Interview with bassist John Bess!

MM: Thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Can you tell us how and when Spiritu formed?
My pleasure. The whole thing was several strokes of fate, really. Jadd had just gotten off the road singing with Iron Man and was wanting to put a band together. He met Chav through another Meteor City customer, and the two started talking about jamming together. The put together a few friends, who quickly departed, then James--the original drummer--returned from England and joined the band. After that they placed an ad in a local paper looking for a bass player, but the phone number was wrong and nobody called! I went to the newspaper office and tracked down the right phone number, and based on my persistence I got the gig. That night Spiritu was born. James left shortly after recording the album and we auditioned drummers for about a month. One of them was an old friend of mine, Ken Hiner, who I always knew as a sick drummer. He pretty much blew everyone else out of the water and it was clear that we needed him in the band. He's been with us for over a year now, through the release of the album and the European tour, so our lineup is solid at this point.

MM: How did the deal with Meteor City come about?
For anyone who doesn't know, Jadd is a co-owner of Meteor City along with Aaron Emmel. We really didn't want to release on Meteor City, because we didn't want anyone to think that we were some kind of vanity project for Jadd, or that we got the deal because he's involved with the label. We really wanted to be successful based on the merits of our songs and our live show. We were all fans of other bands on the label, and respect them a great deal. I mean how could you not want to be included in a roster that has Nebula, the Atomic Bitchwax, Blind Dog, Solace, just all these kick ass bands. But, again, we didn't want any special treatment. We made the record ourselves and began shopping it to labels. Shortly after a band that was to be released on Meteor City couldn't get their album done in time, so there was a whole in their release schedule. Aaron believed in us and had always been a strong supporter of our band. He felt that we could stand alongside any other band on the label in terms of power, quality, and musicianship, so why not release us. We only had like two weeks to decide and in the end we just wanted to get our music out there to the people. We strongly believe in the music that we're writing and we wanted our voice to be heard. We figured it would be a mark against us at first having a connection to the label, but we would let the fans decide if we did the right thing by getting the music out there any way we could. Looking back on the reviews and the crowd support on the tour, it seems like we did the right thing.

MM: We came to see you on the Monster Groove tour at Dudley JB’s (you can read the review in the live section) and I was totally blown away by the power of the band! Who would you say are you main influences?
Thanks a lot. We really appreciate the review and you coming out to the show. Between the four of us, we have a ridiculously wide range of influences. It's really bizarre that we can write music together, but I guess that's how we avoid sounding like anyone else. Collectively, we all love the rock. That's pretty obvious, especially bands that have a lot of depth in their writing and song structures like Clutch, Tool, and Pink Floyd. We all love the bands with big grooves that you'd expect to see on a list: Sabbath, Zeppelin, etc. But individually we come from very different places and bring that into our playing and song writing. Jadd is a fan of big vocals, naturally, so he's really into the old school rock with great singers--Dio, Iron Maiden, Rainbow, Deep Purple. Kenny is into old Prog-Rock like early Journey, Genesis, Yes, and Rush. Chav was weaned on Black Sabbath and Neil Young and loves anything heavy, from Slayer to Down to Church of Misery, he's all about the heavy riffs and the doom. I grew up playing along to Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Sabbath albums, but I have an equal love for blues guitarists and sick groovin' bass players, so I listen to a lot of Tower of Power, Jaco Pastorius, Allman Brothers and Stevie Ray Vaughn and try to meld all of that into my bass lines. Somehow we manage to pull it all together and make it work for us.

MM: Back to the Monster Groove tour, I thought it was a poor turnout at JB’s. You put on a great show and never once let the turnout put a downer on things (not like the first band Dozer). What was you opinion on the Monster Groove tour and how much of a success to you think it was?
The tour was incredible. We were very fortunate to be invited and we were stoked to be there. It's an incredible break for a young band with only one album out to get to tour Europe with bigger bands. Like I said, we are all huge Clutch fans so that made it even better. Success of a tour is relative to each band. Bands like Clutch and Spiritual Beggars made way more money than we did, of course, so financially I assume it was successful for them. No matter how things turned out for us financially, the tour was a success just because we got to introduce people to our music. We made new converts in every new city, made strong industry contacts, and met a lot of great people. So that to us is a success. I think some bands get jaded after a while and get down when there is a poor turn out. Fuck that. We will play our asses off every night, because it doesn't matter if twenty people or two thousand show up. Every single person in the audience took time out of his or her life and paid hard earned money to come see you, so you better give them a show. You'd better appreciate their patronage, because they're the important ones, not us. Sure, big crowds are better, because everyone gets caught up in the excitement and it adds to the whole event. But, when we get on stage we are playing for ourselves, because we love to play more than anything else in the world. So, we're going to live it up, cut loose, go off, fall over, stumble, stagger, scream, whatever it takes to get it out of our systems and we want people in the audience to go along for the ride with us. There could be a thousand people in the audience, but if they're all standing there with a stick up there ass who cares. All it takes is one person to get into it, to push you along and let you know they're digging your set to make the whole night worthwhile.

