Spitalfield Interview - 01.25.2005
Interview with Mark Rose (vocals)Interview by Rob Todd | 01.25.2005 | Toledo, OH | Headliners
First off, Heather West at Victory says “hello.” What a woman! What a lady!
Yeah? I’ve never met her.
She’s an attractive 30-something, it’s the only way to describe her. You can put that in the interview, ‘Heather West is an attractive 30-something.’
I found a couple sources making fun of the name Spitalfield. Where did it come from and how do you feel about people making fun of it?
I think the people who make fun of it are the people who have no idea how to say it and what it means. Because, if you think we took the word “spital” and the word “field” and put it together, that’d be kind of stupid, I’ll give you that. Of course you’d spell “spital” differently than that [correct spelling is spittle]. The town in London where Jack the Ripper is from is Spitalfield, London. We got the name from there.
Our first guitar player gave us that name way back in 1998 and it just kind of stuck. I don’t think about it much anymore it’s kind of second nature to me so I’m always taken aback when we read a review and it’s like, ‘Aside from their name being the worst thing I’ve ever heard, the band’s alright!’ I’m always like, ‘Wait, I’ve heard a lot of worse things than that.’ I mean, for all the names out there just thrown together randomly or just random thing A or random thing B, I don’t see how Spitalfield can be any better or worse. People are entitled to their opinion and if they don’t know what it means then so be it, why would they know? I wouldn’t have known, until I found out.
We’ll let the world know.
Yeah, this interview is bringing it to the limelight. (Laughter)
Audioslave, now there’s a stupid name.
That band should be awesome. Think about it, front man from Soundgarden – that should be awesome.
I know this is a tortured, cliché question but, since you mentioned in previous interviews the desire to tour with bands of your choice, what are some of them?
I don’t know if I said that or not. Obviously, for a while when you’re first starting out as a fulltime touring band, no matter how long you’ve been in a band previous to that, no matter how talented or untalented you are, you have to take what you can get for a while just to get out there and get in front of people. Whether it’s touring with your favorite bands in the world or bands that you really aren’t into. At this point, after touring for almost two years fulltime we still have tour XYZ that’s just totally random and then occasionally a tour we’re really excited to be a part of. You meet a lot of cool people out there, sometimes bands you wouldn’t expect to be your new best friends become your new best friends. As far as tours we’ve been on with bands we’d like to go out with again, definitely bands like Homegrown, Silverstein, The Early November, Hey Mercedes, Limbeck, Billy Talent, we’ve made a lot of good friends. As far as bands we hope to tour with of course it’s extreme goals like opening for the Foo Fighters or something would be crazy. Sharing a stage with Dave Grohl would be awesome. Of course, that’s the sort of thing that may or may not ever happen but we still have that fingers-crossed mentality. The Foo Fighters…I’m trying to think of some other good examples –
“Chuck” [roadie]: Joan of Arc. (Laughter)
Charles Michael has just named Joan of Arc.
Since Chicago has emerged as a punk-rock breeding ground, what bands should we be looking out for from the Chicagoland area just to drop a few more names?
Since we grew up in the Chicagoland area scene, whether it was when we were in hardcore bands a long time ago or more recently, there’s always been a really good scene. It kind of comes and goes in waves as far as a national presence is concerned. There’s been times when there were so many great bands from Chicago that no one else would know about and then there’s times like right now where you have bands like the Alkaline Trio, Rise Against, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is, June, Reno – just tons of Chicagoland bands everywhere. I kind of take it for granted ‘cause it’s where I’m from so I really don’t think twice about it. There’s a band from Chicago called Divide By Zero who just recently signed to Jump Start Records, it may or may not help them gain anything but they’re a great band and I definitely recommend them. Then Victory [Records] signed some new bands, June, The Junior Varsity, and The Audition, all of which we know fairly well from living in the same area so that’s cool. In a much grander scheme of things, most people have probably heard of Rise Against but if you haven’t. You know Rise Against is definitely moving up in the world after they signed with DreamWorks and they’re touring with bigger bands now. Definitely check them out.
In separate interviews you’ve said both that you guys love Chicago but at the same time no one really wants to go home. Which is it? Why?
I guess it is both. I mean, when we’re not on tour we’re not doing anything. Sometimes doing nothing is exactly what you want to do, sometimes you need a break when you’re out for months and months at a time but, example, this is our last night of the Hawthorne, Number One Fan, Black Maria tour and it’s gone full circle and it’s only been two weeks. It’s been a great tour, we’ve made a lot of friends, but it seems like it’s so early for us to go home. We’re only going to be home for a few days before we go back out and do some more shows then we’re going to the UK with Fall Out Boy. We’re keeping busy but going home is exactly what it sounds like it is, it’s going to your own room and sleeping in your own bed and that’s nice every once in a while but when you’re in the middle of having a great time on the road you’re like, ‘Why does it have to end right now?’ Playing every night, that’s what we do and for a band that tours nine or ten months out of the year, going home is nice. Once you’re there it only takes a few days or a week to be tapping your fingers like, ‘Alright, I’m ready to go back out.’
