Spring Offensive Interview July 2011-07-27
By: Liane Escorza
In preparation to their performance at Truck Festival this past weekend, we had a word with Spring Offensive, a quintet from Oxford making fresh cutting indie pop with strokes of post rock’s raw edges. They are slowly but steadily becoming a must-see at summer festivals, and are eager to follow up with a UK tour coinciding with the recording of their first record.
You’ll be playing at a few key festivals and venues this summer. I was discussing with another band from Oxford called Ute the politics of live performance and how, even if you’d love to play as many times as you like, it is not advisable to do so in your hometown for fear of over-saturation, and the same goes when it comes to other places around the country. Basically, you have to be selective and think strategically… what do you think of this?
Matt: Yes, the difference is if you’re doing it for yourself or not. It’s good up to a point to play and practice, that’s how you gauge how songs go down. We put two new songs into the biggest gig we played at the time, the BBC Introducing night at the O2 –which in retrospective was a bit of an error, we should’ve done that on a one song basis in smaller venues to judge how people respond– but anyway, I’m not convinced of the benefit of playing to yourself and to the loyal few… it can become quite a struggle if you choose that option when introducing new songs.
So your long-term plans are to become pretty successful with this, right?
Matt: Yes, absolutely. I mean, Oxford is massively important to us but we want to jump out into the open.
Lucas: Yes, now in Oxford we choose which ones we want to do. We try to do the ones that are really interesting and the ones where we know people want to see us, because a lot of our fans are here. We’re doing one at the Ashmolean Museum on the 5th August and it’s a pin drop night where the audience has to be completely silent…
Theo and Pelham: Yeessss!!!!! (in delight)
Are they allowed to cough? It drives me crazy when I go to the theatre and suddenly the whole audience has the flu?!
Matt: That’s the air conditioning… (laughs)
Yeah, it must be when the scene gets controversial or sexual and they can’t handle it…
Matt: Yeah, our music is quite controversial and definitely sexual…. Yeah (laughter).
But, going back to your question… we do have a person that tells us what gig to take or not. We often disagree but we’re lucky to have him because he’s right more often than not and it’s important to have an outside opinion. We’re keen to hear what other ideas people have to offer. It can get very insular and we can get very stubborn…
Am I right in describing your music as gentle? There is anger but I don’t feel aggression… though maybe this is just my opinion. What would you say you sound is like?
Lucas: That’s interesting because people take different things from it. I think it’s quite gentle but also quite angry as well, definitely and sometimes that doesn’t necessarily come across. It depends on how open you are in interpreting things, I guess. We put a lot of ourselves into our songs. There is a fair amount of anger and a fair amount of understated gentleness.
Theo: There are bits where people can get quite sweaty but we also like the moments when we get complete silence. That’s why we’re looking forward to that pin drop gig because it’s great to make people listen to you like that. The band Low famously used to turn the music down when people weren’t listening to them and we don’t quite do that but it’s such a cool idea.
Matt: We tend to play chilled out gigs but most of our songs start quite angrily and then over time they become slightly more mellow and relaxed. In our writing process we try to remove ourselves from it so we don’t get too carried away.
How do you find the balance or the right way to fit your lyrics into your music then?
Matt: I think the lyrics are the most important bit for us. And then it gets to the point where if we don’t get the music to match it, then it loses all power and weight. Yeah, if the music doesn’t work with it, then the lyrics may have the opposite effect. We like bands with strong vocal narratives.
Lucas: We want to get a personal engagement with the listener as well. We can write something which says something to somebody literally. It may not happen all the time but if you do touch someone with your lyrics, you make them more interested in the music too. Or it could be developed from a single image like we did with ‘Every Coin’; with this idea of exploring someone being force-fed money and we found people would take it in so many other ways… yet lyrics are a hook as much as any music is.
What makes make your music different, so much so that it’ll make me want to listen to it and want to buy your record?
Theo: Short of having a mandolin player or an acrobat (laughter), it’s hard to pinpoint a set of things that differ or makes us stand out. It’s also very hard to tell what it is from inside and it’s also something that is constantly being negotiated, in our minds…
Lucas: We’re probably not as good with the arrangements. We struggle a bit with those but we get there eventually…
Matt: The dream is to have a set of songs whereby when you listen to them you’re able to say, yeah, that’s a Spring Offensive song. It doesn’t mean of course that it has to sound the same, but it has to be unique I guess….
But I reckon it is a combination of all elements, instruments, structure of music, pace, emphasis on lyrics… definitely the lyrics…
Lucas: My voice!? (laughter)
Theo (directed to me): I bet this is not what you wanted to hear…?
Matt (joining): Yeah, it’s a tricky question. Now you’ll say, ‘Nope, wrong answer!’ (laughter)
You’re playing Underage Festival and Truck … what do you feel is different between festivals and playing your own gig or act in a regular venue?
Theo: In festivals you do get people to see you that may never have heard of you before. It’s a walking crowd that you wouldn’t get at the Academy or something so that’s liberating because no one has prejudices and that sort of thing.
Lucas: At the end of the day… –THAT is a boring thing to say! (laughter) I’ll rephrase… let’s say ‘What it comes down to’– a gig is a gig is a gig is a gig, I mean in that we just want to play to the best of or ability. Like every band, we adapt depending on what the crowd is like. We change what we do even in a subconscious level.
Pelham: I don’t think we are, however, much of a festival band… which kind of answers the previous question. I’d like to think that our music lends itself that way, where people will wander to our tent to see us. Yet I wouldn’t ask people having fun in the field to come and listen to us…
Matt: Ha. We’re aiming for the people that are having a baaaadd time (laughter).
Pelham: We’re miserable and we can sympathise with them! We’re not a sunny ‘day’ type of band…
So what time are you playing then?
Matt: 11pm! Nighttime! So that’s great! (laughter) So on the 5th August we’re playing at night at the Ashmolean and that same day we go to the Underage Festival and play at 11am… which looks like the same time so we don’t have to worry (laughter).
Lucas: We’re first playing for kids and then we move on to a place surrounded by really really really old aged sculptures… mummified figures…
Theo: Wooohhooo
Matt: We like that environment though. We played in a church recently; that was great…
Pelham: The acoustics are amazing. Yes, more churches please!
Like the Union Chapel…
Matt: In my head we were playing at the Union Chapel (laughter)
Lucas: And then a couple of hours later we played in O’Neills, hmmpf… and a gurning man proceeded to tell me for half an hour exactly what we were doing wrong and why and how he was going to make us millions of pounds. I haven’t heard from him. He did take my number so if he’s reading…send me a text.
Matt: Yeah! Get in touch!
The First of Many Dreams About Monsters by springoffensive
Artists in this article: Spring Offensive