As human beings, we’re good at seeing patterns where none exist. And that would seem to be the case when considering the re-emergence of Dundee lo-fi legends, Spare Snare ahead of the release of twelfth album ‘The Brutal’ in May.
It’s not too much of a stretch to see the last few years as an attempt to reclaim a status that had slipped away from them over the preceding 15 years or so.
Re-recording some of the band’s better-known songs with a legendary engineer (Steve Albini) certainly put the Snare back on a lot of people’s radar. That was followed with a boxset collecting the band’s entire BBC recordings, which focused primarily on the band’s heyday, but had sufficient later material to remind everyone that the Snare are still a going concern.
The final part of this cunning plan therefore would be an album of new material, again with a name producer. It seems to me like it’s actually a pretty good plan but it’s one I’ve entirely made up as the hearty laugh with which frontman Jan Burnett greets the idea indicates.
“No, it just comes from having the opportunity. For ‘Sounds’, Albini was interested, ‘yeah, you’re the band from the 90s, I’d love to work with you.’ We went to Creative Scotland with the idea of 10 Scottish engineers coming to a studio and having a day with Steve and then we had the rest of the week to make the record.”
Several years on from ‘Sounds’ the opportunity to work again with Albini provided the spark that led to ‘The Brutal’.
“We were probably at the very early stage of rehearsing new songs when I asked him. You’re never quite sure if he’d want to do it again after the first experience, but thankfully he did.”
However, with Creative Scotland funding not an option this time, the band had to find a way to pay for the record. Jan had a one-off solution to that problem.
“With this one, I turned 55 and freed up some pension money (laughs). I’m not into cars so I thought I may as well make a record. And thankfully Republic of Music offered to pay for the pressing and the distribution.
“That means I’ve got the control but also got that bit of clout as well that RoM can offer.”
With the business side settle, thoughts turned to what would go on the record.
“’Sounds’ was very much a project in getting Albini and his version of some of our historical songs. We could have done 10 brand new songs for ‘Sounds’ but I was terrified it would be shit! And that would have been a waste of time. But this time we got over that fear by rehearsing for a year and fine tuning and knowing it wasn’t shit.”
Following a lull in band activity over the early stages of the pandemic the incentive of the new record sparked the band into some serious song-writing.
“Most of the demoing came from either myself or myself and Barry (Gibson). And Graeme (Ogston) had an idea for one as well. There were maybe 12 or 13 but very quickly early on we got rid of some ideas so that we knew which ten we were working on.”
“We then fed them into the rehearsals every couple of weeks and pretty much deconstructed the demos and wrote them again, with a bit of a thread. So that’s why we all get a writing credit on it because it keeps everyone involved and everyone has a bit of it.
“Because we took a year getting the songs right, there was a lot of editing and a lot of chopping away. Lyric-wise every word counts because there were a lot that didn’t work.
“Once we’d rehearsed all the songs for this new album, we spent a day in Studio 2000 recording, so we had good multi-track versions of the songs. I thought it was going to be a waste of time but it was useful. Afterwards, everyone knew exactly what they were doing and we got more out of the Albini session without having to redo things
“It’s the only time we’ve done a record like this. The closest one would be the debut album ‘Live At Home’ where that was songs that I’d mainly written. But then a band was created and we played for a year and half or two years before we recorded it so we knew the songs.
“So, we’re doing it more like a real band this time!”
This extensive preparation gave the band confidence in the material.
“In terms of the songwriting and song structure, it’s quite variable. There’s quite a bit of instrumental in it rather than vocal, I was quite sparse with a lot of the vocals in terms of ‘was it actually needed?’.
“And also in the mixing we actually took out some vocals in one or two songs which were too much. It’s probably the first time we’ve heavily edited ourselves so that things weren’t there just for the sake of being there.
“So, we knew the songs were pretty good and that’s quite unlike us. But something’s changed, and without trying to sound like an arsehole, we’re a bit more confident now that the songs are good.”
After including different instrumentation on ‘Sounds’ Jan was keen to expand the band’s sound further on ‘The Brutal’ and sought out the services of two legendary session players – Gary Barnacle and Terry Edwards.
“It would have been too easy to use fake synthesized horns but I don’t really like those.
“I met Gary and Terry separately through different things a few years ago and said I’d love to work with them.
“Terry had known us through Peel sessions and stuff but to be honest Gary hadn’t but he was totally impressed.
“When we got the ‘yes’ from them, we knew where we had to keep the gaps and what was going to go on in terms of horns. That was a whole other element we’d not had to deal with before.
“Getting them on board was amazing and it was lovely to have them. They’d never met before but they came up on the train, got to know each other then it was straight into it for five hours. For me, it was great, a whole new experience.”
