The Spinto Band
The Spinto Band are back with their brand new album Shy Pursuit - which is their first record since Slim and Slender EP back in 2009.
And over the last few weeks the boys have been playing a sting of shows here in the UK, mush to the delight of their fans.
I caught up with lead singer Nick Krill to chat about the shows, the album and setting up their own record label.
- You played London 02 Islington Academy and Ruby Lounge in Manchester last this week so how did those shows go?
They have been great, so far so good. It has been really fun and it is really exiting to be back in Europe as our European fans are more excited that our U.S. fans (laughs).
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question really I was wondering how you have you found being back in the UK and being in front of a UK live audience?
It was really good. It was strange as we haven’t been here in about three and a half years or so - it doesn’t seem like that long but when you think about it it is a really long time.
So we were a little nervous about how we would be received returning after such a long time but so far it is has been really great. There have been a lot of great fans out and they have been really enthusiastic so it has made all the shows really fun.
- You have a new album Shy Pursuit so how has the new material been going down with fans at gigs?
I think it has been pretty good - in the London shows some people were singing along to the new stuff so that was exciting.
But at the same time I feel like it is a classic case of people being more familiar with the old stuff - it is always more exciting to hear the song that they listen to rather than a new song; even if they do end up liking the new song better.
- As I said the new album is on the horizon so what can fans expect from the new collection of tracks?
It is a fun collection of tracks and we recorded the entire thing in our own studio that we set up back in our home town - we also produced the record ourselves.
We kind of went back to some of our old… back when we use to record in the basement as kids we tried to summon some our old collaborative processes from back when we were kids.
We did a lot more fun exploring because we were all on our own time and we weren’t constrained by any studio time and I think that has made the tracks, for me, more collaborative than our past tracks.
Typically a Spinto Band song can a pretty dense arrangement, on Moonwink there was an emphasis on doing intricate arrangements with a lot of instruments but this album is the opposite.
The arrangements are sparser and rather there being an emphasis on musical arrangement there is more of an emphasis on the sound of the recording; so maybe we have taken a step towards sound becoming more part of the arrangement rather than musical parts.
- You have said that you recorded the album in your own studio and produced it all yourselves so why did you decide to go back to that process? And how do you feel the music has benefited from doing it all yourselves?
The main reason that we decided to back to that was because everyone felt the urge to get back to the way that we use to work when we were kids. For the first six or seven years of the band it was always us just playing around in the basement on four tracks - we did that all the way throughout high school.
We went on to do two studio albums as our professional career took off so it is weird and it almost seems like more of our recording time was actually the old way of doing it ourselves and then these two studio albums came about.
So I kind of felt that everyone had a little urge to go back to our old way of working just for a change of pace and it felt comfortable.
We built a recording studio in our hometown and it sort of freed up our time and our schedules so that we could also do a lot more recording projects for other things besides the band as well - we did a few film soundtracks as well. We wanted to go our own recording route just to free up our own recording lives in a way.
Being on our own in our own space and on our own time and with just each other I felt that other band members who had not been very vocal in the other recording process before they opened up and had more ideas; it became a lot more collaborative.
I think that that collaboration on the tracks was huge because you could be plugging away at something and just a side comment from one of the other guys can spur a brand new idea. There was a lot a more open environment to share those ideas definitely impacts the songs.
The guitar player Joe Hobson who hadn’t written a song for the band contributed his first song and that has now become one of our favourite songs on the record - that in itself it an amazing outcome of this idea.
- It is your first record since Slim and Slender back in 2009 so what have you been up to in that time?
We have been working on a lot of film soundtracks so we did the original score for a documentary called Biba; it is about an island in the South Pacific and their election process.
We also did the soundtrack for another movie called The Beast Pageant which is a feature length film by some friends of ours so we contributed music to that as well.
- How did you find stepping into the world of the movie soundtrack? Is it completely different to writing your own music?
Yeah, I think it is a different process for sure. Specifically when worked on the Biba documentary it was interesting to find that some ways that you think about song would not work at all in the content of the visual.
When we are writing pop music the whole idea is that it is meant for listening and it should hit the listener in the head and there is a story to tell.
But in the movies it is almost the opposite the 90% of the time the music is atmosphere and background and it will occasionally become the focus.
So it is different to think about a song that is not going to take centre stage so it was a challenge as the way that we would usually compose something would completely distract from the visual so we would have to reign that back and think of a more ambient background that wouldn’t fight with the visual.
- Going back to the album how does the music on this record compare to record that you have put out in the past?
The previous two albums had a lot of emphasis on arrangements and so there was a lot over dubs and a lot of different musical instruments all puzzle piecing together and that was the challenge we put to ourselves.
But the challenge we put to ourselves on this album was more about creating as unique a sound as we could and letting the sounds take up more of the space in the songs rather than letting another instrument take up that space.
So I think that is the significant audio difference. And then, as I have mentioned, there was a lot more collaboration and stuff like that.
- And how have you found the response to the album so far?
So far so good. I am really happy because all of our friends and people who have been fans of the band for a long time still really love it - that is priority one I guess.
I am not sure that it will have as wide a reaching effect as Nice and Nicely Done - who knows if it will catch on like that - but so far I am happy with the response and people have been enjoying it.
- And I was reading that you are putting your own record label together so why have you decided to go down this path?
Yeah this album will be the first release for our label in the U.S. As we sat down to think about the best way to release the album it became clear that if we weren’t really happy with some of the people who were working on the record label and it was just like ‘why not give it a go ourselves?’
So it was a way to cut out a middleman that was there in the past. We are certainly less experienced at this kind of work than someone who has been released records for a long time but it has been an interesting learning experience and has been pretty positive so far.
- When you release something on your own label you have a greater amount of creative freedom and control so how have you found that aspect?
The greater amount of control is both a blessing and a curse. It is great to have that creative control, we have been a hands on band forever, and it was exciting but it also means that you have the not so creative work to do as well such as emailing distributors and making decisions on not fun things.
Along with a lot of fun and creative stuff comes a lot of weird… it feels like I am in an office cubicle punching in data and replying a million different people and trying to co-ordinate un-fun things. So that side of it all is not as fun (laughs) but on the whole it is a positive.
- While the label is very much in its early stages is it just something that you will release your own music on or are you looking to get other bands and artist signed up and involved?
I think, certainly for the time being, it will just be our own stuff as with all of the extra none-creative work it is a pretty big undertaking.
I don’t think any of us feel like we have the time or the skills to put that towards other artists just yet. So we will use ourselves as guinea pigs I guess and then we will take it in our stride as we go forward.
- Finally what is next for you going into 2013? Are we going to be seeing you playing any more shows over here in the UK?
I hope so. We are actually just finishing a brand new LP that will be out in the States in early 2013 and hopefully in Europe a little soon after that.
We are already talking about coming back to Europe in February - I don’t know if we will end up in the UK but we are going to try. Hopefully it won’t be another three years until we are back.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw