Cover Bands and Hiatuses: An Interview with Spiral Crush
Brothers Shaun and Scott Smail have had their fair share of
joined musical endeavors, dating back to high school. With Scott on drums and
Shaun on guitar, they’ve offered a sibling-duo package that have been featured
in multiple Michigan-based bands. It’s their original band, Spiral Crush, that
they keep coming back to, however.
The brothers originally started out as a cover band. As that
grew into writing original content, it faded rather quickly as members went off
to college, started jobs, etc. When they decided to reform, Spiral Crush was
born. They wrote their own songs, recorded an album and made connections along
the way. “We were proud of these songs; it was the first time we wrote songs
where we didn’t hate them,” Shaun said.
Some of those connections that they made included Andy Patalan,
who produced their first album. At the time, Patalan was a founding member of
indie band Solid Frog. When they disbanded and formed Throttlebody, he and
guitarist Kyle Neely recruited the brothers to join. This became the first hiatus
for the Spiral Crush.
When Patalan and Neely left to play with rock band Sponge a
few years later, the Smails were ready to take their knowledge from their years
with Throttlebody and bring Spiral Crush out of hiatus. Their second album, Nothing to Lose, gave them the
opportunity to promote the band by playing local shows for national acts and
make music industry connections. In the process of doing that and trying to
come up with money to promote their next album, they began playing more and
more cover shows. “As time went on, I think we just wore ourselves out trying
to ‘make it’ as an original band,” Shaun said. “We got burned out. We slowed
down from playing completely but got tired of not playing so we slowly started
booking cover shows to make extra money.”
Without really talking about it or planning it, Spiral Crush
kept booking cover shows to the point where they put off writing new material
and creating their next album. After almost three years, Scott was the first
one to break. What started off as making extra money to record their next album
because an almost-permanent routine. Once everyone was in agreement, it was
back to original music and a third album: Electric
Life, which was released earlier this year.
It took a few years for the band to realize that they had
veered off the path of their long-term goals. Although they appreciated the
popularity and paychecks that came with being a cover band, it was their own material
that they found much more enjoyable.
Shaun’s advice to cover bands that may not want to get stuck
in the cover band genre? “Make sure all the band members are on the same page,”
he said. “There’s nothing wrong with cover bands, it just wasn’t our goal or
intention when we started. The thing for us was to accept the fact that it’s
really hard to become successful as an original band. There are so many
successful cover bands who make this a hobby or a full-time career, but if that’s
not your intention as it wasn’t ours, then making sure everyone is on the same
page is the most important.”
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