.

Alaina Moore: Honestly, yes. Usually, the songs we love most are the ones that resonate with fans, which is really rewarding. With “Runner” in particular, we knew it was special. It felt magical when we made it. We would have been mad if people didn’t love that one!

Alaina Moore: We’re just focused on putting on the best show we can. We want the setlist to represent our whole body of work. We probably won’t do anything from Cape Dory because it’s so far removed now, but otherwise, we want to celebrate the journey properly. We’re also adding more cities now that it’s a farewell tour to make sure fans have a chance to see us one last time.

Alaina Moore: Definitely “12 Blown Tires.” It feels very truthful. It’s one of the few times where I fully express myself in a poem.

Alaina Moore: I’m working on a book. Eventually, I’d love to write fiction, but I’m starting with a memoir. It will compare and contrast my tour diaries with our ship’s log. Touring and sailing have so many parallels – both are journeys, both are self-reliant, both are transformative.

Facing a crowd is a lot like facing the sea. They both hold power over you in ways they don’t even realize. I’m very motivated to unpack all of that in writing.

Alaina Moore: I think they’d be completely in awe. Especially with songwriting, there was a time around our second album when I felt lost, wondering what my voice was. It took writing hundreds of songs to figure it out.

Now, with Face Down in the Garden, I feel confident. I found my voice. And I’m so happy 23-year-old Alaina finally got there.

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