Regina duo begin to lay down studio plans for upcoming releases
The Spoils, an indie rock duo from Regina, will be making their return to Saskatoon tonight, Aug 2, at Vangelis.
Other performers include Saskatonians Shockflesh and Winnipeg’s Flying Fox and the Hunter Gatherers.
The Spoils’ most recent foray into Saskatoon included a stint opening for the recently reunited Despistado. Live, bassist and front woman Riva Farrell-Racette immediately commands attention with her punctuated growl, while drummer Dustin Gamracy holds it all down with effortless-yet-complex backbone drumming.
Amidst the low end thuggish noises of a bass amp speaker being repeatedly hit, The Spoils deliver glorious fuzzed-out anthems for those who like their rock loud like the business end of a Boeing 747.
Ominocity recently caught up with Riva for a chat on upcoming Spoils records, loop pedals and the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards Festival in Winnipeg.
Ominocity: Any plans for a Spoils recording? If so, what can people expect?
Riva Farrell-Racette: We are heading up to Saskatoon this upcoming weekend to record a couple tunes with Barrett Ross. We chose the two songs that we thought would best show the range of the band – one is vocally driven with catchy melodies. The other is a bit heavier and more riff-centric.
We are also recording an EP in early 2014. We’ve been finalizing plans to work with Matt Bayles from Seattle. We are pretty darn stoked on this.
Editor’s Note – For those who don’t know, Matt Bayles is an engineer and producer who has worked with Cursive, Mastodon, Isis, The Sword, Murder City Devils, Botch and The Blood Brothers. He was also a member of Minus the Bear.
OM: You’ve played some fairly high profile shows in Saskatoon – has your live show or your sound changed since OMFEST?
RFR: We have been blessed with folks really getting behind the band. OMFEST and MoSofest were exciting shows for us. The Despistado shows were also killer. To play a string of shows within a short period was good for us. I think we started to feel a bit more comfortable on stage by the end of it.
We are still trying to perfect performing these tunes live. The ultimate goal is an error-free set that flows song to song. The set continues to be a work in progress. With two of us, we’ve got a lot to keep dialled down. I think we still have a long way to go, which is exciting in a way. Our latest tunes have made use of a loop station. It just kind of opens up another possibility, which in turn opens up more inspiration and options for writing.
OM: Any plans for touring this fall?
RFR: We are going to keep it close to home until 2014. The plan is to keep on writing and to go into recording with a strong roster of songs to choose from.
We have applied to play for BreakOut West and we are keeping our fingers crossed for that one. We are also playing August 18 for the Aboriginal People’s Choice Music Awards Festival in Winnipeg. That show is with Derek Miller, Ghostkeeper, and Nick Sherman. It should be a good one!