Taipei Houston are a new duo featuring brothers Myles and Layne Ulrich. If the last name sounds familiar, they’re the sons of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, but they’re quickly making a name for themselves.
On Friday, November 4th, Taipei Houston will release their debut project, Once Bit Never Bored, featuring the recent singles “As the Sun Sets” and “The Middle.” Like other duos before them — The White Stripes, Death From Above 1979, and Royal Blood, to name a few — the brothers Ulrich pack a lot of wallop into their songs, which have a garage-meets-grunge vibe.
Heavy Consequence caught up with Myles (drums, guitar) and Layne (vocals, bass) at the recent Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky, where they discussed Once Bit Never Bored, the two aforementioned singles, lessons they learned from watching their dad in Metallica all these years, and some of the music they grew up on.
As far as the band calling the nine-song Once Bit Never Bored a “project” rather than an album, Layne told us, “For us, we just wanted to … put the songs out there and show people what we got, and also kinda keep going.”
The pair also told us that, despite their admiration for two-member groups like The White Stripes and Death From Above 1979, it wasn’t necessarily their initial intention to make Taipei Houston a duo.
“Going into the project, we never really thought of ourselves as a duo,” said Myles. “Our idea was always, ‘Oh, we’re gonna write all these songs, and then we’re gonna get two or three more people to play them with.’ But just with COVID, and being two reclusive dudes, we were like … let’s just put together this stuff and play it with just … the two of us.” Myles added that they wouldn’t rule out bringing more people into the band in the future.
When it comes to growing up around their dad and Metallica, Myles said, “I think just being around it your whole life is a privilege. And getting to learn as much as you can from as many people as you can is a really cool thing. So, we’re really grateful for that.”
For more from Myles and Layne on those topics, as well as the music they listened to as kids, watch the full interview above. And pick up Taipei Houston’s debut project Once Bit Never Bored here.
Trouble viewing the interview in the video player above? Watch on YouTube.