{"id":18997,"date":"2013-11-19T07:30:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T20:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=18997"},"modified":"2013-11-18T22:39:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T11:39:00","slug":"kram-of-spiderbait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/11\/kram-of-spiderbait\/","title":{"rendered":"Kram of Spiderbait"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cDon\u2019t take things too personally as well, but just try and do the best you can, it really is about the work and that\u2019s all we intended to do with this record is to make a truly great album, and anything beyond that is a bonus and that\u2019s really always been our main motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Bio: Spiderbait are considered Australia\u2019s rock royalty with over half a million albums sold, 5 Top 20 albums, 19 ARIA Nominations and 2 ARIA awards! They were the first band to make it to the #1 spot on Triple J hottest 100 for their pulsating guitar anthem \u2018Buy Me A Pony\u2019 and their cover of \u2018Black Betty\u2019 scored them a number 1 single on the ARIA chart and a Top 20 single in the US. After an 9 year hiatus they are back with a new self-titled album produced by Fran\u00e7ois Tetaz. The album remains true to their rock heritage mixed with sweet sounds, double kick and gritty ball busting riffs.<\/p>\n

We chatted with Kram of Spiderbait about their new self-titled album, it\u2019s creation and why it took nine years for it to emerge, as well as cover songs and more\u2026<\/p>\n

After nine years what was the catalyst behind making a new record?<\/strong>
\nI think two things, one, we played at Splendour a few years ago and that was really epic and huge and after that gig we had a bit of a meeting saying we probably should do a new record, it\u2019s feeling really good, and the fun was coming up and so we still took out time with it and put it together, but it didn\u2019t really properly start until I wrote \u2018Straight Through The Sun\u2019 that was kind of like the big impetus and it was the first song written for the record, so it all started from there, sometimes you need a song to kick start the process and that\u2019s what that was.<\/p>\n

What was the inspiration for the tracks on the release?<\/strong>
\nWe initially just wanted to write a really heavy record, lots of metal and punk and just smash it up, and we wrote a lot of that sort of stuff and that was cool and Janet was keen to do a lot of pop stuff as we\u2019re really varied in our writing process and all the types of music we like to play and listen to, so it was just a matter of keeping on writing. Then when Franc came on board to produce it, he was like \u2018just keep writing, it doesn\u2019t matter what style of music it is because you guys can do whatever you like, but let\u2019s just keep going until we\u2019ve got enough songs\u2019 and that was a fairly communal and diplomatic process, so yeah, it was really good.<\/p>\n

It definitely is a vary varied record\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* It\u2019s definitely all over the place, and a lot of our records in the past, and my solo record was like that, I mean it\u2019s just the way I wrote music and the other guys are similar. The songs come out in different ways and I couldn\u2019t write a whole record of one sound, it would be very difficult and even if I did it would have to have variations in it to keep it dynamic, so that\u2019s where our headspace is at and always has been.<\/p>\n

The new album is a self-titled effort, what was the idea behind simply naming it \u2018Spiderbait\u2019?<\/strong>
\nI think because it had been such a long time since we made an album and also it feels like it\u2019s the story of the band in a way, there\u2019s stuff on there that could be from any period in our career and stuff that sounds like the future as well. We tossed that around and Franc was actually the one that said I really think you should call it this because this record is all about the band and no title could say it better. We all agreed and I\u2019m glad we did that, it seems appropriate.<\/p>\n

What if anything did you set out to do differently this time around or was there a specific mindset you went in with compared to your previous releases?<\/strong>
\nThere was one thing; I wanted to go to the extreme on everything, like for instance lyrically take a lot of time and really get the lyrics that you\u2019re really happy with and are meaningful and I think the lyrics have a lot of meaning for me. Also the instrumentation, where there\u2019s a song that\u2019s spectacular whether it be the drums or guitar or vocals, just go for it and be unafraid, and Franc embraced that and really ran with it.<\/p>\n

Why make the record in LA?<\/strong>
\nWe did it in Byron, we did it in Melbourne and we did it in LA, those are the three locations and that really contributed to the variation as well. I think recording in different studios at different times really contributed to the sound, it was nice to finish it over there, it\u2019s a fun place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>What did making it over there allow you to do that you couldn\u2019t do here?<\/strong>
\nI think it\u2019s just soaking up the atmosphere and I guess removing yourself from Australia where your headspace is at, I had the same thing when I did my solo record, I did it in New York and it just takes away who you\u2019re supposed to be and what you\u2019re supposed to be doing. I think you can be a bit freer, people don\u2019t know who you are and stuff. The studio itself, we worked in a studio in Laurel Canyon and Franc was very insistent on mixing the record there and doing some of the recording, so it was much about the studio as the place and that seemed to work really well for us, so it was good.<\/p>\n

The video for \u2018It\u2019s Beautiful\u2019 is simply that\u2026 how did the concept for that come about?<\/strong>
\nWell we ended up doing two clips, Janet did one of us with a bunch of stuff of us playing at the Big Day Out and all old pub gigs and that was really awesome. Then the label wanted to do another one and we thought that sounds great and a guy by the name of Toby Angwin who also did the \u2018Straight Through The Sun\u2019 clip, and he did my clip for \u2018Good Love\u2019 as well, and he\u2019s a filmmaker from Melbourne and he came through with this concept and we just loved it, we loved the whole idea of the puppets representing us and also that inner Melbourne, trying to discover some beauty where it seems a bit industrial and not necessarily beautiful, and for a pop song it\u2019s actually quite sentimental and I think we\u2019ve captured that really well.<\/p>\n

