SXSW Interviews: The Spook School
We all love SXSW right? Right? I’m assuming that anyone reading this site is a fan, but might need a little bit of help on deciding who to see during the festival. Not to worry, we here at ATH will help you out. The Spook School is one of those bands coming to town we feel like everyone should have on their must see list. To give you a better glimpse of the band, a few members answer our tough SXSW interview questions. Click the jump to see what they had to say.
ATH: There was a lot of hubbub last year concerning corporate sponsors and pay to play and what not at SXSW. As a band, what’s your reason for coming to play at the festival? What do you hope to get out of it?
SS: We just want to play to people and hope that some people will like our silly heartfelt queer pop songs. What do we hope to get out of it? To have a nice time and hopefully enable ourselves to come back to the US again and again and play for more people and have lots more fun.
ATH: For most SXSW sets, you get 30 minutes to leave a lasting impression. What’s your plan of attack? You have a set list mapped out yet?
SS:Our plan is just to be ourselves. Well be silly, well have fun and we will try and freak people out as much as we can. Set list wise we dont have it planned. Normally it changes gig to gig depending on how we feel. Maybe for SXSW we will have a plan! Oh my! A vaguely professional approach from The Spook School!? No way?!?
ATH: The festival caters to music fans, but food and booze are an important aspect of the fans and the bands. What’s your band’s food and beverage of choice?
SS:Were vegan so sorry to all those meaty Texas BBQs! A giant pack of nutritional yeast instead please. (Its AMAZING! It tastes way better than its name.) Drink-wise beer is always nice. The Natty Bo mascot looks like Niall so that would be cool. Nutritional yeast and Natty Bo!
ATH: There are tons of bands coming into town. Who would you ideally like to play with of the 1000s of bands gracing our city? Make your own optimal line-up.
SS:We really like what PWR BTTM are doing so to share a bill with them would be really cool. We have hung out a lot with the Expert Alterations and Wildhoney gang. They are always fun to watch and just to be around in general.
ATH: We are partial to SXSW obviously, but what festival do you feel is the best around?
SS:Theres a festival in Derbyshire in England set around a tiny railway station called Indietracks. Whether were playing or not we go every year. Theres a football match in the campsite in the morning, ace bands in the day and amazing indie-pop DJs at night. A lot of Buckfast is imbibed too!
ATH: Let’s say your band has been booked an official showcase at a pop up venue somewhere in the middle of 6th street. The lineup features thrash metal, hip-hop, spoken word, and you. The sound is horrible, the lineup is not your style, and the crowd seems angry at the world. How would your band deal with such a situation?
SS:Honestly we would love it. Theres something beautiful in playing really weird shows. We would probably all just play to each other. When we play together we always have fun and I think we would find it pretty entertaining playing an antagonistic show so far away from home!
ATH: What’s your favorite album to come out in the last year? What’s playing in the tour bus?
SS:We wish we had a tour bus. ha! When we borrow Nye & Adams parents honda jazz, the music usually consists mainly of One Direction, Icona Pop and Tegan and Sara. Its great. Choosing a favourite album of the last year is far too hard, theres been so many great albums. Its probably got to be Blackstar though, for so many reasons.
ATH: The digital age is upon us, like it or not. What are your band’s thoughts on streaming services like spotify, pandora, etc.? Blow em all up? Or embrace the future?
SS:Embrace the future. The easier it is for people to hear our music the better. If people want vinyl we will give them vinyl but we know that more and more people are streaming instead. No one would have ever heard us without the internet. And no one would have seen all those cute cat videos without the internet. Embrace the future. Embrace the cats.
Thanks again for giving us some time guys! Be sure to find The Spook School when they come to town in a few weeks.
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