Drummer-producer spills on state of Spoon

Over the past decade, Spoon has entrenched itself as one of alternative music's consistent powerhouses. Led by singer-songwriter Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno, they released sixth album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga to almost universal praise last July, landing on countless best-of lists and at number10 on the Billboard 200. recess staff writer Kevin Lincoln recently spoke with Eno about the band and his dual role as producer and musician.

It seems like you have a history with the Triangle area, seeing as you went to school at North Carolina State and Spoon signed with Merge, which is based out of Chapel Hill. Do you guys have an any connections to Durham and/or Duke that we should know about?

Well, I used to go to either Durham or Chapel Hill to go out, and I think I saw a couple of basketball games there too. But other than that, like family or anything else, I think it's really just the Merge thing.

So you're playing at the Carolina Theatre here, which is a large, seated theatre. How is playing something like that different from playing a show at a smaller club?

Well, usually people will stand up even if it's seated, so it's not too bad. We prefer getting really close to the crowd. But I'm looking forward to the show, it should be pretty good.

Yeah, it's a great bill too [with the Walkmen and White Rabbits]. Have you guys started touring with those guys yet?

No, we leave tomorrow actually, I'm doing laundry right now to try and get ready.

Excellent, that's exciting.

(Laughs) Rock 'n' roll man.

I got a really bizarre answer to this question from Stephen Malkmus, and I'm curious to hear what you have to say about it. How does being the father of a young child affect your music and your duties as a member of a band like Spoon?

Well, I get homesick. I was in Australia, Japan and New Zealand, and that was like four weeks and that's just a really, really long time. But I tend to try and call home often. The other thing I do I actually learned from the Tommy Lee, Motley Crue book, which is all about debauchery-it's insane stuff. But, near the end Tommy Lee has some kids and he's like, 'The best thing I've ever learned was I buy two books, take one on the road with me and leave one at home. And he reads to his kids over the phone and they just follow along in the book.' I actually do that a lot, it's a pretty good idea. Any dads I know touring, I tell them that little trick. Kids are tough to talk to on the phone, so you can always read them stories.

Lately, I've noticed that the drums are bigger in a lot of different bands. I know a lot of recent bands, like Vampire Weekend, Liars, the National, have had very drum heavy sounds. Have you noticed that?

That's a really good question. I haven't really thought about that before, but I think you're probably right. I've been getting into MGMT, and that was produced by Dave Fridmann. His drums are just big and crazy, but it's got a couple of really great dance songs on it.

How does producing other people's music and having your own studio compare with actually making the music yourself?

Well, it's a different thing. When you're being a producer, a lot of times you move the project ahead, you're trying to make people feel really confident about what they're doing, trying to pull good performances out of them. But I find it incredibly creative, because then you can just throw out ideas. They may not work, they may work, but usually they really appreciate your input.

You almost have to become a member of the band yourself, right?

Totally, totally. And then once you're in that environment it's actually really fun. So it's different than just playing drums. It also allows you to realize that playing simple drums actually works because you're being creative and you don't have to show them your stuff all the time. You just play what's best for the song.

How often are you bringing people out to your studio? On a weekly basis, what are you guys doing out there?

It's actually been booked while I've been away, which has been really, really good. Charlie Sexton has been producing a record back there by this guy Matt Morris, who is one of the first signings to Justin Timberlake's new label. Matt and Charlie have been out there, two weeks on and a week off, for probably four months. It's really good to have someone out there while I'm touring. And then what I do is when I come back, if I have a project I want to do, I'll block out that time, talk to Charlie and then coordinate that.

How was the experience of mixing The Stage Names for Okkervil River last year?

Oh, you know what? That's a misnomer. I was there and I was hanging out, assisting Brian Beattie. He actually mixed it, that was a press release that went out that credited me instead of him with mixing the record. On Monday of this week, they're mixing another, I guess they're calling it The Appendix. It's some B-sides.

They did one of those for Black Sheep Boy too, I think.

Yeah, so they're doing that this week. While I'm out of town, they're going to be in there for like six days doing that.

Could you tell me a little bit about how the creative process works for you guys of formulating and then making one of your records?

Usually, what Britt brings to us are either finished, complete songs or snippets where he wants to try to work some stuff out. But then once the song is fleshed out, we'll actually just work on arrangements and things like that, where we say, hey, let's approach the song like this or let's try it like this. Sometimes we'll record it a certain way and then we'll be working and we'll try it a different way.

So, from the standpoint of a producer and somebody making a record, I know that Telefono only cost like $3,000 to produce when you guys made that 12 years ago. How's making an album like Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga or Gimme Fiction different from making an album back when you guys were just starting out?

Well, it's better, obviously. We've always had the luxury of being able to spend a lot of time in the studio. Even when we were recording Telefono, John Croslin sort of gave us a come-in-whenever-we-want sort of thing, so now, since we have a place where we can record relatively cheaply, we can afford a little bit better toys and go to a nice studio to mix. It basically allows you to experiment a little more because you're using better gear.

Spoon is playing at the Carolina Theatre in Durham on April 13 at 8 p.m.

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