1 December 2025
Every Monday I will be bringing you an interview with an independent band, duo or music artist. This week, I caught up with Ian from Oxford band Tiger Mendoza to find out more…
Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the name?
Mainly focussed around me as main beat maker / producer / song writer. Also as part of the group are Daniel Clear on guitar / sage advice and Tom Martin on live visuals.
Dan and I have known each other on the Oxford music scene for many years while he was in another Oxford based electro outfit called Death of Hifi. We got chatting and he guested on a few tracks and played like with me a couple of times and a few years later he’s kind of stuck around.
Tom got involved after reaching out to ask if he could use one of my songs for a visualisations piece he was working on. I asked if he would be up for trying it live on stage with us and he agreed. With electronics it’s easy to get lost in laptops and keyboards but I really feel the live visuals being something to our live shows.
Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
Then – everyone from Nik Kershaw to Michael Jackson to Kraftwerk. Also I picked up guitar in the 90s when Britpop was at its peak so bands like Oasis and Blur are in the mix.
Now there’s so much great stuff it’s hard to pick a few but I’ll always love Deftones, NiN, 65daysofstayic, alongside new electronic producers like Fred Again and Overmono.
How would you describe your sound?
Electro pop chaos with a bit of an edge. And maybe the odd Drum and Bass breakdown.
What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest album was NOT A GAME which came out on 24th October. It’s a somewhat dark album, an attempt to process many of the concerns and thoughts of the moment like our relationship with AI, the political climate and confusing opinion with fact. It’s a deliberately digital sounding record but with a soul, helped with multiple collaborations with friends including local heroes Octavia Freud, Helen Pearson and Mark Restructure.
What’s your local music scene like?
Mostly it’s great. It’s often said that Oxford punches above its weight on terms of the acts it produces and I do still believe that to be true. It’s a shame that many of the venues in Oxford, many of which hosted acts but genuinely legendary Oxford bands over the years have had to close, partially due to outdated Oxford uni policies and procedures but it’s heartening to know that there are promoters and musicians still trying to make it work.
What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
More promo for this album, finishing off a couple of remixes and then finishing an album Helena Markou and I started months ago. Helena was the original singer with Tiger Mendoza and she contributed vocals to Not A Game as well so it’s been great connecting with her again.
Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Dave Grohl? Seriously though I LOVE collaborating with people so any singers / producers get in touch!
Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
Oh best one was when we did a gig at a pub in Oxford last summer and Tom from a band called Killer Kowalski was singing with us. Tom’s brilliant but occasionally gets a bit carried away on stage and threw some water up the air which went all over my laptop / keyboard rig. Cue slight panic about whether that was going to short everything! Turns out it didn’t, everything was fine but made finishing the set quite nerve wracking.
Do you have any upcoming live dates and performances?
Yes! The brilliant In A Different Place at The Bullingdon in Oxford on Sunday 14th December. Looking into a few things in the new year as well.
What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
Bear with me. I’ll get to it eventually.
You can find out more about Tiger Mendoza on their website or via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Threads, YouTube (channel) or YouTube Music. You can find out about upcoming gigs here.
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