Interview: SPiT LiKE THiS

Wozu braucht man heutzutage in der Musik überhaupt noch irgendwelche Genrebezeichnungen? Macht nicht jeder laut eigener Aussage die Mucke, die einem selbst am besten gefällt und die man eigentlich gar nicht kategorisiert sehen möchte? Macht es nicht Sinn, bei all den unterschiedlichen Genre-Mixturen und dem unübersichtlichen Schlachtfeld an musikalischen Einflüssen einfach nur von "Musik" zu reden? Die einen würden jetzt sagen, dass für sie die Musik eh immer nur Musik war. Egal, ob Rock, Pop, Hip-Hop oder Jazz. Sie hören alles. Andere, die bei ihrer musikalischen Sozialisierung irgendwo im Mittelalter stecken geblieben sind, die wollen alles fein säuberlich getrennt haben. „True Metal“ und „false music“. Ihr wisst, was ich meine. Brendan Perry von Dead Can Dance würde jetzt sicher vor Wut über diese Begrifflichkeiten glatt einen Kopfstand hinlegen. Eine der Gruppen da draußen, die auch irgendwie in keine Schublade passen und deshalb das Schubladendenken konstruktiv demontieren, sind SPiT LiKE THiS. Sie verbinden Elemente des Goth, Punk, Glam Metal und natürlich des Shock 'n' Roll. Das liest sich doch schon mal ganz gut! Aber auf der anderen Seite, ist es nicht ziemlich gefällig, wenn man die Geschmacksrichtung eines jeden Gaumens anzusprechen vermag? Wo bleiben da die Ecken und Kanten, die das musikalische Hörerlebnis zu einem unvergesslichen Akt machen? Vielleicht es es doch besser, wenn die Musiker sich innerhalb eines Genres bewegen und auch nur diesen einen Kreis an Fans ansprechen? Bevor wir dumm sterben müssen, haben wir Lord Zion, den Sänger der Truppe, einfach mal gefragt, was er davon hält und wo er den Hund begraben sieht. Außerdem berichtet er von der Veröffentlichung des neuen alten Albums „Normalityville Horror“ in deutschsprachigen Gefilden. Viel Spaß beim Lesen!

Das Interview:

