SCOTT KANNBERG of SPIRAL STAIRS: Always In Search of the Fresh & New
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
When looking for prime examples of an indie rock band most people would always include the band Pavement in their lists. Formed in 1989 in California they were the personification of the indie lifestyle, staunchly remaining with independent labels despite their ever growing popularity. After ten years it all came to an end in 1999 – however fans rejoiced when a reunion tour was announced in 2010. Since then the members have gone their own way; some – like Scott Kannberg – onto stunning musical projects such as Preston School of Industry and his highly successful solo project Spiral Stairs.
Kannberg [as Spiral Stairs] recently released the brilliant Doris & the Daggers, an album that in many ways developed into a celebration of the life of Darius Minwalla (ex-drummer for Preston School of Industry) who tragically passed away at the age of just 39. Embracing more of a storyteller format the album is the perfect follow up to the their debut album The Real Feel released back in 2009.
When I catch up with Scott he is at home with his wife and daughter, the latter is giggling with delight while playing Minecraft …
So how are you? You are in Mexico at the moment I believe?
“Yeah I live in Merida, in the Yucatán. I’ve been down here for about nine months now maybe, my wife’s parents have been living here for a while so we would always come and visit and then we decided to … when LA was too expensive and too crazy we just thought we would come down here for a while and live a simpler life. Much cheaper, much cheaper that’s for sure!” [laughs]
I can imagine escaping the craziness of LA would have a lot of appeal.
“Yeah it’s pretty cool, I mean California in general has just gotten so … so many people and every time I go back it’s just like I kind of don’t really recognise it anymore. But I don’t know, we’ll see, we’ll see how it goes here; I told my wife two years so we’re kinda coming up to that point already.”
You are shortly going to be touring with Big Thief here in New Zealand, how did that pairing come about?
“Oh actually, I think it is just one show. We’ve been trying to set something up for a while and I was actually talking to David Kilgour about doing some stuff, kind of all throughout New Zealand and it just didn’t really work out. So this guy in Auckland suggested doing this show and introduced us to the guy putting it on. Big Thief were interested in playing so he said ‘Hey why don’t we do a double bill with you guys and them?’ and it’s cool because I just started kind of getting into them on this last tour! A couple of the guys in the band got a hold of their record and have just been playing it all the time so it’s cool, I think it’s a good match. I don’t know how old they are, I don’t really know anything about them which is good, I like mystery in a band [laughs] but I like their music”
So you haven’t actually met them or spent any time with them yet?
“No … no”
Oh so that will be interesting!
“Yeah, yeah. So I don’t know if they were a fan of my band, my old band or my new band; I don’t know anything. So we will see how it goes.” [laughs]
It’s going to be a really interesting first time meeting and bonding session. [laughs]
“Yeah, yeah right!” [laughs]
Now you recently released ‘Doris and the Daggers’ does it feel good to have some new material out there under Spiral Stairs?
“Oh totally. Totally, and you know by the time I make it to New Zealand it will be fresh again – but I just did five weeks in Europe and then you know maybe three and a half weeks in the States of playing these new songs so they’re not … [laughs] it’s kind of like I want to make up some new songs so I don’t have to play these songs anymore [laughs] But it’s good, I like having these songs, they are fun to play. Yeah it’s weird with songs because you hear them so many times when you make the record and you play them so many times when you play them live that you just … you know it’s easy to move on to the next, the next kind of phase of songs. It’s a lot easier when you make the songs, you’re like ‘Oh these are the greatest songs I’ve ever done!’ and you always think that you’re gonna love them and then when you play them so many times you go ‘Oh, ok’ [laughs] ‘time to move on’ but there is still a few of them that we play that are still pretty fresh. The really old songs, you know like the old Preston School songs or whatever that we do they don’t sound as fresh anymore; they are a little harder to play and get excited about than the new ones. But we still try to do some of them because I know people like to hear them!”
Well that’s the hard part isn’t it because as fans we don’t get to see you every six months, but as a musician you are touring all the time – you’re repeating them constantly!
“It will be fresh because the guys that I have playing with me in New Zealand, the guitar player and my drummer they’ve kind of been my band when I was in Australia and they played on The Real Feel … but I haven’t played with them at all on this tour so it will be fresh with them for sure.”
Speaking of which it has been eight years since you released The Real Feel which was an amazing record and in that time you have had some major stuff going on; I mean you moved entire countries! Did that delay the whole musical process or did it add fuel to the fire as I feel that Doris & the Daggers is a lot more personal…
“Yeah, I mean you know in reality it was probably more like five years went by without me doing much, so it didn’t seem like eight years went by … you know I had a kid, I had other things going on that were kind of more interesting than music and making music. It’s not that I didn’t try I just … I think when I moved back to LA I just kind of … being around that environment with more musicians around and people egging me on to do another record it was easier than in the middle of south east Queensland you know on an acre of land mowing my lawn every day!” [laughs]
On the subject of being a Dad, did becoming a father change your outlook on music and touring?
