Spearmint

Promises don't always get fulfilled. But the promise Spearmint made a while ago with their first album "A Week Away" has been kept beyond expectations. Born during the britpop explosion, the band has kept her distance from that scene, avoiding to be caught in the inevitable backlash and developing a personal pop sound that has become all their own. Now you can instantly recognize a Spearmint song by the sheer brilliance of their melodic lines and the clever lyrics of Shirley Lee, possibly the best lovesongs writer in the world at this moment. That he can come up with something new and original each time while still talking about love and the somewhat difficult nature of relationships is beyond belief, still with every album the magic goes on. And though "A different lifetime" probably remains their masterpiece to this day, the following "My Missing Days" showed a band still in top form and in full control of their music. We took the occasion to talk with Shirley Lee as "A Leopard and Other Stories", an album built slowly in five years from b-sides and leftovers, hit the stores.

I love the concept of a full album being built bit by bit as A Leopard. How have you worked on the songs, did you try to give them a similar feel or were you trying to tell different aspects of a story with each song? And what exactly is A Leopard and Other Stories about?

As we explain in the sleevenotes to "A Leopard And Other Stories", the first Spearmint album that was released in 1998 was a collection of early singles and b-sides, that came into being while we were writing our proper debut "A Week Away". We were putting so much effort into "A Week Away" - we wanted it to be the greatest Pop album ever, and yet, without trying, the collection "Songs For The Colour Yellow" suddenly existed - we'd made an album without realising we'd made an album, and it wasn't too bad! It struck me then that we could have been deliberately making that album bit by bit, rather than it just happening.
So we had the idea that any opportunity we got from then on to do b-sides or tracks for other people's compilations, we would use to record songs for a future album that we would create little by little over a period of years.
That became "A Leopard". Every so often we would talk about which tracks would actually make it onto the album & how it was coming together, and what it would be called. Unlike other Spearmint albums, it was never intended to have one unifying theme or story - quite the opposite: we were keen to do lots of different things in different styles, so it did seem like a collection of short stories rather than a novel... The song "A Leopard" is about lost childhood (a bit like Rosebud in Citizen Kane), and the other songs are about all sorts of differing things.
It was very strange to listen to it when it was finished, as some of the songs were recorded 5 years ago - it's a real scrap-book of those 5 years for us - lots of great memories...
Sometimes "b-sides" albums can be good - bands tend to relax & experiment more. My favourite Hefner album is "Boxing Hefner".

What's your favouite songs on this album and why? Ours is "I invented someone", it was love at first sight even before we heard it on the album.

My favourite songs on any album change by the day, but on this one they currently are "Say Something Else" (because I particularly like the way the music builds through the verses), "Death Of A Scene" (enjoy playing this live), "The Last Bus Home" (again always enjoy this live), "We Dyed The Bathroom Green" (because I'd forgotten about this one & I find it quite moving).

Of course most of the songs are about love, as this is a constant subject of your lyrics. Why are you so driven towards writing love songs? Does this have anything to do with the music you are making?

I don't set out to write specifically about love, except on "A Different Lifetime" where we really focussed on the cycles of relationships and the lifespan of love... We write about anything that seems to reflect a particular aspect of life that it seems to be important to capture - obviously it has to move or excite us to want to go to all the bother of writing a song...... I have called it "bottling bits of life" before and that is what it is like: capturing something helps me to deal with it and seems like something that I am driven to do... hopefully if it seems important to me then it will also be of use to others, but that is very much a bonus - it is really driven from within, rather than to do with how others will react to it.
There is a lot about relationships because that is the thing that moves you. I like the fact that everyone leads normal, mundane working lives on the surface, and yet people have great dramatic things like love and death going on in their private lives on a daily basis.
Personally I did start making Pop music because I wanted to express these feelings and frustrations about my relationships, and I wanted to do it in an exciting, glamorous, romantic way - not just to write it down.

It never ceases to amaze me how you can write so many love songs without ever becoming trite or banal. This capacity comes from an intense sentimental life, from deep thoughts, desires, movies or what else?

