"SPiT LiKE THiS. And don't you forget it.
Chromium-plated cosmic supertripping shock 'n' roll neon
sex fun all wrapped up in a deliciously devilish
exterior. We are your new fucking heroes."
So say Spit Like This on the bands Official MySpace page, and if you know nothing about them right now, expect that to change. With their debut album about to be recorded, the band that was voted 'Most Trashiest Band in the UK' are here to take the world by storm.
We caught up with lead singer Zion to talk about the band and the future.
KomodoRock: For those that are new to the Spit Like This, can you give us a little background on the band?
Zion: WeÂ’re a four-piece Sleazy Gothic Glam Punk band. 3 guys, 1 girl (and, no, she isnÂ’t the singer!). Been around for a few years gigging hard, raising our profile and raising hell. Was voted the Trashiest Band In The UK late 2004. Readers of Kerrang! Voted us the 8th Best Unsigned band early 2005. Shortly after that we released our first nationally distributed CD which went to number 1 on Amazon. Then we had about a year where everything kind of went wrong but, with new blood in the sublime shape of guitarist, Cyndi Rott; loads of gigs booked; management and labels looming plus an album in the pipeline, 2007 has so far been magic! If you want to know more, visit our site www.spitlikethis.com
How did the name come about?
A spitting contest between myself and bassist, Vikki, on the day we met. She was rubbish so I taught her how to “spit like this”. When we put the band together and started looking for names, that event reared it’s ugly head and it seemed good a name as any! Plus we like the sexual connotations of it.
Put on the spot, which 3 bands have influenced the band the most?
Adam Ant, Queen and Motley Crue – but not necessarily for the most obvious reasons. Our influences extend far beyond musical – we are more than a band, this is a way of life, so many of our influences are people who achieve things against all the odds and stand their ground.
What's the biggest gig you've ever played?
I think it was supporting Wednesday 13 at The Concorde in Brighton, Sussex. Amazing venue! But we also played there with Fozzy and, without doing a headcount, not entirely certain which show was bigger. We went down a bit better with the Weds13 crowd though. IÂ’m not including festivals in this as thatÂ’s cheating!
If you could put together your dream 3 band tour, who'd you pick?
SPiT LiKE THiS (circa 2007), Alice Cooper (circa 1975) and Metallica (circa 1989). That would be immense and would give me the most enormous erection!
What's the highest point of your career so far?
Too many highlights to pick one thing. The thing is, when you start out, all you want to do is get that first gig under your belt and that becomes a highlight. Then your first recording. Then your first decent support slotÂ…first decent headlining slotÂ…next recording so on and so forth. Things that stand out though are the aforementioned Trashiest band thing (we were pretty unheard of until that); the Kerrang! Unsigned thing, as that was a total shock; beating Oasis, U2 and the Foo Fighters on the Amazon charts; walking into HMV for the first time and seeing our CD on the shelves. That takes some beating. The biggest and best highlights are still to come though.
And the lowest?
Well, April through to November 2006 were pretty low points. We had wanted to release a compilation CD with every EP on that we had made (4 up to that point) just so that people didn’t have to keep buying 4 separate things. We wanted to do this without any fanfare or big deal but the label saw differently. They pushed it as our “debut album” which was never it’s intention. Needless to say, we fell out with them over this and it ended up taking over the next 6 months of our lives – never our plan!
But, you live and learn and, from that experience, we now realise we have to retain even more control than ever before. We also lost our long-time guitar player. The thing is, you have to experience the lows to appreciate the highs.
In November we recruited our new guitar player and, with no label and no management WE were able to determine our fate. 2007 has been incredible so far. Not only are we a much better band now, both sonically and visually, but we are more focused and there is a buzz around us again both with the fans and within the industry. Our new album will be the turning point, mark my words.
You also run the notorious Smell Your Mum clothing range. How has this helped with the band?