MM: Were you happy with your set and how to the fans in the UK compare to gigs back home?
Hell yeah! Gigs back home suck. We've actually written a new song about how much our local music scene sucks ass. We're the bastard children of our hometown. Promoters don't know what to do with us! It was funny because three days before being invited on the Monster Groove tour we were told that we couldn't open for Nebula at a local bar because we didn't have enough of a local following. How fucked up is that? We couldn't even play with a band on our own label, in our own town, because the locals don't even know who we are. We're not pop-punk, or emo, or indie/garage/crybaby rock so we must not be any good. I guess we'll just have to go to Europe where people don't need MTV to tell them what is good music. Every gig on the tour was ten times better than anything we've done in the states. The quality of the stage monitors, hell the fact that we even got stage monitors, the support of the venue staff, the size of the stages, the receptiveness of the crowds, it was all great. We can't wait to get back to Europe!

MM: Unfortunately, before Century Media introduced me to Spiritu, I had never heard about the band. How did the deal with Century Media arise?
All indie labels have to find a way to distribute their material, so they make licensing and distribution deals with other labels in various countries. For a long while now Meteor City has had a deal in Europe with Century Media. Technically, we're on People Like You Records in Europe. They are a subsidiary of Century Media, but for things like this tour, Century Media gets involved with support. We've also just had our album licensed in Australia and Russia, I'm not sure with whom. But slowly but surely, we're covering the globe.

MM: Say if you were going on a six-month tour and you could only take three albums with you, what would they be?
The new Allman Brothers album "Hittin' the Note" (a perfect album from start to finish, best thing they've done in twenty years!), Stevie Ray Vaughn "The Sky is Crying" , and Ozzy "Speak of the Devil" because it's a double live LP with most of my favorite Sabbath tunes and lots of good jams.

MM: Where would you like to be or what would you like to achieve in 5 years time?
We would like to be touring/recording at the level of a band like Clutch or Fu Manchu. Where this was our only job, to make a living making music and touring. To have the time and money to use the studio as a songwriting instrument the way Floyd did on "Dark Side of the Moon" and QOTSA do now, not just a place to record. To be able to put all of our energy into this music and this band and not have to worry about other shit.

MM: What has been the bands greatest and worst moment so far?
I would have to say the greatest moment so far was the Manchester show. People were coming up to us and yelling "SPIRITU!" and hugging us, telling us that they've been listening to our CD since it came out and couldn't wait to see us live. That was a great night for us. Anytime a person comes up and says they love what you do is a great thing. As a band the worst moment was losing our drummer. There aren't a lot of drummers in our home town, much less good ones and we were really worried about finding a replacement. The album hadn't even been released yet and we were really worried about the whole thing. Luckily kenny saved the day in a big way. The other low point had to be in Munchen, Germany. We had just come of stage from a great set for a great crowd and Jadd and I both ruined it by deciding to be dickheads to each other and we almost ended up in a fistfight backstage. It was ugly, the worst fight any two people in this band has ever had. We are both VERY passionate about this band and we sometimes forget that we're on the same side. It all worked out in the end, and we've grown because of it.

MM: What do you think about the Internet? How does it help and how does it hurt bands/record companies?
It's a great place to find free porn. Oh, you mean as far as bands go. Well I have no problem with it. We've never really discussed it as a band, because we're not at a level where we need to be concerned about it yet. Right now, we just want to get our music out there, to let people know who we are. So, if you're friend likes our CD burn them a copy or they can download bootleg files, whatever. We won't make any money, but so what...more people will hear our music and more will come see us live. If we were making a living off of record sales and internet downloads were causing us to have to go back to regular jobs because of lost revenue then maybe it would be a problem. That's a decision that lies in the hands of the fans. You can A) get a good next album from us because you downloaded our last one and we all had to work regular jobs while writing this one, or B) you can get a great next album from us by supporting us and buying our album and allowing us the freedom to spend our time writing and working in the studio. I really don't think that fans understand that is the effect of pirating music. Small bands aren't terribly affected because they aren't living off of sales, but mid-level bands get shafted. If they're expecting $80K from sales so each member can have $20K to live on and all of a sudden they lose $20K to downloads, then they have a dilemma. But if you're Metallica and you're making $5 million a record, who really cares if you loose a million bucks to downloads. Don't be greedy fucks! I see buying CDs as a means of supporting bands I love. When I write that check at the record store, I remind myself that I'm not just paying the Virgin Mega Record Monopoly, or Sony, I'm paying Clutch, I'm paying C.O.C.; I'm donating to the band to help them continue making music I love. If I'm only casually interested in a band and want to hear some tunes to see what they're about, then yeah I'll download or burn a few. But if you as a fan decide you are really into a band that you downloaded and you want them to have the ability to keep making records for you to enjoy, put your money where your mouth is and buy your own copy.

MM: Any last words for our readers?
Thanks to everyone who has ever supported Spiritu in any way. Think for yourselves and question everything. Later