Just like when college kids go home for break and after a few days you want to do nothing but go back to school.
That’s the thing, a lot of people who are home on extended breaks, by the time they’re going back to school they can’t wait to go back, same idea. This is a job, this is our career, this is our income but it’s the greatest version of that of all time. I mean, there are downsides to it of course but I wouldn’t trade it for anything at this point in my life. We’re young, we can do whatever for a few more years before we have to really decide if this is what we do for the rest of our lives or not.
First, Remember Right Now, how would you compare that album to your previous work with Spitalfield?
I think what separates it overall is working with a producer in an extended period of time. We’ve never really had the type of budget previous to that album to really work with someone who’s going to dig their hands into your music a little bit. It’s always been a friend who records in his basement or we book time with our own money and we only have this amount of time where we work with someone random that we don’t know. It wasn’t really a selective thing it was more like they were available and they can do it and here’s some money let’s go and that’s it. The main difference is the quality of it from a recording standpoint. Then also, it was the first time we really wrote a full-length album and by that I mean it wasn’t a collection of songs that got thrown into an album, it was written as an album. I mean, from this time to this time all together was an album. Faster Crashes Harder was a collection that we’d written over the past however many years and as far as an album’s concerned I don’t think it’s very continuous, it’s not like a full breath of air it’s more like a collection of songs, which is okay ‘cause when you’re starting out it’s what you have to do. I’d say the continuity and the quality of it is what sets it apart.
Second, what is the release date going to be for your next album, Stop Doing Bad Things?
Right now it’s scheduled for March 22. If all goes to schedule that’s what it’ll be otherwise a couple weeks after that.
I actually interviewed Hawthorne on January 5 and I noticed at that show that you’re live performance is about 10 times as intense as Remember Right Now. Is that what we can expect on Stop Doing Bad Things?
The one type of feedback that we always got from that last record, from kids who’d come to see us or from friends, more so from friends ‘cause they’re more honest, always noticed that the album does not capture the type of energy we have live and that’s a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you’re talking to. On a more mainstream level and a more out-of-this-scene level having a more polished sound and more dead on is maybe better, more of a radio feel, and us live is us putting on a show. We’re just having a good time and dancing and trying to get the crowd involved or whatever and it’s definitely harder; it’s definitely a harder sound. On this record we tried to capture more energy and a harder sound that we come across as live. By harder I don’t mean more screaming or more mosh parts but I just mean that the intensity has been brought up a little bit in the rawness of the recording. We did it with Ed Rose, who’s most noted for The Get Up Kids, Reggie & The Full Effect, Motion City Soundtrack, just working with him was a totally different experience and I’m not going to say that it was better or worse than working with Sean [O'Keefe] on the last record but the album is definitely different and the people who have heard it so far, being the label and close friends or bands we’ve been on tour with, have all had really nice things to say about it and the way it comes across. Hopefully the way we play live is more so what this record is about.
The name “Remember Right Now” worked really well with the songs on that album. Talk about some of the individual songs from Stop Doing Bad Things and how they relate to the album title.
Unfortunately anyone who’s reading this in the near future doesn’t have the record yet so it’ll be tough to give song titles without actually hearing the song. For starters, the song titles on the new record are kind of bizarre and they definitely relate on some level to the actual content but they’re really out there. The whole idea behind the new record – I’ll be better off explaining why we chose that title and the vibe that the album has. We chose the title Stop Doing Bad Things because it kind of strikes a chord on a couple different levels.
Level number one, a very third grade mentality of [shaking his finger], ‘Stop doing bad things!’ That just goes for a general evil, general bad. Just like little kid style bad, doing things you shouldn’t be doing.
We’re not a very political band but the state of our nation right now and the state of the world and the state of the music industry and everything that affects us – things are really fucked up right now. And while we’re still able to do what we love doing, kind of unaffected, when you take a step back and watch CNN or watch world news or watch something outside of what we’re being fed, you take this completely different outlook and it’s kind of like, ‘What’s going on here?’ “Stop doing bad things,” once again, can be that third grade mentality on a much grander level. Everyone should just wake up to what’s going on and, of course, the hardcore and punk-rock scene is very aware and very active in comparison to a lot of music scenes, which is cool. But even still, within the scene there’s a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of ignorance so there’s that.
