9 Spine Stickleback

Well kiddies, this is the month – the banner month that is marked by two very important events. The jolly fat elf makes his rounds (No, not Gianni, but SANTA!), and the release of the new EP/Maxi-Disc, See What You Missed, by local boyz, 9 Spine Stickleback. (See the CD review, this issue.) If you have been following SLUG for at least the last 16 months, you should know by now that 9 Spine Stickleback are my favorite local band. No, it’s not because they rock out like wild banshees. No, it’s not because they accomplish the delicate balance between hard-core and melodic subtleties. It’s because of something much greater…It’s because they totally kick­ ass. See What You Missed contains 3 brand new songs that takes you above and beyond where their first, self-released, Prospector left you. SWYM also acts as a teaser for greater things to come down the road in 1997. I liked and knew about Prospector long before I knew any of the band members. 9 Spine were kind enough to come over to my house on Thanksgiving Eve to do an interview with me and my two favorite riot grrrls. Tyler (vocals), Chris (guitar), Scott (bass), and Courtney (percussion) had a lot on their minds this holiday season, and this is what they said.

SLUG: So tell me about the title See What You Missed. I know you’ve gone through your fair share of drummers. Does it refer to them or something else? 

Scott: Yea, but I think it relates to more than just that. For me, a title like that sums it up for bands that don’t give the whole show a chance or, the narrow mindedness of a lot of local listeners who don’t give bands or music a chance. Like people who leave concerts early. 

SLUG: Tell me about the new material. I was amazed at how many different styles there seem to be, even in just one song. You guys seem tighter and funkier too. 

Chris: The music is more complicated and intricate. 

Scott: I’m just amazed that the recording came out as good as it did. There was a lot of transition going on with us then. We were going through drummers and holding auditions, it was just wild. 

SLUG: What are the songs and what do they signify? 

Tyler: “Sulfur Rich,” “Distressed” (to the 4th power), and “88.” 

Courtney: When I think of “88,” “Distressed,” and “Sulfur Rich,” the new material really does reflect transition. That really is the best word. You’ve got Prospector, then you’ve got these 3 other tunes you guys were writing.You see transition, you see the band growing. And along those lines, you should hear what we are writing now. 

SLUG: You talk about transition and what you wrote compared to the stuff you are writing now, give me dates of when the material was written vs. when it was released. 

Tyler: We wrote most of the tunes of Prospector in late fall of 1994. And we finished it in the spring of 1995 and released it that mid-summer. The new material was written last spring, ’96. 

SLUG: Yea, we talk about transition and I believe most people, people that don’t write anything, music, stories or poems, don’t understand the transition of a song. From the time that you write a song, work it out, lay it down and record it to the time it comes out on a recording and hits the consumers ears, it’s usually quite a while. In between all that is the transition time and by the time a song comes out, to the writer, that was then, this is now, sort of thing. 

Chris: Oh yea, our transition is about over. By the time people buy and hear this new album, people are going to think… 

Tyler: “What happened.” 

Chris: Yea, they’ll think, “This is ‘9 Spine?” If people really liked Prospector, there’s a big chance they might not like the new stuff. 

Tyler: These songs are not your normal Rock songs. And it’s recorded totally differently than our last album. 

SLUG: Yea, but I think “White Elephant Party” could have been on the new CD; because of the way the bass is struc­tured, because of the way it starts out, how it’s syncopated, how it changes quickly. 

Scott: Yea, and when we play Prospector stuff live, it’s different now because we’ve got Courtney. There is so much growth with those ten songs now. When we got Courtney, we were just playing the same tunes but it was cool because they were different again. 

SLUG: Yeah, the songs evolved. As much as I like Prospector, I think it sheds new light on these songs seeing it live. I think live, it is a totally different experi­ence; it’s more amped up, it’s more ramped up. 

Scott: Yeah, big time! 

Tyler: I don’t think it’s going to be the same with the new stuff, though. I think the See What You Missed stuff is pretty close to the live performance. 

SLUG: Oh yeah, I do too. I heard the songs live before I heard them off of the CD and I think you are right. 

Tyler: The recording is pretty close to the performance. On the CD the songs have energy. That was very important when we recorded. I wanted that sound and that feeling to come across on the recording. I wanted that immensely. 

Chris: Sean Halley was a great engineer for that. He engineered our CD. 

Scott: He just works well with us. A lot of it is his tightness with Chris. 

Tyler: Sean just knows our style and what to give us and where. 

Scott: Sean’s got the best ear. 

SLUG: So what do you like and dislike about the music scene right now? 

Tyler: With Salt Lake or in general? 

SLUG: Either one, or both. 

Tyler: This is what I don’t like. I don’t like that all the major labels have decid­ed to buy up all of this “alternative” music and over saturate a market that is very specific; so it makes it that a new band can come in and in two weeks they’re gone. They have one hit and sell 10,000 albums, do a tour, whatever and they’re gone. It is exactly what happened with rock in the 80s, they over saturated the market and everyone did­n’t like it anymore. Locally there’s no support here and I hate it. 

Courtney: Woah, man, I can’t really fol­low that. But for me, it’s all about play­ing live. I just love to play live. I love to play Vernal, Vernal’s dope! 

Tyler: Yea, we love playing Vernal. 

Courtney: But I don’t even like to play weekday shows anymore. I believe in paying your dues and doing all that. But when weekends are bad enough, there’s just not enough appreciation from crowds most of the time. The club scene is frustrating. You don’t get a lot of people showing up. It just doesn’t feel like the support is there. One thing we are really big on is the all ages shows and watching the younger crowd. They just make us feel really good and they appreciate it a lot more. So as far as the clubs, I would like to see us move on, whatever that means, go out of state. You know, everybody wants a record deal, but that is what I’m gunning for. That’s what I want to do with my life, cut CD’s and go on tour. 

Chris: Same thing they said, it just feels like there are a lot of people interested here. But sometimes it’s just so frustrat­ing to talk to people, they express inter­est in their favorite music and their favorite bands, but not bands or music in general. It seems that, to a lot of peo­ple it’s not about music, it’s more about who you know and who you want to be seen with. 

Courtney: Let me add one more thing. I don’t feel a lot of unity between the local bands here. I know there are some between two or three, but if you’re not… 

Tyler: We are not with the Honest Engine faction, we are not with the Clover faction and we are not with the hard core faction. We are nothing. 

Courtney: Yea, we didn’t go to school with these guys, basi­cally we didn’t grow up with them. For example just a few gigs ago we almost got ripped off. Not by the crowd, not by the promoter, not by the club, but by the other bands them­selves. 

Scott: I’ve deprogrammed all my radio presets in my car. I don’t think there is much original music being made. I think that it’s shallow. Locally, I’ve got to pat Spanky’s Cinema Bar on the back. They’ve given exposure to us, to the out of state bands that tour. When we open for out of state bands, I play for them, and to let ourselves be known to these out of staters, just in case they walk in the back door. It’s been a thrill to me to meet these guys and the biggest thrill for me is the compliments we get from touring bands. So even if we do get a Tuesday night, I appreciate the opportunity to hear new music from these bands. And the other thing for me is to be playing and look over at these guys and know that we are doing what we love to do. I think there are a lot of dysfunctional bands thinking that Utah is cursed because there’s not much coming out of it. I don’t think enough people give their band enough time or credit for anything to really happen. A lot of people get frustrated and don’t give themselves enough time. Who’s to say when the Seattle hole opens up in Salt Lake? Got the picture? Good…now go buy the disc. —Royce

Read more interviews from the SLUG Archives:
Triple Fast Action
Orange 9mm

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