Well I hope that if I mean it and get something out of the song, then it won't be trite. I hope we never release any songs just because it's time for a new album or a new tour. The writing should drive it - if we have nothing to say, then we should wait until we have got something to say. We are quite lucky because we release albums on our own label, so there is nobody saying that it is time for a new record or whatever, it is totally up to us. I admire Scott Walker saying he will only release albums which he is happy with even if that means only one per decade... It is everyday life that inspires us, so it is quite good that we have to work as well as do Spearmint. Movies and books can also get your juices going though.

You seem to have quite a strong urge to communicate, you often place spoken bits into your songs... and almost all of your albums have a narrative going on. Have you ever though of expressing yourself through other medias? literature, painting, cinema...

Yes, I would like to write a book and maybe a film (and would certainly like to do a soundtrack to a film). I have decided though, that it is best to concentrate on Spearmint for now, rather than diluting it with other things. When my favourite Pop stars start writing novels, or acting or painting, I never really think it's any good. So I might have a go at something else later. For now I'd sooner be a good Shirley Lee, than a bad Ernest Hemingway!

You have been around for quite a while. How have Spearmint changed since "Songs for the color yellow"? And how has the music around you changed?

Well you really can hear us finding our way around on "Songs For The Colour Yellow": the writing is a bit all-over-the-place and several of the tunes are played too fast and we're working with different engineers and producers in different studios, whereas on "My Missing Days" we are in control and Andy, who is in the band, produced it along with our friend Rhodri, and a lot of it was recorded at home. "My Missing Days" really sounds like Spearmint; like we sound as a band live.
I don't really know how the music around us has changed - it always seems to me that there are about 20 albums made each year that I love, and that's each year, every year, regardless of what is going on. When we started, Brit Pop was big here, then there was a sort of backlash against that, and now it seems to be coming back round again. We've never felt part of anything - we just concentrate on trying to do what we want to - that's the key thing: ignore everyone else & try and do what you want to, because there is only you will do that

What is the most accomplished of your albums in your opinion?

I think "A Week Away" has the most "big tunes" on it... "A Different Lifetime" is the most ambitious, and "My Missing Days" is the most Spearmint.. I like all three of those.

Our man DJ Enver says Spearmint songs are amongst the most danced on his dj sets. Somebody once told me you have a regular night djing in London. What records do you spin?

Samanthi and I do a night called "Faded Glamour" - we are currently searching for a new venue so that we can have it monthly. We play Northern Soul and Indie - I really enjoy it - it is a great excuse to go right through my record collection and pull out some fantastic tunes!

You also put a lot of reference to other music in your songs. How much musc is/has been important to you?

Music can make me leap up in the air or shout out or hug someone. It is the only thing that can do that - drink is good, food is good, being in love is fantastic, but music can actually sometimes capture the feeling of being in love. It also provides a soundtrack to everything you do & hence reminds you of people, places and feelings. When something is that powerful, it is no wonder we want to write about it. Having said that, I am trying to limit the number of references to other music in our songs - we have done it quite a lot and I don't want it to get completely out of hand!

What's the best thing about being in a pop band?

This is a cliche, but when you have been together for a few years, you start to work together as a team. Early on there are ego tensions, but now we really to work well together. The best thing about being in a band is now, in 2004, when we get together, and there is that great feeling of "being a family.

There's an UK indiepop compilation coming out from Rough Trade. How do you percevive the evolution of english pop from the inside. It seems that it's maturing, becoming more introspective and less immediate. Do you feel so?

I think it all goes in cycles - if lots of people make introspective records for a while then other people will get sick of that and want to make Poppy immediate stuff... at any point in time there is just a lot of different people in different places getting excited & emotional and turning it into songs. The thing that audibly changes over the years is to do with technology - a drum machine becomes cheap and popular for a few years then sounds tired & gets superseded, but the essense of the music is basically the same in 2004 as it was in 1984 or 1964: people singing about love or heartbreak or hate or buses, or whatever moves them....

Salvatore

Links:

Spearmint Website: www.spearmint.net
Spearmint@indiepop.it: bands/spearmint.htm