Then the third and final level of “stop doing bad things” would be, and I don’t know if this makes any sense to you, but it’s where we take a shot at ourselves. This is the album where Spitalfield stopped doing bad things, this is us making a good album. We say that jokingly of course because everything we’ve done we’ve liked on some level at the time that we did it. Even looking back on it, we have fond memories of a lot it and we still play those songs live and they mean a lot to us but [it’s] just an open forum for people to take shots at us ‘cause we know there’s going to be that reviewer who said, ‘Spitalfield stopped doing bad things, yeah right, this album is worse than the last one.’ Just opening the door for it, and we know it, and we think it’s funny. It’s just opening the door for it and we think it’s funny and we’re gonna love that. Hopefully a majority of the reviews will say that this album is a lot better than the last one, a very well thought out title, but we know there’s going to be those kids who are like, ‘I put it in and immediately hated it, Stop Doing Bad Things is truly the worst thing I’ve ever heard,’ and that’ll be funny, I’m into that. You gotta take reviews with a grain of salt when you’re in a performing business ‘cause you have to take into consideration the other stuff that person’s reviewed. The only time reviews ever hit close to home with me, of course any nice review makes you feel good, is when it’s a reviewer that I personally admire or that I agree with. When I read someone’s reviews on a weekly or a monthly basis, a particular editor or whatever, and I agree with them then, it’s when they review my album, is when I’m nervous, ‘What are they gonna say about our record?’ Whereas, when it’s some dude who hates everything pop-rock, I’m not surprised when they don’t like our record and I’m not offended.
Has this tour been any different since you’re out with all Victory bands?
The one thing about this tour is that it’s been really well attended every night. It’s been a really big tour and I think that equates into a few reasons why. Obviously, number one, Hawthorne is selling really well right now and their attention, their hype is definitely bringing tickets. Also, with Black Maria as an opener, they’re a very very heavily promoted new Victory band and their album’s not out yet but at the same time there’s this Kyle-from-Grade thing goin’ on, this ex-Grade thing. Where some kids are coming out who otherwise wouldn’t come out to see us or Hawthorne who are there to see Grade’s new band, Kyle’s new band. Being around him is really awesome ‘cause I’ve looked up to him for years and years with all the projects he’s done. I mean, we’ve had our handful of really good tours and it’s not any different than those tours except that it’s a majority of Victory bands. It’s very exciting, for us, to see a band like Hawthorne take off ‘cause it gives us hope that there is something better with the right promotion and the right touring. It’s almost funny because we remember when they were A Day In The Life before they were Hawthorne Heights and we played one of our first shows with that band and here we are a year and half later and they’re huge and that’s awesome to see that happen to anybody. And they’re really cool guys so I wish them the best.
Do you have any comments about the actual name of the tour, “SkeleTOUR?”
(Laughter) We didn’t know it was called SkeleTOUR either, in fact, when we were getting our tour dates initially, I was getting them from Hawthorne’s web site ‘cause sometimes they’ll have them up quicker ‘cause they’re the headliner and it was like, ‘The dates for the SkeleTOUR are now up,’ and I was just like, ‘Okay, when are they gonna post our tour?’ Then I was like, ‘Wait, that is our tour. SkeleTOUR?’ It took me a minute to realize that it was really supposed to be Skeletor but they added the “U” to make it funny. And I was like, ‘That is sweet,’ ‘cause I loved He-man, I have all these little He-man toys. When I got the pass the first day in Ann Arbor [MI] I was like, ‘This thing is awesome!’ So, I’m sure it goes over the majority of the kids’ heads because even though He-man is from when we were younger, there are kids here a lot younger than us who maybe know who He-man is but have no idea – they don’t know Battle Cats, they don’t know all that stuff, that’s our era so it’s really cool. Yeah, I think it’s a great name for a tour.
What’s more annoying – “Freebird” or “More cowbell?”
“Freebird” is definitely more annoying ‘cause “more cowbell,” on the inside, I still kind of laugh at. Even though it’s old and it’s been used so many times I just get this visual image of Will Farrell and his extremely hairy tummy hitting that thing, that’s hilarious. And, on this tour, there’s plenty of cowbell.
It’s actually in one of Hawthorne’s songs.
We’ve got a cowbell in one of our new songs, we’re not playing it tonight, but we do. We really explored the studio space.
Is J.D. going to play it live?
Yeah, I think we’re going to get J.D. a mounted cowbell for his set so he can hit it while we play ‘cause it’s an actual part of the song.
What’s something you would include as “rock show etiquette?”
I’m going to expand upon Eron’s [Bucciarelli of Hawthorne Heights] etiquette. You can’t wear the t-shirt of the band you’re seeing that night. However, it’s worse to wear your own band’s t-shirt on stage, right? There’s no excuse for that unless, we got this from Metallica, you cut off the sleeves. You can wear your own band’s t-shirt on stage, while you play, if you cut off the sleeves. [laughter] Sometimes kids are wearing the shirt of the band they’re going to see only ‘cause they bought it at the show and they’ve got nowhere to put it. So, whatever, I don’t care.
Anything else?
Uhhh…. Yeah, there’s something else. To anybody who’s reading this interview, thank you very much for reading it –
All five of them.
To all five people who are reading this, thank you very much for caring what I have to say because there’s a lot of bands out there, there’s a lot of people with a lot of different opinions so thanks for reading what I have to say and thank you guys doing this interview ‘cause any promotion helps whether it’s five people reading it or 5000. It was nice meeting you guys, I hope you don’t think I’m pretentious or an idiot based on my responses. Once again, just to drop it, March 22.
