Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / The Perfect Storm With COURTNEY LaPLANTE From SPIRITBOX
Transcript
- 0:20Speaker 1: Hi.
- 0:21Speaker 2: I'm Courtney. I'm from the band's spirit Box and we
- 0:23Speaker 2: have a new album out. It's called Tsunami C Beautiful Courtney.
- 0:27Speaker 3: Thanks for joining us today.
- 0:29Speaker 4: Hi Hello.
- 0:30Speaker 3: So, as you mentioned, spirit Box release your sophomore albums
- 0:33Speaker 3: Tonami on March of seventh, so not long now. How
- 0:36Speaker 3: are you feeling about it with D Day approaching?
- 0:39Speaker 2: I guess well, there's a lot of work went into it,
- 0:42Speaker 2: like the planning and you know that, like when you
- 0:46Speaker 2: do a full length album, it's usually if you do
- 0:49Speaker 2: it more traditionally, like how we are doing this one,
- 0:51Speaker 2: it's like this whole dramatic, climactic rollout because you know
- 0:56Speaker 2: you want to you start promoting it. You want you
- 0:58Speaker 2: wanted to give it a fair shot, you want everyone
- 1:00Speaker 2: to hear it, so you start promoting it early and
- 1:03Speaker 2: so it's just this huge, big, like climactic thing.
- 1:08Speaker 4: Like you said, it's like D Day.
- 1:09Speaker 2: So it's I'm at the point now where I'm really
- 1:14Speaker 2: excited because now, like the this is like the fun part.
- 1:19Speaker 4: Everyone hear it.
- 1:21Speaker 3: So can tell us a bit more about the album
- 1:23Speaker 3: from musical perspective and what you're done.
- 1:25Speaker 4: For with it?
- 1:27Speaker 2: Well, I don't like, I don't normally say this till
- 1:30Speaker 2: after the album comes out. But the all of our work,
- 1:35Speaker 2: I would, yeah, everything everything we've ever made, like all this,
- 1:39Speaker 2: any body of work, it's always like a concept album,
- 1:42Speaker 2: but we just don't like market it as a concept album.
- 1:46Speaker 2: But each each so this one is no different like
- 1:48Speaker 2: each each body of work is its own little story.
- 1:53Speaker 2: So this one, the story of this one is like
- 1:57Speaker 2: it's just kind of representing lyric like myself and then
- 2:02Speaker 2: instrumentally Michael kind of expressing the push and pull that
- 2:08Speaker 2: we feel being from an island.
- 2:12Speaker 4: Off the west coast of Canada.
- 2:14Speaker 2: It's called Vancouver Island, and it's interesting living there. If
- 2:17Speaker 2: your goal is to leave the island to go play
- 2:20Speaker 2: your music to other people, as you guys know too,
- 2:23Speaker 2: it's it's same same. I think that a lot of
- 2:26Speaker 2: Australian bands feel sometimes as well.
- 2:28Speaker 4: When they're trying to leave.
- 2:29Speaker 2: You just feel like so remote and isolated and it
- 2:31Speaker 2: feels like impossible to leave, and then you leave and
- 2:37Speaker 2: you kind of miss it. So that kind of like
- 2:40Speaker 2: really intertwines to me with like depression, you know, like
- 2:45Speaker 2: like like deteriorating mental health.
- 2:48Speaker 4: There's like the deep depression and then.
- 2:52Speaker 2: There it can be like mania and then deep depression
- 2:55Speaker 2: and and it's just so like like polarizing. So it
- 3:00Speaker 2: reminded me of the ocean. It reminded me of growing
- 3:04Speaker 2: up surrounded by water, and it reminded me of how
- 3:09Speaker 2: you know.
- 3:10Speaker 4: Where we are from where we are at sea level.
- 3:14Speaker 2: Like if the big earthquake, as everyone here calls it
- 3:17Speaker 2: the Big One ever happens, our whole island will either
- 3:23Speaker 2: completely be submerged by water and we'll all die, or
- 3:29Speaker 2: or at least will be even more cut off and
- 3:32Speaker 2: will be no one will be able to get us
- 3:34Speaker 2: any food or anything.
- 3:36Speaker 4: And so so it's like it's just kind of like.