“I don’t know, I mean I never would have written a song about my kid before [laughs] having a kid, so that’s one new thing. Touring yeah, yeah it’s definitely … I mean like I said I just went over to Europe for four and a half weeks and that was pretty tough but it’s amazing because in the old Pavement days you used to have to find a telephone to get in touch with your loved ones or whatever. Now it’s so easy you can talk to them five times a day you know? Like driving in a van in the middle of Hungary you can go ‘Oh like ok, I will talk to my family right now’ so in some ways it’s not that bad being away.”
You have stated that your music has become more storyteller based, is that something that you believe comes with age?
“Oh maybe, also my influences … I have just listened to more of that kind of music you know? I mean over the last ten years or whatever, Bob Dylan kind of in a vague way has influenced me a lot. Paul Kelly a little bit; you know I was never really into him until I moved to Australia, I really like his storytelling. I came from more of a punk rock, post-punk kind of thing and now I like kind of just more – not folky things – just things a little more lyric based I guess. And like the Go-Betweens, I really got into their stories and lyrics and stuff. It just changes, I don’t know if its age, I think it’s more like just what you listen to.”
Losing Darius obviously had a huge effect; do you look on parts of the album as a celebration of his memory?
“Oh totally, totally; kind of the whole record as a celebration. I don’t know if it was meant to start out that way really, but as time went on it kinda became … it just kinda fit and even to the last song where we kinda did this, crazy you know garage rock jam that we put at the end and then we stuck Darius’s voice at the very end of it. It was cool but we never intended to do that until the end; so yeah it’s definitely a celebration.”
So where does the name of the album Doris & the Daggers come from?
“It comes from this woman who owns this pub in Sydney called the Hollywood Hotel. We went in there one night and kind of had this like really amazing night where they were closing down [for the night] and like this voice from behind the curtain said ‘Let em in!’ We met this woman who was like an old film star from the 40’s who ran the pub and she came out and started playing her guitar! Just the memory of it just always kind of stayed with me and so I would always joke with some friends of mine ‘Oh I am going to start a band called Doris and the Daggers and she is going to be the singer’ [laughs]
That was going to be kind of the original name of the record, I was actually going to start a whole new band with the band name being Doris and the Daggers and it was going to be more of like a garage rock record and you know, try to be really mysterious and no one knows who you are kind of thing [laughs] but yeah that’s how it started”
I can picture her in my head – she sounds very cool!
“Yeah when we go to Sydney we’re gonna go give her a record, surprise her. I don’t think she has any idea!” [laughs]
Now what one song would you offer up off the new album that would sum it all up?
“Hmm. Well for your New Zealand listeners probably ‘Always Wanted More’ because it’s like my take on a clean song. [laughs] It’s kind of got that surfy feel. It’s probably one of my favourites, it just has this languid kind of feel to it, the lyrics are pretty good, it’s got a really cool hook for a chorus and yeah it just … it kind of creates this emotion of hope I guess.”
Obviously I have to throw in a couple of Pavement questions; do you miss playing with the band? Pavement was pretty iconic!
“Yeah I mean it was my life for ten years and then after that of course I helped manage everything so it’s always in my life! Then the reunion in 2010, our first ever show was in Auckland so hopefully if we do do it again in a couple of years we’ll come back and it will be our last show [laughs] we’ll do it backwards!”
Is the 30th reunion in 2019 still a possibility then?
“Oh it’s always a possibility yes, always a possibility. I mean why not you know? Thirty years – we are only getting older!”
Reunion tours are great for fans that never got a chance to see a band they revere live!
“Yeah I agree. I think it’s great, I think it’s great that people have that opportunity you know? I mean why not? I hope we do, I really do; it’s just a matter of trying to get everybody on the right wave length and then we’ll do it.”
What was the one Pavement song that you always loved playing live because you had some massive hits?
“Hmm, let’s see ‘Fight this Generation’ was a pretty fun one to play, ‘Grounded’ … ‘Summer Babe’ was always pretty special because it was one of our early ones. You know I do a few that I wrote and sang in my set. I do ‘Passat Dream’ some nights I do ‘Western Homes’, ‘Two States’, ‘Kennel District’ … ‘A Date with Ikea’ sometimes. Those are always fun to play as well because I sang them. So yeah they were all pretty fun to play really even the ones from the end…” [laughs]
Last of all any message for you New Zealand fans?
“Oh, I can’t wait to come it’s been a long time! The last time I was in Auckland was 2010 so it’s been awhile. We went to a really nice café and I am going to try and track it down, it was kind of a Greek, Jewish place. Can’t remember the name but it was really good!” [laughs]
Well Auckland has certainly changed quite a bit since you were last here – you probably won’t recognise half of it!
“Probably not, no. But the coffee will still be good!” [laughs]
Spiral Stairs are performing a dual headlining show with Big Thief TONIGHT (Sunday 3rd December 2017) at Auckland’s The Tuning Fork. Tickets are still available from Ticketmaster, but get in quick as this will surely sell out!