Now, you guys played at the final P!nk show in September, how was that experience?<\/strong>
\nIt was great, we got a strange phone call when we were in America, asking of we wanted to the P!nk tour, and it would\u2019ve been a hundred shows or something and it would\u2019ve been great, but because we were in The States making the record we couldn\u2019t do it, but they came back and asked if we could do the final show and we said yeah we\u2019d love to, she\u2019s great. They were great to us, the crowd was great, we had a fantastic gig and we couldn\u2019t be happier it was pretty bizarre. I wasn\u2019t tempted to get up on the trapeze, but it was a great experience for us, sometimes playing those shows, it\u2019s the same sort of thing when we played with Guns N Roses a couple of years ago, the crowd went nuts for us, and it\u2019s not always the case when people are there to see an international act, but I guess we\u2019ve been lucky in that respect.<\/p>\n

Can we expect to see the band back out on the road again soon?<\/strong>
\nI think we\u2019ll do some shows next year, we\u2019ll do a couple of shows this year, but we\u2019re going to put it together at the moment and once the record comes out we\u2019ll play some shows next year.<\/p>\n

In the twenty years since your debut album, what has been the biggest thing you\u2019ve learned as being part of Spiderbait?<\/strong>
\nThere\u2019s a number of things, I think it\u2019s important to keep your relationships strong if you\u2019re going to survive this business, also don\u2019t take it too seriously as it\u2019s pretty crazy and can be very fickle. Don\u2019t take things too personally as well, but just try and do the best you can, it really is about the work and that\u2019s all we intended to do with this record is to make a truly great album, and anything beyond that is a bonus and that\u2019s really always been our main motivation.<\/p>\n

You took a hiatus probably at the peak of your career after \u2018Black Betty\u2019 went nuts, was it a needed break?<\/strong>
\nYeah it was\u2026 after that album came out and that song was so big, it kind of came at a point where we were at the end of our tether a bit, we\u2019d had a lot success and we\u2019d done a lot but I think we were a bit burnt out and we really needed a break. I\u2019ve said this in a number of interviews, if it wasn\u2019t for that song being so big, we may have broken up, cause we\u2019d been around for fifteen years and we were happy, we\u2019d done sort of everything and then when it went massive we though \u2018wow\u2019 we\u2019ll see this through but it actually gave us the opportunity to chill out and replenish ourselves. That\u2019s the main reason why we are still together is that we\u2019ve always been able to pace ourselves and we\u2019ve never burnt the candle at both ends too badly and I think that\u2019s why we\u2019re still here today.<\/p>\n

Was there ever a time though that you thought you might not play together again?<\/strong>
\nNot really, I can\u2019t see us ever not playing together, I don\u2019t ever see us doing what Powderfinger did and announcing that we\u2019ve broken up, we just kind of exist in our own time, we all do our other things, I like doing my own shows and my own things as the other guys do and enjoy it in their own lives, but I think that the band, we\u2019re kind of part of the make-up of Australian rock culture in a way and we enjoy that, we like having that in our band and we just enjoy playing together so much. Particularly if the live shows are great, and they still consistently are, the last really big show we played was probably Splendour last year and it was massive, one of the biggest shows of the festival and as long as we can do that I think we\u2019ll always play.<\/p>\n

Now I don\u2019t mean to harp purely on \u2018Black Betty\u2019 but with the success of the song and of course being a cover, did you feel that you may have to do another one or had that not crossed your mind?<\/strong>
\nWell I love covers, we all actually do love them, I think if it was our first single that we\u2019d have a bit of a worry, but the fact that we\u2019d released so many originals and won awards and won the Hottest 100, we\u2019ve had nobody doubt the ability of our band or myself to write original songs and work, no problem there. We really just did it because we loved the song and also we did need something, we thought we\u2019ve got to get something out of left field here, so I wouldn\u2019t have any hesitation in releasing a cover again, but once you release a cover and it\u2019s a big hit, it does put you in that place where if you release another cover people are like \u2018oh you\u2019re going back to covers\u2019. We\u2019d do it because it was fun, but I don\u2019t think we\u2019d do it again as a career move. But it\u2019s such a great song, it\u2019s a very old song, like it\u2019s over seventy or eighty years old, we got an email when it was a big hit, and it did really well in America too, and Huddie Ledbetter who wrote the song, his family got in touch through our American record label and just said how much they loved the version, and that kind of stuff is very meaningful I guess, you can contribute to the history of music. Apart from that we\u2019re just happy that the song turned out and did so well, and having a number one, I could never say it was a bad thing, I\u2019ve been asked a lot if it\u2019s a bad thing, and absolutely not, it\u2019s a number one, dude.<\/p>\n

Your solo album \u2018Mixtape\u2019 came out in 2009, is there plans for another, or is it all Spiderbait for the foreseeable future?<\/strong>
\nWell, I\u2019m not very good at doing two things at once, especially since I\u2019ve got kids, I think after this record has run its course, I\u2019d really love to go back and do a solo show, and create a show and do another solo record as I\u2019ve been waiting a while to do that, so I\u2019ll say yes, I\u2019d really like to do that.<\/p>\n

What does 2014 have in store for Spiderbait?<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019ll go and play some shows, I don\u2019t know really, we\u2019ll see how the record goes, I never really look too far ahead, life\u2019s too short to do that, just have a good time with what you\u2019re doing, make sure your cards are in the right place and just try and enjoy your short time in this crazy world.<\/p>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Melbourne, Australia<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Kram – Vocals, Drums, Whitt – Guitar, Janet – Bass, Vocals<\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Spiderbait \u2013 (Universal Music Australia) Out Now!<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.spiderbait.com.au<\/a>
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