- 3:38Speaker 2: That that existential dread under the surface that you kind
- 3:44Speaker 2: of push down and suppress, and you have to live
- 3:46Speaker 2: your life. You have to kind of like push it
- 3:49Speaker 2: all the way down and not every day wake up
- 3:51Speaker 2: and be like, hopefully it's not.
- 3:52Speaker 3: Today, rather blake for the start of day.
- 3:56Speaker 2: I know.
- 3:59Speaker 3: So at least the singles No Loss, No Love, Soft Spide,
- 4:02Speaker 3: and Perfect Soul, and each of those songs is different
- 4:05Speaker 3: in its own way. So are they a good representation
- 4:08Speaker 3: of the album as a whole or they discratch the surface?
- 4:11Speaker 2: I think they are, But you know, I'm so close
- 4:13Speaker 2: to the music, Like it's kind of hard for me
- 4:16Speaker 2: to like try to be a little bit more objective.
- 4:20Speaker 2: It's going to take a while for me to see
- 4:23Speaker 2: it through the eyes of other.
- 4:24Speaker 4: People right now.
- 4:25Speaker 2: I just I can only see it through through my eyes,
- 4:29Speaker 2: where I'm just so excited for every single new song.
- 4:32Speaker 2: So I think it's a good representation. But I just
- 4:37Speaker 2: I think that because we're a new band, like every
- 4:40Speaker 2: song we make is a feels like a big departure
- 4:44Speaker 2: from what we did before, because there's really not a
- 4:46Speaker 2: lot of body of work to like reference back to.
- 4:50Speaker 3: Yeah, it follows on from your massively successful debut with
- 4:54Speaker 3: Gerald Blue, So was was a temptation there to just
- 4:58Speaker 3: rehash the winning formula on that because you knew it
- 5:00Speaker 3: worked so well, it was it important for you to
- 5:02Speaker 3: move forward from that.
- 5:04Speaker 2: I can't really I still haven't figured out and I
- 5:08Speaker 2: haven't ever really heard anyone figure out like what that
- 5:13Speaker 2: is for our band, because if I base it off
- 5:16Speaker 2: of like the song that really elevated our band at
- 5:22Speaker 2: that time, and I base it off like streaming numbers
- 5:28Speaker 2: and stuff like that, our song Holy Roller was it
- 5:32Speaker 2: probably would have been like very profitable to continue making
- 5:35Speaker 2: that song because it had a great response.
- 5:38Speaker 4: But so yeah, I don't, I don't know, I don't.
- 5:43Speaker 2: I feel like it's a sister album, but it it
- 5:49Speaker 2: does feel like, you know, that one was people that
- 5:52Speaker 2: were a little bit less sure of themselves and felt
- 5:57Speaker 2: a little bit more repressed, and then this one is
- 6:00Speaker 2: music made by people who don't have any like obstacle
- 6:05Speaker 2: that they can like pinpoint to be like, well, I
- 6:08Speaker 2: could have done this better if I had had yeah,
- 6:11Speaker 2: you know, if I didn't have to work sixty hours
- 6:13Speaker 2: a week or at my job I hate, or like
- 6:16Speaker 2: didn't have a butt. You know, I had to record
- 6:18Speaker 2: it in a kitchen because I couldn't afford to go
- 6:20Speaker 2: do it in the studio. You know, those those obstacles
- 6:23Speaker 2: are lifted, and it's just people that are we have
- 6:27Speaker 2: no excuses to not make the best music we ever made.
- 6:31Speaker 2: So I feel like it's really I feel like it's
- 6:33Speaker 2: different enough. But again, I feel like every musician when
- 6:36Speaker 2: they we make new music, we're just so excited about
- 6:38Speaker 2: it and we like we just reinvented the wheel.
- 6:41Speaker 4: But I don't know.
- 6:44Speaker 3: Son obviously opens with the track Fagana, which musically has
- 6:49Speaker 3: the intensity and field of the tsunami before there's a
- 6:52Speaker 3: moment of time and then it just explodes, like it's
- 6:55Speaker 3: a perfect way to start the album. Was it was
- 6:57Speaker 3: it intended like that?
- 6:59Speaker 2: Yeah, I think when when Michael started making it, I
- 7:03Speaker 2: was in the other room and I was actually I
- 7:07Speaker 2: think I was. I think I was cleaning the bathroom
- 7:11Speaker 2: and so I was like scrubbing and stuff and I
- 7:14Speaker 2: heard that riff start and I.
