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MAE AND THE SPILL CANVAS SWOOP DOWN ON OCEAN AVENUE
One of the summer's hottest tours, Mae and The Spill Canvas,
hits the Stone Pony on Wednesday, August 16. With sales of
their album The Everglow topping 130,000, Mae brings their
Multisensory Aesthetic Experience back to the club after a successful
stop on Ocean Avenue last October. The band has worked hard enough
building their audience and on supporting slots with Foo Fighters,
Yellowcard and Weezer to make this tour one of the summer’s hottest
tickets and their next album one the most anticipated releases of 2007.
Joining Mae on tour is Sioux Falls, South Dakota's The Spill Canvas.
After that band's lead singer and songwriter Nick Thomas released
Sunsets and Car Crashes in 2004 as a studio acoustic project, The
Spill Canvas evolved into a full band and embarked on a constant touring
schedule, including stints with Motion City Soundtrack and Straylight
Run. Now releasing One Fell Swoop as their first effort
with the full band, the band continues to have success. The album
has sold almost 50,000 copies to date and the high-profile tour with Mae
should only help to continue to build their audience and earn the band
more new fans. The Newsletter interviewed the band's drummer, Joe
Beck, about the tour and the new album, as well as the video for their
track "Staplegunned," which has received airplay on mtvU.
The Stone Pony: Your upcoming show at the Pony is part of a big national tour with
Mae. How was that tour put together and what are some of your thoughts as
you've played the first few gigs?
Joe Beck: Well, most of us have been big Mae fans for a long time and we had
made it known to our booking agent that we'd love to tour with them.
When we found out they were touring this fall, we tried as hard as we
could to get on the tour. The first few shows have been amazing. Mae is
seriously the nicest group of guys in the world.
The Stone Pony: In late August, you'll be returning home for a show in South
Dakota. Can you talk a bit about the local music scenes there? Where are some of the
places that have the best live music and what advice would you give to
bands in your old scene who want to break out nationally?
JB: There really isn't much of a scene in South Dakota. Most of the
venues are either going out of business or are too big/expensive to
hold shows there on a regular basis. Therefore, it affects the number
of bands that will get out and play shows. My advice to those bands
would be to just get out and tour like crazy and get your name known.
It's the only way to do it.
The Stone Pony: The video for "Staplegunned" was recently featured on mtvU. Did
the band enjoy making the video and how involved were you in coming up with the
concept? How many takes did it take to come up with the performance
footage of the band?
JB: Yeah, it was definitely a fun video to make. We were on tour at the
time and before a show we got up really early and shot all of the
footage. The video company gave us five or six treatments, or plots, for
the video that we were able to choose from. It actually didn't take
that long to get the performance shots. The longest part was just
figuring out all the different camera angles that we wanted to use.
It was definitely fun though.
The Stone Pony: When TSC announced that the video was being played on MTV, there
were posts from fans who thought that it would lead to the band selling out
or that lots of kids would be jumping on the bandwagon now that you'd be
getting wider exposure. Do you just have to ignore concerns like that in
order to become successful in making music your long-term career, or do
you worry about being loyal to the fans who "knew you when" while still
pursuing greater national attention?
JB: For the most part, we've definitely had to ignore some of those
comments. We knew we were going to get some backlash but they're
naive to think that we wouldn't want to spread our music to as many
people as we can. However, we also have to stay true to those fans
that have gotten us to the point where we are. That's where we write
a record that we feel truly captures how we feel and pour everything
into our shows and pay them back for everything they've given us.
The Stone Pony: Your latest album, "One Fell Swoop," is also your sophomore
effort. Was the band excited about releasing a follow-up to "Sunsets and Car
Crashes" that could show more of what you could do? Were there any specific goals
that you had for the new album that went beyond simply releasing more
great songs?
JB: We were very excited, yet nervous, with it being our first real album
as a full band. It was such a fun process to write and collaborate
together. The only goal we had was to not be held down by genre
boundaries that are always there. We tried to all bring something
different to the table and in turn I think we are all proud of that
album.
The Stone Pony: "One Fell Swoop" is produced by Ed Rose, who as worked with Motion
City Soundtrack and Get Up Kids. How much of a contribution did he make
towards shaping the band's sound on this album? Did you get involved with the
post-production of the album very much, or was the band content to lay
down your tracks and let others handle all of the mixing?
JB: He was a huge help with the sound of the album. We clicked with Ed.
I think we all worked really well off of each other. We sat in the
studio during the whole mixing process and giving our input. But, at
the same time, we let him make some executive decisions that maybe we
had biased views against. It was a great studio experience.
The Stone Pony: Can it be difficult for a band that did everything on their own
for so long to trust other people with their music? When you walk into the
studio and you have a producer and engineers who are now involved in the
process, how do you balance the band's own vision of what the sound should be
versus what the studio professionals are trying to accomplish?
JB: Yeah, it can be very difficult. I'm surprised that it went so smooth,
actually. The big reason for having a producer is to basically add
another member to the band and have him add some creative insight and
help things along. We're lucky that we had a great experience with Ed.
The Stone Pony: In a blog entry, you mentioned that you've purchased a new,
break-proof van for the new tour. What vehicle are you currently
touring with, and did you do anything special to it to get it ready for
the road? How does the band split up driving duties while on the road and
how do you usually pass the time between stops?
JB: We just got a new Ford van and a new trailer. Yes, I did mention that
it was break-proof, but I was wrong. A few days ago, they broke into
the trailer and stole $10,000 of equipment and such. It was a low
blow to begin the tour.
We all split up the driving equally, it's the only way make everyone happy. We all have laptops and iPods, so that's
basically what we spend our time doing. We are officially dorks.
The Stone Pony: Have you started writing new material for a next album? Are there
any new songs that you've started to play live on stage that are planned for
the next record, and is it generally more difficult to work on new material
while you're on the road?
JB: We have indeed started the writing process. Between Warped tour and
Mae, we wrote quite a bit of songs and are very excited about getting
them recorded. On the Mae tour, we'll be playing one new song. It is
very difficult to write new stuff on the road because it's hard to
just set up all of our stuff and jam. Most of the empty time is
filled with sound checks and stuff like that.
The Stone Pony: What are the band's current plans for recording and releasing
your next album? After the tour with Mae concludes in August, it is possible that
you'll be heading back into the studio?
JB: Ahh, we're not quite sure. We're still narrowing down producers and
such and hopefully we'll have a decision soon. When we get that down,
that will affect when we head into the studio. We probably aren't
looking at the studio until January, however.
The Spill Canvas' official website can be found at
www.thespillcanvas.com.
Their latest CD, "One Fell Swoop," can be purchased online or at fine
music retailers like Jack's Music in Red Bank, NJ.
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