Jan reckons that the pair had a different type of influence on the sessions.
“I’d said to Albini who was coming but he hadn’t really clicked who they were. So it was interesting when they walked through the door and as soon as they played the first note, he totally uppped his game and then it was quite interesting!”
‘Sounds’ was recorded at Chem 19 but Jan was looking for a different studio for these sessions.
“Chem 19 meant a lot of travelling for me and Steve because we were driving back and forward every day to Glasgow. Whereas the rest of the band were staying at a hotel close by.
“So I was keen to use a studio somewhere on the east coast, with a wee nod to from being from Dundee, but somewhere that we could all stay.
“So, we all stayed in the Holiday Inn in Leith which was a 10-minute walk from Post Electric, the studio owned by Rod Jones.
“It was interesting having Rod as the engineer because he’s very much a producer. But he was running around for Steve and I’m sure he learned some stuff from him. And it’s incredible for him to have Steve at the studio as well.”
One significant change in recent years has been the expansion of the Snare line-up to six with the addition of Michael Lambert.
“We’ve not actually played live as a six piece but we have played with Michael as he sat in for Graeme at a show at Mono. But we’re turning into the Bad Seeds, which is not a bad thing!”
The six piece was supposed to debut live at two special shows previewing the new material in Dundee and Glasgow last year but these plans were scuppered when Michael caught Covid, forcing some last-minute rearrangement of the songs. One of the key aims of the shows, however, was retained as Jan recalls.
“I didn’t play guitar and I think it works. It gives us a bit of freedom and the rest of the band are all great at playing all their instruments, so why should I ruin it! (laughs)
“There’s still a bit of swapping about when someone’s maybe better playing bass on a particular tune than someone else and there’s a couple of keyboards involved in a couple of songs. So there’ll be some shit banter from me going on for those bits.
“But it does mean hiring a six-seater splitter van to do shows. There are no extra seats to have anyone else with you and one of us is the driver. So that’ll be … smelly! (laughs)”.
The band will primarily be relying on live shows to promote the new album.
“We can’t get monthly print as it’s a totally closed shop. But we’ve got one or two other things lined up.
“We are playing live a lot. Well, for us a lot because we never play live and when we do it’s one or two gigs.
“But we’re doing a full week of English dates going to a lot of places we’ve never played before. It’s also Eurovision week so we couldn’t play in either Liverpool and Manchester, which is why we’re in Sheffield!
“We just happen to be in Brighton on the day of release and are playing the Great Escape Festival, the industry festival that all the promoters tend to go to. So that’ll be interesting and it might help us a wee bit. Republic of Music have a fringe venue at that so we’ll be playing with them on album release day.
“After that we go back to real life and weekend dates, and we’re doing Dundee, Leith and Glasgow.
“I’ve also been speaking to HMV and we might be doing something there to help get the word out about the record.”
Finally reflecting for a minute on the future beyond the album’s promotion, Jan can’t see the band stopping any time soon but is uncertain how things will develop.
“In a way we’re stubborn. Well, I’m stubborn. And I just keep on keeping on whether it be Spare Snare or the Grand Gestures or Jan the Man, my electronic thing. Whatever I’m doing, it has to happen because it’s the arts side of my brain. So there’ll always be something.
“Spare Snare may be kind of slower to manage, since there’s six of us and you want everyone to consent to what to do as well.
“But whether there will be another Spare Snare album, I don’t know. We can’t afford Albini, so someone else would have to have to pay for it. Or we don’t use Albini and just do it on a four track and release it on cassette. But I quite like the idea of doing something onto four or eight track.”
‘The Brutal’ is released through Chute Records on Friday 12th May. It can be pre-ordered here or through all good record shops.
The band’s full list of tour dates is as follows:
Monday 8th May – North Shields, The Engine Room (supported by Charts & Graphs)
Tuesday 9th May – Sheffield, Sidney & Matilda (supported by RRRapid-Kool)
Wednesday 10th May – Leeds, Wharf Chambers (supported by RRRapid-Kool)
Thursday 11th May – Trowbridge, The Pump (supported by Ravetank)
Friday 12th May – Brighton, Republic of Music @The Great Escape Festival
Saturday 13th May – London, Stoke Newington, The Waiting Room (supported by Scottish Fault Lines)
Saturday 20th May – Dundee, Beat Generator Live (supported by Scottish Fault Lines and Concept Car)
Friday 26th May – Leith, Leith Depot, Vitamin C Club
Saturday 24th June – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
More at sparesnare.bandcamp.com / www.facebook.com/SpareSnare.
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