Imagine being the frontman of one of the biggest pub rock and festival bands from Australia, recording a new album, planning for one of the biggest New Years Eve parties in Melbourne, and moving house… well one man has managed to cram all that in and that person is, well, Kram (excuse the terrible pun).
Even though things may have been a little quiet on the Spiderbait front, Kram assures us that there is plenty in the works for the New South Wales band.
“Well we’ve been making this new record which is the main thing, pretty much all year we’ve been writing,” he begins. “We’re doing it with a guy called Franc Tétaz who produced Gotye, Bertie Blackman, and Architecture In Helsinki. He’s been really good to work with and we’re just about to start recording.”
The trio’s last studio album was eight years ago, with Tonight Alright, which is quite the break but does this make it difficult experience to come up with some fresh grooves and get back into the swing of things? “No it’s been really great, there’s no shortage of material and Franc’s been great in helping to produce it a bit more and get it a little more developed,” says Kram.
“Plus the label has been really cool about it and it’s just great to be back in the zone again,” a zone which apparently you don’t forget about any time soon.
“You never really forget how to do that, the dynamic between all three of us has always been really strong. You do start to get a little impatient but I think generally it’s been a really productive period for us, we’re looking forward to next year and getting the new record out.”
“It’s the most prepared we’ve ever been, you know we’ve already got the songs ready to go which is quite different cause in the past we’ve just had a few tunes and then we’d just wing it,” Kram explains.“Gig wise the only thing we’ve sort of done this year has been Splendour In The Grass which was really great, one of our best ever gigs I think”
Another thing that Spiderbait is quite renowned for is their live shows for which they do put in a lot of energy and make it a whole lot of fun for the audience, however the fans would have noticed a certain lacking of gigs recently.
“Gig wise the only thing we’ve sort of done this year has been Splendour In The Grass which was really great, one of our best ever gigs I think,” reasons the drummer.
Bummer! If you didn’t make it to that then you have truly missed something unique. “Splendour is just a special gig you know, one of those things where you just look around and go ‘Wow, this is awesome’. We’ve had a lot of that at that festival over the years and festivals in general.”
“I mean we started off from going from this pub rock band to this festival band,” he continues, “which is a bit of a surprise to us considering what we were like in the early days, so it’s really great. The energy that the audience gives you at those big shows is incredible.”
Now as for any crazy stories from Splendour, Kram keeps pretty tight lipped about it but he does share a little tidbit. “Well we hung out with Tame Impala a bit, we sort of just found out that they were fans of ours and we were fans of them and they were really nice dudes so we had a few drinks.”
“I remember one of the guys saying they wanted to cover ‘Shazam’ so we were like ‘yeah do it’, and I really liked their song ‘Skeleton Tiger’. But there were a heap of people I knew and hung out with like Chris Muscles and the Wolfmother guys on the last day which was really chilled.”
“Festivals are really good for the social side, just hanging out in a mutual zone; I even got to meet Lana Del Rey which was pretty nice. It’s my favourite festival especially if it’s in Byron cause it’s kind of a local thing, but it’s a really great festival cause we’ve had so many great shows here we all feel so much at home so it was a really great special weekend and I had the most fun I’d had in a long time at a show.”
Now for those of you worried that you’ve missed Spiderbait’s only 2012 show, Kram sheds some light on what is to be another big show, on New Year’s Eve.
“About 5 years ago we played at the Espy which was our first pub show for a long long time in Melbourne, and they asked us to do it again and were like ‘yep, that sounds great’,” Kram explains simply.
“Plus playing a show a week before going in to record is great especially cause there’s an element of Melbourne in the songs. So yeah we just thought doing a little show would be a really great way of kicking things off and we just wanted it to be a party and have a good time.”
Playing a show before entering the studio, you might assume Spiderbait will play some new material for the lucky punters in attendance, “there might be a few new songs but we don’t really prepare for our shows that much,” Kram reveals.
“We might learn a few new tunes and chuck them into the set, we’re fairly spontaneous when we come to gigs, we just turn up and whatever we feel like, that’s what we go with. Knowing the Espy, it should be a classic kind of punky show because the sounds you create at a pub show are very different to that of a festival for example.”
“There’s lots of space at a festival and you tend to run around and do all this showmanship stuff whereas with a pub show you just put your head down and play rock ‘n’ roll, that’s what we’ll do and it’ll be awesome fun,” he says.“It’s never felt like a job or a chore for us; it’s just purely enjoyment and kicking arse…”
This will not be the first time the band have played a big New Year’s show, having played the Pyramid Rock Festival the year before, but do they get sick of playing these big events year after year? “No, I love playing it! I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s Eve and most musicians are the same but we really love those big shows.”
“If we weren’t doing those big shows and festivals,” he continues, “I don’t know if we’d still be doing it, and it keeps the public’s interest … People see you play a show like Splendour and then they’re talking about you again and six months before nobody was, so that’s one of the reasons why we like it and also it’s just such an electric atmosphere and so exciting to be up there…that’s the main reason and you never want to give that up.”
On the topic of ‘giving that up’, what a good opportunity to ask Kram about how much longer Spiderbait can endure.
“Well the reporter before asked me if the new album was looking forward or looking back and being sentimental and I don’t really know man, we kinda live in the present.”
Kram continues, “I mean I know there’s some sentimental elements about looking back at our lives and stuff but we don’t really have big long term plans, we never have, we just have fun doing what we’re doing at the time and I think we’re just trying to prove that we’re still around and relevant.”
“We don’t set ourselves up to do anything other than what were actually doing and I always look at gigs like that. It’s like we don’t even really prepare for them, we sit in the back of the band room and chat and walk on stage in front of thousands of people and just surprise and then you just go about your business,” explains the drummer.
“It’s never felt like a job or a chore for us; it’s just purely enjoyment and kicking arse… We’ll probably all the festivals next summer, that would be the plan but let’s just get the album done… we’re doing our Melbourne session in January and then in February I go to Byron for the second session before going to LA in March. I think the middle of next year will be the most likely time with a single out before then, that’s our plan, hopefully by next April.”
So there you have it Spiderbait fans, plenty of new music and gigs on the way.
Spiderbait play Melbourne’s The Espy at New Year’s with Something For Kate, Dune Rats, Hunting Grounds, Gold Fields, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Murlocs, Regular John, and Kingswood. Full details here.
