Spirit Award are a rock band from Seattle who I had the pleasure of meeting with before their Friday night set. I met with Daniel Lyon, the core songwriter, guitarist, and singer; and Chris Jordan, his longtime collaborator and bassist. The quiet zone of the press lounge was anything but, I could barely hear these guys because of the other band in the room relentlessly screaming their retard heads off. Even Chris was getting visibly upset by the noise. It was a nightmare. I like to see the glass half full, so I think of it as interviewing two bands at once! Spirit Award talked recording and writing great music, my mystery band shouted a whole bunch of bullshit nonstop. Very interesting stuff.
Interview #1: Spirit Award
S.U. Have you been to Boise before?
Daniel Lyon: Yes. We’ve been here a few times for Treefort. We were here last year. Treefort’s one of my favorite festivals, for sure. Always have a good time.
Chris Jordan: I like that the whole city is involved, it feels like. It’s very spread out. Even businesses that aren’t necessarily tethered to the festival. You just feel this energy, and everyone’s stoked. They can point us as being in one of the bands, like “What is your band called?” as they’re making coffee for you or whatever. You can tell everyone is pumped for the festival.
DL: It’s a really nice community vibe. I feel like we always have friends playing.
CJ: It’s like a reunion of sorts. We see other bands that we haven’t seen since last year, just hanging out.
Do you spend a lot of time actually “doing the Treefort” or are you just laying low?
DL: We do the thing. Yeah, we go hard. This year, I think we’re only playing the one show…
CJ: We did two shows last year, so we get to bounce around and check it out. We’re here until Sunday so we can just make a weekend out of it.
What can you tell me about your new album, The Fear?
DL: We started working on it a year and a half ago, and it just slowly developed over time. We have a few singles out now.
Did you have a deadline in mind when you started working on it?
CJ: The songs just started trickling in, almost. Then when we had four or five, we had a good starting point and idea of what the vibe of the record will be like, but that changed a little bit too.
DL: It had the bare bones of some songs and in January 2022 is when we started tracking. We got a few songs done, and I felt like, it’s moving now.
CJ: And then you went to that house…
DL: Yeah, I went to a house on an island outside of Seattle called San Juan and spent like a week there, and wrote and recorded a bunch of stuff for it. That was where the bulk of the writing and stuff came from, other than just trickling out. I think at some point, I kinda set a deadline of when I wanted it to be done, which got set back maybe a month or two. It was good to have a time to just have it be done. Otherwise you could be working on it forever. It’s good to just throw something at the wall and have to be done with it.
It was nice to have most of it recorded ourselves, and bits and pieces come from different studios. So it was nice to have a little more time with it and not rush it.
Is it helpful to go through multiple studios?
DL: I think it can be. Sometimes it’s nice to be locked in one spot, sometimes it’s nice to have a vibe change. We recorded some of it at our rehearsal space, and we record a lot at home, different houses, friend’s houses.
CJ: It helps with the cost, too, to not do it all in an hourly rate studio. We get a lot of tracking done on our own and go into a studio where we can do all the cleanup and fine tuning and stuff. When you don’t have the red light of “Let’s get this take!” because we’re paying a studio by the hour, we can just do it at our own pace, in our practice space, and yield some more creative results sometimes because we don’t have that restriction of “We could get a little weird here, but we are on the clock.”
The Fear is being released on ShareIt Music, I saw that a portion of the proceeds go towards MusiCares?
DL: Yeah, ShareIt Music is a non-profit label, they partner with Subpop records to distrubution and licensing for us. Part of ShareIt’s mission is to pick a non-profit as well to donate proceeds. On the last record we did, we picked Mary’s Place, which helps out people find food and shelter and jobs and stuff like this. We decided to choose MusiCares this time. They helped me a lot personally, in the last year. I didn’t have health insurance and support for mental health stuff, like seeing a therapist. Getting fitted earplugs, stuff like that. Even medical bills and emergency stuff like that. They’ve been really helpful.
The new single Pushing Forward, I understand it’s about keeping doing what you’re doing even when it get’s tough. Are there any challenges in particular that inspired the song?
DL: It’s about, you know, keeping pushing. Trying to get through the hard stuff, keep believing that there’s going to be good stuff. I definitely went through a rough time over the last year. Dealing with different things and trying to figure them out. Utilizing some resources, medicine, or plant medicine, whatever works for you.
Spirit Award played that night at El Korah Shrine. Don’t let Daniel’s reserved demeanor fool you: these guy’s go hard when they play live. The final song got pretty nuts when Daniel was climbing on top of stuff, swinging his guitar around, really putting out some great energy into the crowd. They were easily one of my favorite acts of the festival. Make sure to check out their new singles Pushing Forward and Western Violence, and watch for The Fear hitting shelves May 19th.
Bonus Interview: Screamin’ Jim and the Loud-Mouthed Shnooks
S. U. Have you been to Boise before?
Screamin’ Jim: It’s so funny that… God, She was like, “this is what you say.” I remember when we went on tour, and I saw that we were out of gas and some guy was looking at me. I looked and she was looking at me like, “yo, wait! This is crazy!” *All laugh louder than an elephant that got shot in the balls*
Do you spend a lot of time doing the Treefort, or are you guys just laying low?
SJ: That would be so crazy. *Band member starts watching fucking TikTok mid interview* HAHAHAHAHA There you go, that’s our final answer. That’s what that’s about.We’ll be there for the next five hours.
Did you have a deadline in mind when you started working on it?
SJ: That’s fuckin’ great. The Treefort Pie Hole is fucking crazy. He, one time, did an edible and (inaudible due to TikTok. No, really.) God, we’re gonna sound like such assholes! ■
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