Q&A with Kram, Spiderbait – February 2015

Shane | 6 February 2015 | Reply

Q&A with Kram, Spiderbait – February 2015
By Shane Pinnegar

SPIDERBAIT play The Melbourne Zoo Twilight Series on Saturday, 21 February, 2015 with support from Jen Cloher

How has the band changed as the venues and frequency you play have?

Touring the new record last year, doing our own shows in 1000 cap venues was a great experience for us because we had the time to play sets over 2hrs.

We’ve not had the opportunity to do that very much recently as we’ve been playing mostly festivals. Playing songs, new as well as old in different ways is very rewarding and fun. Lot’s of jamming. We love that.

How about the crowd – are gigs as wild as they used to be, and do you miss some of that free-for-all?

There’s still plenty of free for all but guys seem to have settled down a bit which is a good thing. It’s no fun seeing girls getting bashed in the face. Generally speaking the crowds have always been good to us. We’re very lucky in that sense.

We saw you in Perth last year and it certainly seemed like the tracks from your latest self-titled album went down as well as the old stuff. There must be an absolute confidence among the three of you in your material, both new and old?

Everyone in the band needs to be into the material we’re playing otherwise it just doesn’t come off well. It shows and it feels fraudulent when playing material you don’t believe in. We love what we do and doing it together.

Have you got plans to do it again and make another album?

We’ve always taken one album at a time, [but] I hope so.

As Aussie rock royalty, how do the three of you plan to handle the band’s legacy over the coming years?

We consider ourselves very lucky that we can still do this and more and more amazed that we have been able to do it for so long. We’re grateful.

Spiderbait are reknowned for your eclecticism. Can you give us five albums that epitomise the different influences on the band’s sound and attitude, and tell us what they mean to you?

1.Metallica-Kill em All-Great energy and groove. Sounds like it means it.
2.Pink Floyd-Dark Side Of The Moon.Great sound scapes and a less is more approach to songwriting.
3.Beatles-Revolver. Enough said.
4.The Police-Regatta De Blanc. Good songs and great musicianship.
5.Ween-Chocolate and Cheese. Great songs with humour.
6.Pixies-Surferosa. All over the place, you never quite know what you’re getting but it’s always interesting.