Interview, The Spikes

Posted on September 2, 2009 by Paul Murphy

There’s a bit of a buzz in the Spikes‘ camp at the moment, an injection of energy from new management and the the band’s latest release We Are.. an EP to give fans a preview of how the band have captured their renowned live sound on record, in the follow-up to their full-length debut Urges and Purges.
As everything goes full throttle and the band prepare to take the Academy by storm for this September’s Phantom First Friday, vocalist Tom Dunne jumps out of the rehearsal room for an excited chat about  recording with James Morrison‘s producer Mark Reddy and reveals a new album is already in the pipeline.

Drop-d: Are you looking forward to Friday night in the Academy?

Tom: Absolutely yeah, fucking hell, we’ve a new guitar player joining the band, you know and his first unveiling will be Friday night in the Academy so we’re just getting him up to speed, well he’s up to speed now, we’re just perfecting the set now, it’s sounding ace, we’re buzzin’.
Finally, guitar, still going through some lead stuff, just sort of like makes it more like the album and EP, you know when you layer tracks and tracks of guitar you can’t really do that live unless you have all the musicians so yeah, new guitar player joining the band. A man by the name of Paul Hogan.

Drop-d: Tell us about the new EP We Are…it just came out last week?

Tom: Yeah on Friday, it’s available as a digital download, we’re holding out for a distribution deal, in a few talks with some people this week. We recorded it out in Malahide with a guy called Mark Reddy. He’s worked with the Blizzards, he did a lot of the pre-production stuff on James Morrison‘s album, he’s done some work with the Cure, and stuff like that, he’s been around for a long time. We were put in touch with him, he’s a genius, incredible, he comes down to all our rehearsals now and records all our rehearsals and stuff like that and gets all our levels right. He’s completely joined the family of the Spikes.

Fuckin’ hell, you’ve got a great sound, a great look why the hell aren’t you doing more?

Drop-d: It says on your website that working with him has put the fuel back in the fire, how has he helped reignite the band?

Tom: The live sort of element has always been sort of raw and edgy and on the first album we didn’t really feel we captured that. It was a little too produced maybe, we’re not entirely sure how. As soon as we started working with Mark all that sort of edgy, that rawness, the balls in the music he just got that sound, he captured it. The difference between the new EP and the album is just significantly brilliant. Not that we’re not proud of the album in any way it’s just it probably didn’t come across as what we would do live. A lot of people have said that they have listened to the album and that we don’t sound anything like that live. So finally we’ve captured the live ethos on record, which can be very hard to do, I guess we were a bit naive on the first album, going down to the studio ourselves.

Drop-d: Reddy’s worked with the Blizzards and James Morrison but I’m sure most music fans out there would put you in a completely different vein to those two.

Tom: I’m just saying those are the people that he’s worked with, recently. We’re nothing like James Morrison, we certainly have a lot of respect for what he’s doing as an artist. Mark has worked the Blizzards, but the main guy he’d done work with before we met him was James Morrison. He plays guitar himself and he’s a bit of a metalhead, you know? He just loved the sound of the music, he came and saw us play live and said that he wanted to do it. He’s a genius man, he can fucking do anything. He has the ability to do all genres.

Drop-d: Why did you choose to make an EP instead of another full-length?

we always get them into it and have them leaving happy

Tom: The reason the EP was done was Patrick O’Leary, our new manger, came in around April, he saw us in Music Maker and we weren’t really going very very far at the time ourselves. He just said: “Fuckin’ hell, you’ve got a great sound, a great look why the hell aren’t you doing more?” We had no one to develop the band so he took us on and developed us and he wanted to get something out so he got us in touch with Mark. We did a three-song EP and we’ve done maybe like half the pre-production on the new album. The problem was the last time we recorded the album, we didn’t gig man. We spent a year and a half just doing fucking recording and we kind of just went away. Almost like on a hiatus from the live stage. So now we’re not going to make that mistake again. So a lot of pre-production is finalised and we’re working on the album while we’re going to be gigging so hopefully it will be done by the end of the year. We’re going to release it in the start of the new year, we should have it all done by the end of the year. So there is a new full-length coming. The EP was to get out the new sound, it’s been received very well, been getting some good reviews. We rehearse three nights a week, one night for gigs, and two for the album. Pat has brought a complete professional focus to the whole thing from rehearsing and getting everybody there to even how we appear on stage, an all-black image kind of thing.

Drop-d: You blow people away with your live set, you must thrive on audience reaction?

Tom: We’d be the kind of band that will make you dance no matter where you stand. That’s always been our element. From a live point of view we don’t stand still, we don’t hide behind our instruments. I don’t play guitar on stage at all, which is perfect, I completely integrate that kind of classic frontman’s job moving all the way around, interacting with the crowd, just giving it fucking loads. There’s a visual sort theatrical element ot the set and then the music is driving. There are bands out there with frontmen but there’s not many out there in the current Irish music scene who are doing it, getting the audience involved. Our music wouldn’t be in the indie vein, we’re more on the classic rock side so I think that helps get people going. All the gigs, festivals and stuff we always get them into it and have them leaving happy.

Drop-d: As you said there’s more professionalism coming to the band, do you now have to hold back on stage and not just be fueled by adrenaline, are you more focused on how you let loose?

Tom: It used to be completely adrenaline -fuelled, in that regard it can work and there were one or two times where it just got over the top. I’ve cut back a little on the antics on stage and delivered the vocal more, and then there’s particular points in some of the songs where I can dance around without going completely fucking nuts and making a fool of myself. Plus, we’ve completely cut out drinking before playing now and that’s definitely helped. We’ve definitely not shifted toward choreography or anything. It’s not as in you face with some crazy guys jumping around the place, the vocal is delivered more now because it’s part of the music. I used to be out of breath and everything from jumping around and trying to sing. We’ve definitely becoming more structured but without losing any of the impact.

The Spikes play Phantom First Friday this Friday 4th September in the Academy, it’s free in before 10pm.

The Spikes Official Site

The Spikes on MySpace

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Tags: Mark Reddy, Patrick O'Leary, Paul Hogan, phantom first friday, The Academy, the spikes, Tom Dunne, We Are...