Nordic Flames has been emailing with frontman Spider of Sheffield rock'n'rollers Black Spiders. This is what it looked like when he told us about the bands future world domination, the pain of playing in Paris, his biggest fear and exactly what the band might listen to on a non particular day:
What is your aim with The Black Spiders? What started the band, what is the idea behind the Black Spiders?
- The aim with Black Spiders was to bring back some good rockin. We're a rock band, pure and simple. With tongues planted firmly in whoever's cheek, we wanted to have fun, with being comedic or gimmicky. Then World Domination, of course....... if that's possible for a new rock band nowadays. We got together to play some covers for a friend’s passing over and had such a blast that we didn't want to stop. It's hard, especially with all the “different” types of rock bands around at the moment. I'd hope we're not particularly easy to pigeon-hole, we'd rather not be labelled into any sub-genre. As I said, it's just ROCK, not dressed up as something its not. Let’s hope this buys us the cars, houses, trophy wives and islands we've been wanting all our lives…. haha!
The members of Black Spiders have been changing back on forth and I remember as you were first beginning to form, how the rumours of who was in the band and who was not, were floating around among metalfans in Sheffield. Damo, ex 3 Stages Of Pain was a questionmark for a long time.
- Hmm, maybe at that point, when we met, it was a little more ambiguous, regards members, as it kind of started out as my project and depending who was around at the time was 'in', to start things rolling. Though we have had problems with having a permanent Bass player. We have one now, in the shape of Adam 'the Fox' Irwin, also known as “Irwin the Fox”............... He joins the line up of animal related band members: “Tiger” Si playing lead drums, Ozzy “the Owl” Lister playing lead quitar, Mark “Dark Shark” Thomas also playing lead guitar and finally myself Pete “Spider” Spiby on vocals and guitar.
Who writes what and what inspires you to write?
- I'm the main songwriter in the band, though there are some songs where we have collaborated, but all lyrics are down to me. There has been a lot of subject matter for these songs: Wrestling, Zombies, Viking warriors, Religion, Sexy Soft drinks, the Devil, Witchfinders, Pilgrim Fathers, KISS and other musical influences, Vinyl records, Ladies, the list is endless.......I guess it's all very comic book - Boys Own adventure stuff......
You released your brilliant single before Christmas and went on tour with Airborne, how did that go?
- Thanks that means a lot . Airbourne was great. Amazing blokes, amazing live band, all round gents. They were so good to us and gave us as much room as we needed for whatever we had to do. The crowds were awesome. I have never experienced anything like it, especially as a support band. The Euro audiences literally went completely nuts for us. Welcomed us with open arms and horned fingers...... brilliant.
Any fuck ups on the road or did it all go ok?
- No fuck ups, each show got better and better, so by the end of the run of dates we were on fire....... We had a lot of fun while we were out, even thought there was a lot of driving miles between shows and in a van, its not always fun.
Any interesting anecdots to share?
- The Paris show was pretty crazy! We were made late by the crazy road works which were going on around the city centre and that kept sending us around and around, like we were circling the venue for some reason, never able to get in. This coupled together with the fact that we hit the centre around rush hour, made the whole experience quite stressful and mental. By the time we reached the venue, everything was running late, Airbourne had the same problem getting to the venue that we'd just been having. There was a queue outside the venue already, which was massive, as the gig was sold out. So we quickly loaded in, set up and did a sound check in 5 mins and they opened the doors as we finished. We had some label people from the UK there to see us and their train back to London was about to leave in 40 mins. As this was really important we went on straight away and rocked the house for 30 mins. Between loading in, setting up, sound checking, playing the show, setting down and loading out, it was exactly 90 minutes...
It is not only in Paris that the front man runs on a tight timetable.
Spider, you are a man with much going on at once – managing 65daysofstatic and The Mirmar Disaster as well as leading The Black Spiders, how do you do it?
- Ha, well I keep asking myself the same thing.... At least I'm not managing Black Spiders too.....That's in the hands of a professional.
I've worked with bands for a while now, especially 65days and luckily the crossover of releases/touring, hasn't made it too difficult for me to actually get this going, but now it's important to me for Black Spiders to work. I'm pretty confident and obviously I work very hard. LOL!!
What do you prefer, the life of a manager or it of a musician? What would you choose if you had to?
- I would prefer to be a musician, I guess, as it's a lot less work, but management has made my living for the last eight years, so if I really had to choose it would probably be very difficult.
And what is it with Sheffield producing so many good bands at the moment?
- Don't know, maybe people want to escape from Sheffield? I eventually got out. Haha. It's got a good history of bands, though not all ROCK, so not really a novelty, or new...... Something in the water int it.
Just like people speak of a Gothenburg sound, is there such a thing as a Sheffield sound?
- Hmm, I guess everyone has their own internal soundtrack, though I guess it depends if you're all from the same place…… mentally too. Black Spiders are made up of people that are well travelled and though our base has been Sheffield for a short while, we do not have a “Sheffield sound” par se. When people talk of a Sheffield sound, then it's usually bleak industrial-eque pop, or very “thick” accented vocals. But with all the different types of music going on there I think it's safe to say that is nonsense.