Like you wouldn’t believe! It was just some dumb idea that me and Vikki came up with so we didn’t have to get proper jobs. We figured, if we could flog a few rude T-shirts, it would put food in our bellies, pay for band stuff and, at a push, help market the band. Several thousand T-shirts later, smellyourmum.com has had over 7 million hits, is one of the best known “alternative” brands in the UK and has helped get the SPiT LiKE THiS name – and reputation – into many more homes than we could have done otherwise. We are 100% DiY in every way imaginable and that makes me very proud.
Your about to start recording your Debut Album (how come Scary Tales doesn't count?). What can fans expect from the album when it's finished and when are we likely to see it hit the shelves?
“Scary Tales” doesn’t count as it is a compilation CD. The recordings on there consist of everything that had been recorded to that point – 4 EP’s plus demos etc. We noticed, after doing high profile gigs, that fans were buying 2 different EP’s off Amazon (“Dragged Kicking & Screaming” and “Sleaze Sells…But Who’s Buying?”) and they would then buy older stuff off of our website. We thought this was a bit daft and figured we would just stick it all on one CD to make it easier for them. So, we did! Our label at the time though decided to plug it as the Debut SLT album. Not that we are ashamed of “Scary Tales” – it is part of our history and shows the development of the band. It is a great introduction to us (buy it on Amazon NOW!).
The Debut STUDIO album though will be the definitive SLT release. For a start, it will be the first thing with this new line-up. Secondly, we are throwing some serious cash at it and using a great producer (Paul Tipler, did 80Â’s MatchboxÂ’s debut album). We have a few labels already that want to license it but we will wait until it is recorded before we decide who to go with.
We don’t know everything that will be on it yet – we have 26 songs to choose from. It will have 12 tracks though, that much we do know. As with previous releases, it won’t be a straight ahead rock album. I cannot stand it when I buy an album and basically get 10 or 12 tracks that are weaker versions of “the single”. SLT doesn’t play by the rules – each song will have it’s own unique sound and style. And every song will be awesome!
10. Other than yourselves, who do you rate as the best up and coming glam/sleaze band out there?
You know what, I cannot answer this fairly. There are a lot of bands out there that are just re-hashing the Guns n Roses formula both in look and sound. We donÂ’t do that. Anyone that has seen us live knows that we are totally different from that, although there is a familiarity about us.
We get compared to everyone from The Misfits to The Cramps to Hanoi Rocks to Motley Crue and beyond. Every piece of music we have listened to, every event in our lives, every film we have seen – EVERYTHING WE HAVE EXPERIENCED – goes into the SPiT LiKE THiS melting pot to create our OWN thing. So, although I might like some of the music the bands are playing, I have no respect for them as they don’t inject anything NEW into it. So, I don’t see the point in it.
When the Crue came out, they took their influences from a band like The Sweet and Cheap Trick but they put their own spin on it. That is why they are great. And that is something most bands seem to have forgotten. If I see one more band out there holding a Jack Daniels bottle just coz Slash does, I will go fucking mad. We donÂ’t want to be the next Guns n Roses, we want to be the first SPiT LiKE THiS. Anyone that thinks we fall into that category has us completely misunderstood.
Oh and I also hate bands whose parents fund their “rock n roll” dream. For fuck’s sake, where have the TRUE rockers gone? They all think it is a designer haircut and a vintage T-shirt. FUCK OFF!
Let us know any important web links and where we can buy your stuff.
Well, we would love for people to add us on myspace – http://myspace.com/spitlikethisuniverse . Please also visit our huge main site, http://spitlikethis.com . Support us and feed us by buying something from http://smellyourmum.com and buy music from places like iTunes, Amazon, Play and all the other usual suspects.
We'd like to extend big thanks to Zion for answering our questions, and superb answers they were too. We'll keep you posted on the progress of the album as and when information is released, and if it lives up to the billing, it should be worth the wait.
Spit Like This will also be supporting The Misfits at The Electric Ballroom, London on 19th September, go down and support them!Â
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