- 7:15Speaker 4: Was like, this is the intro. And he was having
- 7:18Speaker 4: the same thought in that other room, like this is
- 7:22Speaker 4: the intro of the record. And I think it's kind
- 7:26Speaker 4: of that's the that's the more.
- 7:28Speaker 2: Subtle thing, because like when you're the vocalist, things are
- 7:31Speaker 2: less subtle.
- 7:32Speaker 4: They're more.
- 7:34Speaker 2: On the nose, in your face because people can understand
- 7:37Speaker 2: what you're saying.
- 7:38Speaker 4: But then like the sub level is the music part.
- 7:42Speaker 2: Just so that's a great example of like, you know,
- 7:45Speaker 2: when Michael's writing music, he can't say any words he
- 7:49Speaker 2: has he can only express it through music. So I'm
- 7:52Speaker 2: very very pleased that you've felt the the story through
- 7:56Speaker 2: that of like this you know, giant wave coming to
- 8:00Speaker 2: destroy everything.
- 8:01Speaker 3: It's very it was quite impactful.
- 8:02Speaker 4: It was good, thank you.
- 8:04Speaker 3: No, right now, I know you're not supposed to pick
- 8:07Speaker 3: your favorite children, but do you have a personal favorite
- 8:10Speaker 3: on the album?
- 8:11Speaker 2: It's different, Like every time I listen to it right now,
- 8:16Speaker 2: right now, it's the right How's the final song on
- 8:20Speaker 2: the album that's my favorite one?
- 8:21Speaker 4: Right now? It's called Deep End and that I'm very
- 8:26Speaker 4: very happy.
- 8:27Speaker 2: I went on a walk yesterday and listened to that one,
- 8:30Speaker 2: Like I listened to the album again for the first
- 8:32Speaker 2: time in a couple of days, and right now, that's
- 8:35Speaker 2: that's the big one for me. It just feels so
- 8:40Speaker 2: it just feels like so beautiful but still fun a
- 8:44Speaker 2: bit nice.
- 8:46Speaker 3: So how does Tsunamis actually represent spirit Box moving forward
- 8:50Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five.
- 8:52Speaker 2: Well, I think it's a good I think it's a
- 8:55Speaker 2: really good example of us continuing to not like focus
- 9:04Speaker 2: group or music like, to try to have as little
- 9:07Speaker 2: outside influence from the parts of like making art that.
- 9:16Speaker 4: Artists don't like the.
- 9:20Speaker 2: Financial part and the pleasing your pleasing the people that
- 9:25Speaker 2: invested in you part, and like the business part, and
- 9:29Speaker 2: then also trying I think it's important if you're making music,
- 9:34Speaker 2: like for myself at least, there has to be like
- 9:37Speaker 2: a larger degree of selfishness about it unless like like
- 9:43Speaker 2: fan service, because.
- 9:46Speaker 4: I think that's like a it's like a bad cycle.
- 9:49Speaker 4: It's like if you're just chasing what you think people
- 9:52Speaker 4: want and not what you want.
- 9:54Speaker 2: I feel like by the time they hear it, they
- 9:56Speaker 2: don't want that anymore. So instead of like chasing that
- 10:00Speaker 2: carot of like what do I think people want to
- 10:02Speaker 2: hear right now, you have to have like the delayed
- 10:05Speaker 2: gratification of just being like, I like this.
- 10:07Speaker 4: This makes me happy. I can't.
- 10:09Speaker 2: I want to perform it, and I want to show
- 10:11Speaker 2: people it. So I'm very happy with that because I
- 10:16Speaker 2: feel like even though it would be it was, it's
- 10:18Speaker 2: probably more will get more difficult every time as we
- 10:21Speaker 2: grow as a band, I feel like we achieve that again,
- 10:25Speaker 2: like and and that makes me really that makes me
- 10:28Speaker 2: really happy because you can't it doesn't matter if someone
- 10:31Speaker 2: doesn't like something that you love, you love it.
- 10:34Speaker 3: I just actually thought of something to say, you're probably
- 10:36Speaker 3: one of the first fands in history to have an
- 10:38Speaker 3: album titled with a literation that is an actual alliteration
- 10:41Speaker 3: with Tsunami say sounds like a double as it's yeah, yeah,
- 10:46Speaker 3: I wonder if that's a fact.
