Spoon are an Austin band who've been playing around Austin for about two years now, and why they aren't more well-known or signed is beyond me. They currently perform as a trio (Britt Daniel on guitar and vocals, Jim Eno on drums, and Andy Maguire on bass), and are scheduled to play Lollapalooza's third stage when the festival appears in Austin shortly (assuming that everybody doesn't defect from it or get thrown in jail before then -- they seem to be having massive personnel problems on the Lolla tour this year, judging from the news i read). Britt Daniel was kind enough to fill us in on the details:
DA: When/how/why did the band get started?
BD: I started thinking about putting together the band in summer of 1993. I wanted to put together a punk band. Of course most people don't think we're a punk band now but that's what I was thinking about: a punk band with well-written songs. Once I got Wendel Stivers from Sincola to agree to be our lead guitar player, everything came together and we had our first practice and recording session in October of 1993. I wanted this band to be about good, short songs, to sort-of answer your "why" question.
DA: There's only been one lineup change, right? What happened there?
BD: Once Sincola started to really take off (like around January to March of 1994 when their RISE EP came out and everybody started creaming over them at SXSW) Wendel's interest in Spoon waned dramatically. That really pissed me off and made me uptight because I thought he was a great guitar player and I really liked him as a dude. I thought he was cool. Plus I didn't have confidence that I could be the only guitar player in the band. Anyway, he finally told us he wanted to start to be phased out of the band in May and he was supposed to be in it for another three months or something, but I just said fuck that and we told him he was out immediately. I'm so glad he did quit though, because we're a lot better band now.
DA: Has the band's sound changed significantly in light of Wendel's departure?
BD: The live sound has. It's a lot more up-front and simple.
DA: How does the band approach songwriting?
BD: I write the songs at home then bring them in to practices, for the most part. There have been some exceptions, I guess.
DA: What about playing live? Have you had to rework any of the material, esp. now that you're playing as a trio?
BD: Yeah, we dropped a couple songs and basically I had to do a lot of practicing to be able to play my new parts, some of which were the parts that Wendel had been playing. It also meant that I couldn't get ripped before shows because I would just totally blow it. I just couldn't play some of those parts. But now I can get drunk safely because I've become a better player.
DA: I get the feeling you have a lot of new wave/80s punk records in your collection... where exactly is the band coming from musically?
BD: I don't know. I usually write songs by trying to cop something I like about another song. Like I like how it's arranged or how there's the same riff throughout the song that just gets louder or quieter or whatever, and so I come up with a song that's got that same element. Bands that I have ripped off in this way are like early Police (a LOT), PJ Harvey, The Pixies, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Sixteen Deluxe, Nirvana, Jonathon Richman...
DA: There's a lot paranoia in the lyrics (a good thing!) -- are you guys just naturally morbid?
BD: Really? Do you think there's paranoia? I think that's cool if you do, but I have never thought about that. I think I am a bit morbid, or at least naturally not a happy person. I like to hang out with girls who are real confident and happy in order to offset me, for instance.
DA: What do you think about Austin as a scene? Do you think it's as good as everybody claims or is it overrated or what?
BD: Well, who claims it's good? Certainly not many folks, naturally. I think we dudes who live here know that there's a lot of good things happenning as far as the Kids' music is concerned. Like underground music, or whatever you want to call it. But as far as recognition from outside of Austin (at least from what I read about), all you ever hear about is Jimmy Bob Joe Bob singer songwriters or the latest Stevie Ray Vaughan clones. Maybe a couple recent exceptions have been Sincola and Sixteen Deluxe. But I think Austin DOES have a great scene right now. I have this list of bands written down in my datebook that I have for whenever I'm booking a show and someone'll ask me -- who do you want to play with. And I just looked at that list the other day and thought to myself, Fuck, there's just so many great bands here. Right now my list says: Pork, Glorium, Euripides Pants, Prescott Curlywolf, Teen Titans, Sincola, Motards, Sixteen Deluxe, Lowbrow, Magneto USA, Big Drag, Tx Instruments, Damn Nations, Miss Universe, Sons of Hercules, Dropouts, Sidehackers, Stretford, Orange Mothers, Hollowbody, Inhalants, Cotton Mather, Wannabes, Gomez, Flying Saucers, Hormones, 14 5s, Covers, Crown Heights, Exploding Muppet Men, Million Sellers. That's so many cool bands, and there are a lot more that I just haven't thought to write down there like Starfish or Enduro. I at least like ALL of those bands. Some of them I think are truly great bands. Plus there's so many bands that are probably great but I just haven't ever seen or heard because they're involved in different crowds or whatever like Wounded Turkey or the Dead End Cruisers or Wookie. So no, I don't think Austin is overrated at all.
DA: Has the band had the opportunity to play outside of Austin at all?
BD: Yes, we've played a little around Texas and we've also played a couple times in the NE United States, like very brief minitours that we did just to stir up interest and for the fun of flying up there and hanging out.
DA: What's your favorite place to play in Austin?
BD: The Hole in the Wall is pretty great because the sound is always good and it's easy to pack. They don't give you any free drinks though.
DA: I understand you've been tapped to play third stage at Lolla -- how did that come about? Is it just for the Austin date?
BD: Somebody sent them a tape and then said, hey I got you on at Lollapalooza on the third stage and I said, that's cool. We're only playing the one in Austin.
DA: What's the story on the new album?
BD: We've recorded it and are now handing out rough mixes and trying to find somebody to put it out. We did it on 8-track analogue at John Croslin's house with him producing.
DA: What are Spoon's plans for the future?
BD: Hopefully to put out good records on a good record label.