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Exclusive: Indie rock veteran Spoon talks Texas roots and sitting next to Satan
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Hometown Texas: “We wanted to make this record in a place where we could be social, have barbeques, go see shows and take that energy to make a record with," Britt Daniel said. (Courtesy of Oliver Halfin/Oliver Halfin) (Courtesy of Oliver Halfin/Oliver Halfin)
T
he Texas indie rock outfit put aside their synthesizers to make a straight-up rock 'n roll record that owes nothing to Eric Clapton.
There’s no place like home. After more than a decade, the Indie rock veteran Spoon decided to go back to its hometown of Austin, Texas, the United States — where it formed in 1993 — to write and record its 10th studio album Lucifer on the Sofa (Matador Records). The record is somewhat of a return to the band’s older analog rock 'n roll sound but with more scuzz and blues-rock influences, giving it a certain feeling of nostalgia and swagger. Compared to the band’s last few offerings, They Want My Soul (2014) and Hot Thoughts (2017), which lean toward more programmed instrumentations and a modern synth-pop sound, Lucifer on the Sofa sounds almost like a different band if it wasn’t for Britt Daniel’s recognizable vocals.
Speaking exclusively to The Jakarta Post via Zoom on Jan. 27, Spoon’s frontman Britt Daniel explains why the band made a drastic change in its approach.
“Just so we wouldn’t be bored. I just looked around and felt there weren’t enough great rock 'n roll records being made,” Daniel said.
As the band was promoting its last album Hot Thoughts, which was written entirely in the studio, it discovered that the songs had become so much better after being performed live for several months.
“After we played “I Ain’t The One” on TV, I remember walking off the set and saying to the guys ‘I wish we had that version of that song before we recorded it because it sounds so much better now,’” he recalled. “So, let’s do the new record this way; let’s emphasize the band part of being in a band.”