Lord Zion: Hello Alex, good to meet you and thanks for having me. I am doing wonderfully, since you ask! Lord Zion: I think I invented the term “shock n roll”. I am certainly going to claim I did here. And, yes, I think all of those aspects can be found in our music. It is an amalgumation of things that I grew up listening to and love. I find it odd when bands sound just like another band. Why copy? We take influences and inspiration from others, then glue it all together to make the Spit Like This sound. Lord Zion: We decided to call it Glam Punk. Our attitude is very punk, very DIY, and our on stage performance has more in common with punk than anything in the rock arena. And we wear cool clothes, a bit of eyeliner, so that makes us a bit glam. I'm not a fan of categories though as then people don't allow you to move out of them and explore. Lord Zion: It has matured and got better. And, as I have gotten older and wiser, the songs are less about partying and sex and now much more about life, oppression, freedom ... things that affect us all. I am trying to cope with life via song. Lord Zion: It is not at all important. One of my favourite bands is Queen. They were around in the era where it was fine to experiment and, as a result, we have great songs like "Ogre Battle", "Sheer Heart Attack" then "Bohemian Rhapsody", "The Prophet Song" onto "Hammer To Fall" or "Radio GaGa". Artists aren't allowed that kind of freedom now. Rock music is supposed to be about rebellion but, if you dare stray away from the formula people associate with you, they don't like it. People should embrace change and not be so stuck in their ways. Lord Zion: It is not a concept album, but there is a general theme that runs through it. Life can be a struggle at times and the human spirit has to rally against that. A lot of this album deals with those issues. Nearly every song is a big middle finger up to someone or something that pissed me off. And it sounds GREAT! Lord Zion: Germany (Austria/Switzerland) is very dear to us. We love it over there and we think that, given the right exposure, German rock fans could really get into SPiT LiKE THiS. Delaying the release gave us an opportunity to get some more videos done and really concentrate on a solid PR push. It isn't the ideal situation but, these days, when it comes to releasing records, all the rules have changed! Lord Zion: CT is a legend, and rightly so. He is a joy to work with. The consumate professional but, at not stage did he act like he knew better than us, even though he clearly did. I spent 19 days in the studio with him and there was not one bust up; not one disagreement. I would happily do it over and over again. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we were the first band to sign to his new label! Lord Zion: It is a much more focussed record. The first album, if listened out of order, wouldn't have made much sense. It is a journey album. You need to start at track 1 and finish on track 13. It is a great album, but it is very different to “Normalityville Horror”. The first album was our statement piece. This was us saying “You think you know us? You don't know a thing!”. We wanted to say that we can do what we want, when we want, how we want. And we did. But with “Normalityville Horror”, I wanted to bring it back to how I first envisaged SLT. Very ryhthmic, stacatto underpinnings with some nice vocal melodies and heavy as fuck drums. It is very much a reflection of us live, whereas the first album was more of a studio album, if that makes sense? Lord Zion: Procrastination. Like with most things, if you just do it, it is easy. Thinking about doing it is the hard part. I tend to find, I won't write a song for ages, but then a few will come at once. I need to have something to say. If I have a story, the song ends up being better. Lord Zion: There is definitely a message. All four of us in the band were the freaks, geeks and losers in society. Looked down upon, despised and ridiculed. So the message is, “don't settle – fight for what you want and never take No for an answer”. As one of our songs says, “If I can do this, so can you”. Lord Zion: Yep, when I was 15 years old, our school did something called a "Pop Mime". I decided to do Def Leppard and I put together a little "band" and I was the “singer”. It was in front of about 1,000 kids and, by the end, I was hooked. It's been downhill ever since ;-) Lord Zion: I don't think it is the skill. There are way better singers out there than me that cannot get anywhere. And there are way worse singers that are on top of the world. I think it is about attitude. If you ACT and BEHAVE like a professional, then you are a professional. If you act like a cock, you aren't. Don't care who you are. Lord Zion: Before you leave, you think it is going to be tough but, when you are on the road, that becomes your life. There is so much going on, you don't really have that much else to focus on. Especially if you are visiting a new country. It is always nice coming back though. Lord Zion: At the moment, quite a lot. I am busy in many other areas as well as the band. Thankfully, since we got a manager, I haven't had to focus so much on the day-to-day stuff so have been able to explore other opportunities. For instance, I wrote a film called "Meet The Cadavers" that I am also producing (with Vikki) and codirecting. Me and Vikki are also starring in it. Lord Zion: I work out all the time. Have done since I was 18. I used to be really fat as a kid so had to do something. So I hit the weights 4 times a week, do cardio every day and watch what I eat constantly. I am the Arnold Schwarzenegger of rock. Just with much, much smaller muscles. Lord Zion: It is a double edged sword. Without the piracy, maybe a band could actually earn a living in 2013 without sucking Simon Cowell's cock. But, as piracy exists and we are stuck with it, it can mean that people discover you that wouldn't otherwise. If I had my way though, I would hit people with a big stick until the piracy stopped. It is theft and not something I agree with on principle. The more it goes on, the less choice people will have as no-one will have the money – or motivation – to invest in new music. Lord Zion: To a degree. You can never plan for lucky breaks, but you can be prepared to spot an opportunity and grab it. The longer you don't stop, the more people will hear about you. Eventually, you might have enough of them around to feed you. Lord Zion: The oddest was when we found a DVD on the wheel of our car. We put it in the machine and it was a video of a man's wife with a massive dildo who went on to pleasure herself with it until she was all Niagra Falls over the lens. That will haunt me until the day I die! Lord Zion: Because they are no longer getting the big royalty cheques from selling zillions of albums. To stay in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed, they have had to swallow their pride, get back together and give the paying public what they want. Lord Zion: The three M's! Music, Movies and Mayhem. Lord Zion: All I would ask is that people check out our various sites and connect with us online. So please visit us on: http://www.spitlikethis.com
http://www.facebook.com/spitlikethis
Support us by buying some very awesome merch from http://www.smellyourmum.com and check out the movie stuff at: http://www.facebook.com/meetthecadavers Thank you!
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