Spiral Beach making tour stop in London
“Obviously, being in any kind of creative relationship with a relative of yours [is hard], especially someone who's so close in age” said Daniel from a cell phone somewhere in his hometown of Toronto. “I'm a year and a half older than [Airick], and being around each other gets to be too much sometimes. But because we've known each other our entire lives, we know that even if we're fighting, the next day we'll still be friends.”
Still, he recalled their first major fight, a hilarious Tolkien-incited incident when he was seven-years-old.
“I was a really big reader when I was a kid and I had already started reading all the Lord of the Rings books and I was like ‘Yo, Airick, you have to read these books! They're so cool! There's all these crazy demons and stuff flying around!' and he wouldn't read them, so I think we ended up kind of pulling each other's hair out.”
Now older and more mature, fights are rare between the brothers and the rest of their college-aged band, complete with Maddy Wilde on lead vocals/keyboards and bassist Dorian Wolf, who formed Spiral Beach nearly six years ago. They'll be performing at Call the Office on October 13 in promotion of their just-released third (and grammatically dubious) full-length album, The Only Really Thing.
“I have a really big problem with grammar. I'm definitely a big supporter of improper use of wording and spelling and just kind of screwing around with things,” said Woodhead. “When you think about it, it doesn't make a lot of sense to begin with. There are a lot of different nonsensical phrases that everyone uses anyway, so I love the idea of supplying and inventing your own saying and seeing if it picks up on the people around you. Maddy will invent new words, or at least new phrases and then maybe a month later, we'll hear people saying it.”
Daniel is also the band's lyricist, and while jibberish may not be the focus of his writing, there is a certain stream-of-consciousness that makes its way into the songs.
“I've always written, much more to emphasize the sounds of the words and the kind of images that are instantly brought up. And, obviously, that's what the music is like as well. It's just very fast-moving and constantly changing and we want to make every aspect of it fit together.”
Their writing talents are influenced by the band's musical backgrounds - Airick and Daniel are the sons of Canadian folk musician David Woodhead, and Wilde's mother is Nancy White, whose satirical songs were popular on CBC radio show, Sunday Morning.
These musical sons and daughters have strayed away from copying their parents, however, and Spiral Beach have opted towards high-energy, sporadic and definitely danceable music. Jangly 60s-sounding guitars, drum beats that sometimes border on surf-rock and a slew of synth leads, effects and brilliant vocal harmonies comprise their songs - which is why picturing the band recording in an empty Hamilton barn with Mike Olsen (of The Hidden Cameras) is so difficult.
To get that live sound, the band “usually still originally track all four of us at once.” But The Only Really Thing was done differently than their last CD, Ball, whom Mike Olsen also produced.
“On this record we did a lot more post-production work, a lot of [overdubs] and layering of different sounds. Some of the tracks will have three or four guitar sounds or keyboard sounds and all those special effects on top of it. So we're going for more of a crafted, meticulous thing.”
Olsen also played a bigger role in this album: “He worked with us on (Ball), but... he didn't produce it really, just recorded it. This one was much more of a collaborative (effort). It's definitely his baby as much as ours.”