How useful is Myspace and Internet for a band today? How important have these things been for you?
- Well we have a healthy number of people down as our “friends” on MySpace and I'm sure it helps when the music industry is watching, though undoubtedly the proof is when you go out and tour I guess and see who shows up and who knows the songs. Though for us that's not hard. No one really knew our songs when we went on tour with Airbourne, but by the end of the night we had everyone singing along.
Speaking of the Internet, where do you stand on downloading?
- I'm all for it. It's the future. I do prefer to have physical product in my hand and love vinyl, but what's the use of railing against it? Free downloads seem to be clutching at straws though, unless you have a huge marketing plan behind it like Radiohead did with “In Rainbows”, or Nine Inch Nails did with “Ghosts I-IV”, where they drew people in and then hit them with a physical release that included extras and lots of artwork. Very clever.
What do you listen to yourselves?
- Ourselves, yes we listen to ourselves, all the time!!! Can't get enough…… as KISS once said in their “Disco” song... Seriously though, we do have a varied and wide music taste obviously...... New and Old, contemporary and totally obscure. Here's a sample of what all 5 of us might listen to in any one day in no particular order:
Supersuckers - Dirty Seattle mud
Aerosmith- Boston Stones
Black Sabbath - Northern Soul
Van Halen - without Dave, they're nothing............
Afghan Whigs - at times they reach trough to your bones and mark their name
the Who - crazy English guys
Honky - one of the best bands around from Austin
Speedealer - Austin band newly reformed supporting Misfits WOAH !!!!
TurboNegro - you know
Zeke - another Seattle punk shlock
the Dead Kennedys - genius
KISS - godfathers
Earth - Seattle anyone., there's a theme......
UpperCrust - more ACDC than Airbourne (joke)
the Onyas - Austrailian punk at ts best
Sonny Boy Williamson - Blues legend
Jerry Lee Lewis - the man
the Dwarves - the idiots
Mogwai - the scotch
Bessie Smith - a lady who knows how to let it all go
Black Sabbath - Brummie emo
Sex Pistols - literally 'dicks'
the Breeders - better than the Pixies
the Cramps - dirty fuckers
Blue Oyster Cult - more cowbell !!
Shellac - like the sound of crushed Beatles
MC5 - the original HM band
GvsB - Awesome scuzz
UFO - childhood dreams
Torche - they play the BROWN note
ZZ Top -boogie woogie fun time
New Bomb Turks - punk as fook
RTX - dripping in sleaze
the Hives! - showmanship shows through, even in the music
JSBX - Whoop Whoop!!
PJ Harvey - Goddess
the Jesus Lizard - the business
Rolling Stones - White boys blues
G'n'R - even the new album is OK
Johnny Cash - hurting kind
the Melvins - mindblowing
the Stooges - up there with MC5
AC/DC - Not really sure what they sound like.....
Blind Willie Johnson - A.M.A.Z.I.N.G
Black Sabbath - Gods own no.1
Empire of Shit - Austin gods
Big Business - Majestic nonsense
Mudhoney - dirge
Journey - AOR pop at it's best
Mastadon - metal jazz
the Young Gods - Industrial Mega Gods
the Bulemics - again Austin, what's with this town...?
My Bloody Valentine - Noise
Nashville Pussy - rock and/or roll
the Revolting Cocks - noiseniks
Public Enemy - the Word
Mark Lanegan - the voice
Lynyrd Skynyrd - the message
Grady - again, Austin magic
Big Black - yeah, yeah, yeah
Black Sabbath - Dark Midlands action
Beck - just for the becktionary
Scratch Acid - dirty southern electro
Mars Volta - mind blowing acid trip
Soundgarden - always better than Nirvana
GG Allin - the shit
Motorcaster - the most underrated
The Sword- Sabbath tribute band done good
Butthole Surfers - heavy mental
Tad - heavy, heavy mental
QOTSA - one good reason to want to start a band
Where do you see the band in five years? Is there a grand plan?
- See above re: World Domination and of course 4/5 albums in..... being recorded on our own remote island somewhere.....
When do you plan on releasing the album and what can we expect off it?
- Well, once we have a deal we'd like to get something out as soon as possible, hopefully in 2009!! We'd like to shake things up and hopefully shock some people, get lots of radio airplay and move on to playing huge sell out shows.
What are your plans for 2009? Can we look forward to any tours? We would of course love to see you play in Berlin or Stockholm anytime soon.
- We're hoping to do as many shows as possible. Obviously it all depends on any good supports we get, or if possible, our own dates around any releases we actually get out. We have a couple of Euro tours we are in the running for.
And last but not least, I hear that the black widow spider has made it to Sweden now, people are scared… what are you scared of?
- Personally what scares me the most is like most people, the unknown. I've been writing a film script with a friend of mine for 2 years now, called “You go first” and the main thing that we always come back to is the things you can't comprehend. Always a good start, I think.
Thanks a lot for taking your time and keep up the good work!
- Thanks for asking. Spider x
Black Spiders are touring the UK with The Parlor Mob in March and April. Check out their MySpace for more details.
