Crowdsurf & Turf Meets: Spice.
When we heard Spice’s self-titled debut album we knew we had to get them onto our site. Formed in 2018 and based across California, each members’ roots are in the North Bay of San Francisco. Spice’s sound pulls from the sense of melody and drive inherent to Bay Area pedigree peppered with modernity and awash with an anthemic haze.
Spice played one live show together before 2020 really decided to take a turn. We caught up with Lead singer Ross Farrar to talk about their tumultuous year and discuss one of the most enthralling debut album releases we’ve heard in a while.
Congratulations on an incredible debut album. How long has this album been in progress for? What brought the members of SPICE together for this release?
We started writing songs in 2017.
Friendship. All of us have a strong connection to each other. When we get together there is a very serious vibration that whizzes through the room. We enjoy spending time and making art and really just shooting the shit.
You’ve had a very unconventional start to a band. Playing one live show then a global pandemic hit and that was just the start of what this year had to throw at us. Has the way the band began affected you or given you a different outlook on SPICE?
Yes, it has been difficult. In once sense, it has given us a different perspective on life as we know it. There has been a perversion of freedom here in America. Still, there are places all over the world where large civilizations are socially and spiritually bound. Women have zero rights. People are cold and starving, and here we are boasting about how much freedom we have as if laughing in the faces of those who are less fortunate than we are. As Americans, we’ve gotten used to the stock definition of freedom, whether it’s in direct relation to roaming the earth freely, sexual freedom, free speech, or just the regular act of going outside and breathing the air (an inherent human freedom). We are now subjected to serious boundaries, and I think it’s forcing us to rethink how we live. In the act of rethinking, compassion has taken centre stage. We care more about where we stand, where we’re stepping, how we affect other people. This slowing down is a good thing for all of us. As for making music, and playing shows, it’s not ideal, but we are willing to sacrifice it to better social consciousness as a whole.
In your Rough Trade performance, you honestly shared that it has been “a very hard year”, how have you all coped with the hardships you’ve faced this year?
Well, on top of struggles we have faced with Covid19, there are the atrocious acts that have been continually committed against Black people in America and the endless repeating of police brutality that haunts the country. We want accountability for the corrupt, justice, for people of power to be rudely humbled by what is currently happening in our world. With that, we had a band member, RJ Phillips pass away a few months ago, so that was heavy on my mind.
The video for “All My Best Shit” is dedicated to RJ Phillips. We send our love to him and his family & friends.
Can you tell me the importance of the North Bay/Bay Area music scene to you and how you feel about it?
It is our home. It was the scene of music that brought us to where we are today. Most of the people in the band have been playing with each other or have been in cahoots with each other for over fifteen years-plus. We all came from the punk / hardcore music and remain in, and around that world. This is just a rendition of that.
What/Who influences you both sonically and within your lyrics?
Musically the list grows each day. To name a few: Guided by Voices, Fugazi, The Flaming Lips, The Fall, Urinals. As far as lyrics go, I currently really enjoy what Cate le Bon and Tim Presley have created, as well as Amen Dunes. Lyricists from the past may include: Lou Reed, David Bowie, Steve Ignorant / Penny Rimbaud–who ever did the CRASS stuff.
What is your usual songwriting process? Did you write each song with the album in mind as the end goal?
I (Ross) was living in Syracuse finishing a grad program, while the band was writing songs back in California. They’d send me an early version, and I sit down in my little chamber in the HBC building at Syracuse University, where it was twenty below at times, and do a little humming, trying to come up with an interesting pattern, harmony, etc. I knew I wanted to somehow intertwine the songs, or have a single thread that ran throughout the album, but wasn’t sure exactly what that was. In the studio, we compiled a bunch of different iPhone recordings we’d collected over time and used them in various songs. People have said the record has a “home recording” feeling to it.
The album was recorded at Panda Studios in Fremont, California with producer Sam Pura. What made you want to work with Sam and record at Panda Studios in particular?
We knew he’d make something big sounding out of what we had. We wanted our first release to sound full and robust, so Sam was the guy to do that. Our music is a bit poppy and he has had a lot of experience with big, poppier sounding bands, so he was our go-to.
How can people listen to and support you?
Bandcamp is a great alternative. They treat their artists wonderfully and have a great track record for philanthropic causes.
What can we expect next from SPICE?
We are currently in the process of writing our 2nd LP. We’re not entirely sure how long it will take and when it is to appear in the world, but we’re very excited for what we’ve produced so far. As for touring and playing shows, who knows; it could be six months, it could be a year, it could go on and on–unfortunately.