INTERVIEW: SPRING KING @ BROADCAST

I took the opportunity to Interview Manchunian quartet Spring King on the Glasgow stop of their Winter tour.

On entering Broadcast last Tuesday night I was greeted with a conflict of emotion. Despite the warmth of candlelit booths and subdued teasings of soul playing amidst the bar, I was intrigued by the distant uproar of hearing Spring King soundcheck from downstairs. Envisions of smoke filled bars synonymous with anarchic punk, paired with clouded judgement and a savage nonchalance. Five minutes later and the band appear before me, not at all matching the expectations of a primitive Mancunian band.  Soft spoken and welcoming, though their introduction could suggest otherwise, having asked them about their previous venture in this venue last year for Stag And Dagger, I was informed of one incident from Pete the guitarist: "I was crowd surfing at the end of our set and somebody’s finger went in to my mouth and I didn’t know what to do so I just bit it, if you’re out there, I’ll buy you a drink and a plaster." These confessions forming from a man that had faced delight in having eggs florentine for breakfast!

The formation of the band as we know it originated in 2012 as Tarek explains:“It started out in my home studio writing tunes, Pete heard them and thought we should put a band together so we started looking for members and then Andy had always been there but he was in other bands doing different things and eventually we got him and finally we got James on Facebook, he didn't even play bass before the band!” Having just signed to major label Island Records they maintain this won't affect the authenticity of their work:“From the get go we’ve done most of it ourselves, so when we started my brother or my cousin would do photography, I’d do all our recordings, we’d get our friends to design our t-shirts, our first artwork was done by Pete’s uncle. We’ve always tried to keep it in-house and be heavily involved in the process, even now we choose who does what. I hope we always have a say in how things are run, I think that will always be the way I don’t think we’ll let anyone external to the band tell us exactly what to play or what to do” Pete interjects: “We started by being self-sufficient creatively and to change that would be a mistake.”

Whilst embarking on their biggest UK tour to date, appreciation is given to the array of support slots they have played over the past year, from Slaves to Spector the crowds have been as varied and diverse as the artists themselves. Playing the support slot can be an integral part in the progression of any artist and the benefits have been undeniable in the case of Spring King: “Without support slots we wouldn't have been able to play to the amounts of people that we have, we were playing to around 2,000 people on the Slaves tour that was insane, Laurie and Isaac are legends. Being a support band in a bigger venue is really nice, especially when you’re put on to support an artist you really admire anyway like Courtney Barnett, we were so lucky with that.”

Now having gained recognition and success in their own right they have the freedom to give the same break to other acts: “We get to choose who supports us, it needs to be someone we all connect with and it can take a while (to choose). It’s nice to give back because we got our big break supporting bands.” 

Also taken into account during the production of a headline tour is the formation of a setlist, to which hadn't actually been decided at the point of this interview:

"Usually we play punk from start to finish but  we’ve got longer so I think we’re gonna go more mid tempo, now we’re given longer it lets us explore different sounds, I’d say a third of our set is old stuff, and the rest is new.” Now with set times almost double what they've been used to they have the flexibility to switch their tracks up and play what they feel. 

Though Spring King are labeled as a punk band the influences and music taste's within are far more eclectic: “There is a huge difference between the music that we make and the music that we listen to. I’m (Andy) a huge jazz and metal fan and neither of those fit, just because you listen to a variety of genres doesn’t mean you can’t necessarily just play one genre you like, just because you listen to punk doesn't mean you should only play punk, it should only be influenced by the fact that you like the music." The northern music scene is heavily steeped in diversity at this point and it's easy to see where this comes from: “A lot of good music is coming out of Manchester at the minute, there are a lot of D.I.Y punk bands coming out of there, like Groves, even Blossoms...Manchester’s more of a house city a lot of the time but at the moment there's a lot of great bands.”

You can catch the band on the remainder of this tour or on the newly announced supports slots with Wolf Alice and the Kaiser Chief's. If there's one thing the band ask is that you go away from one of their show's saying:“Yeah, we didn’t waste seven quid.”

They have also just released new single "Rectifier" as their first on Island Records.
Atmospheric and resonating as a solid third single, the future for Spring King is anthemic.

Twitter: @springkingband
Facebook: springkingmusic