We caught up with Liverpool’s rising talents SPINN, Jonathon Quinn – Rhythm Guitar/Lead Vocals, Andy Power – Lead Guitar/Keyboards, Sean McLachlan – Bass/Backing Vocals and George Whitehead – Drums formed in 2015 and have been causing a stir on the music circuit ever since.
Their debut single ‘Green Eyes’ kick started their career in a thriving Liverpool scene with a quick follow up indie rock track ‘Bliss’ that “aims to deliver the chiming and dreamy guitar tones heard in Green Eyes but in a harder hitting fashion.” But how do you stick out from the crowd? Well, we’ll let the lads explain.
Tell us about your aims when creating music, and where does that aim stem from?
“Our aims when creating music are to create something hopefully enjoyable to our audience and for it to reach as many people as possible. The aim definitely stems from the feeling we get when we write a new banger and what it’s like when someone at a gig comes up to us and tell us they particularly enjoyed a song. That then leads to us recording it in the studio and getting more feedback from there.”
What was the catalyst for picking up instruments and wanting to start a band?
“In our 15-year-old minds, it’d be a sure fine way to pull and look cool, little did we know it didn’t do that for us at all, but yeah, we were pretty much the quiet outsiders in school, we weren’t big shots who everyone stared at when we walked into the school canteen. We just began getting into our own music and we saw the whole world surrounding that much more appealing and accepting than the brutal hierarchy that school had to offer, so we used it as an escape from people, teachers, lessons and to be honest, it’s cool if you can play guitar at 14, but fucking everyone plays one now so it’s more what you can do with it.”
Were you very influential to music when growing up or did you establish your own musical preferences?
“We were influenced by lots of different music but we definitely all established a preference for bands and guitar music at the start of our adolescence, then in more recent times our tastes have diverged from being only band influenced by all sorts of stuff which is definitely helping develop our sound as we’re taking from a wider influence such as jazz and funk, which you can actually hear in Green Eyes with the jazz chords and funk rhythm in the guitar solo.”Tell us about what it was like when you first started writing?
Tell us about what it was like when you first started writing?
“Pretty terrible, our frontman Johnny used to write SPINN-esque songs in his old band, and they rejected it, meanwhile Andy and Sean were writing fragmented chord progressions that didn’t fit but eventually all fitted together when Johnny left his old band and we just gelled together and it’s been a steady process ever since.”
What’s the music scene like in Liverpool at the moment? Any band recommendations?
“It’s alright like, not many bands writing our style of music though which you could argue is a good thing, but we feel like something is slowly starting to brew up which is promising. However there are a few bands that we really enjoy that are local to Liverpool who we believe deserve some more recognition such as Echo Beach, our dream pop pals who we are planning a headline gig with, and our other mates SPILT who are a “psychedelic grunge” outfit, one of the best local live acts we’ve seen!”
How excited are you to be going on tour with The Sherlocks?
“Well, unfortunately it is not a tour, but it is a slot at their sold out O2 academy show in Liverpool which we are absolutely buzzing to play. We’d love to go on tour with them in the future as we feel their audience would hopefully enjoy our music and give us a chance to reach out even further.”What and who influences you musically?
What and who influences you musically?
“Lots of different stuff, with the guitar side to the music mainly clean chorusy tones, so kind of like an early Cure or Smiths thing as well modern stuff like DIIV, but the roots of the song ideas can come from literally anything, such as a jazz chord progression. We love artists such as King Krule who was an influence behind our first single Green Eyes, and bands like The 1975 for their attitude to music as well as early Arctic Monkeys with their relatable character and background who just made you think “Fuck it” let’s start a band when you’re like 14 or so.”Describe your song-writing process?
Describe your songwriting process?
“We aren’t fancy arses writing stuff on laptops, harps or other west musical utensils, we just usually have to jam ideas out on guitars because it’s all we got. So usually Andy or Johnny and sometimes Sean come up with a chord progression on a guitar, then lead guitar, lyrics and a bassline is added along when presented to the full band, then we demo it, send it to our drummer George who writes his own drumbeat for the track and we come together in band practice and play it. Pretty straightforward to be fair.”
What was it like recording your debut single ‘Green Eyes’?
“It was poltent, we saved up dough for ages to fund the recording in the studio, then we just had a lot of fun playing it. We finished the song in a day and it felt like it really just came together well.”
Although you are in a band, do you still have to work day jobs in-between live shows?
“We’re all either in Uni or College currently, working a wide range of jobs ranging from Bar work to Dog Walking on the side to make ends meet. Our jobs fund the studio and equipment for the most part, but it never gets in the way of the band as we make sure the shifts aren’t in places which would clash. We hope to leave our jobs one day and live in Hollywood, which is our ultimate goal in life TBH.”
How would you like people to respond to your music? Do you wish to connect emotionally with the audience or is it just about having a party?
“We want people to connect more emotionally with some of the songs, which we are saving for our EP but we feel as though our singles are a mix of both. The topics of Green Eyes and Bliss, you can connect emotionally with but also have a party to them with, we think anyway. But we aren’t writing House bangers, just yet.”
Finally, do you ever see your sound changing from the type of indie pop you write?
“I’m not even sure what we are right now, but every band changes their sound along the way, and we believe that’ll happen to us, we don’t want to make the same record 10 times, it’s just fucking boring we reckon.”
SPINN will join The Sherlocks on their sold out show on 11th February at the O2 Academy 2, Liverpool. You can also hear their new track ‘Home’ on March 3rd on IndieCentralMusic.