- 10:48Speaker 4: I'm sure. I'm sure there's many before before. Maybe I'm
- 10:53Speaker 4: going to look for it.
- 10:56Speaker 3: So I got back to the early days, like Spirbox
- 10:58Speaker 3: started in Canada back in two thousand name with yourself
- 11:00Speaker 3: and Mike. So what was the musical climate like that
- 11:03Speaker 3: gave birth to the band and where did you fit in initially? I,
- 11:07Speaker 3: you know, I never I never fit in there.
- 11:10Speaker 2: We didn't play, we didn't have a real band, like,
- 11:13Speaker 2: it was just Michael and I really and then we
- 11:16Speaker 2: would have, you know, we'd try to do shows we
- 11:20Speaker 2: had we had Michael and me and Bill, and then
- 11:24Speaker 2: we could never like find a drummer and all of
- 11:27Speaker 2: us were working full time jobs and honestly just didn't
- 11:30Speaker 2: really have any disposable income to like invest on going
- 11:35Speaker 2: on tour.
- 11:35Speaker 4: Or anything like that.
- 11:36Speaker 2: We had a bit of you know, we'd save up
- 11:38Speaker 2: money and we would just be like, well, we could
- 11:40Speaker 2: either you know, save up to try to buy like
- 11:44Speaker 2: a tour van, or we could make you know, three
- 11:48Speaker 2: music videos on our iPhones and edit them ourselves. And
- 11:53Speaker 2: you know, so I feel like you can probably hear
- 11:56Speaker 2: on our first couple EP that we did just like
- 12:01Speaker 2: people that were really like lonely and desperate to like
- 12:05Speaker 2: be understood because our friends that made music either, they
- 12:11Speaker 2: just didn't really understand why we weren't playing shows and
- 12:16Speaker 2: touring like and then and investing into like the Internet
- 12:22Speaker 2: of it all and our other friends, Like, you know,
- 12:26Speaker 2: there's a certain point when you're it's cute when you're twenty,
- 12:29Speaker 2: but when your friends are like thirty years old and
- 12:32Speaker 2: they're trying to run around and like live in a
- 12:36Speaker 2: van and go on tour, You're like there's an arrested
- 12:39Speaker 2: development there that like it makes it harder to like
- 12:45Speaker 2: connect with with someone who's trying to do you know,
- 12:49Speaker 2: trying to do that.
- 12:52Speaker 3: Your debut album, it was basically it was a swirling
- 12:55Speaker 3: milestone of different genres of metal. The jet there, cinematics there,
- 12:59Speaker 3: there was sensibilities, lady, and there was so much going on. Like,
- 13:03Speaker 3: was your music still in an experimental phase back then
- 13:06Speaker 3: and you just managed to get it right the first
- 13:09Speaker 3: time or was it deliberate blending of styles and genres
- 13:12Speaker 3: that you knew was going to work.
- 13:15Speaker 2: I don't know if it's because like how we grew up,
- 13:19Speaker 2: like we didn't you know, there was only so many
- 13:21Speaker 2: bands on our island and there was really only so
- 13:24Speaker 2: many bands that like came to our island. I just
- 13:27Speaker 2: didn't really have any friends in the at the local
- 13:32Speaker 2: level that any of us like in our I'm sure
- 13:35Speaker 2: like categorizing music we liked, we liked genre, but none
- 13:40Speaker 2: of us like for our own music, like the genres
- 13:45Speaker 2: weren't really relevant to finding one another because we were
- 13:48Speaker 2: all kind of like stuck together, whether it was like
- 13:50Speaker 2: a pop punk band or like a scream o band
- 13:53Speaker 2: or a like a gent band like they we all
- 13:57Speaker 2: had to just play music together and then you know,
- 14:00Speaker 2: help this guy goes into this band, this guy goes
- 14:02Speaker 2: into that band, and we never like found our genre
- 14:06Speaker 2: and then like went on tour with the bands of
- 14:08Speaker 2: our genre. So I I think maybe a lot of
- 14:12Speaker 2: bands feel this way, but I don't.
- 14:14Speaker 4: I don't really. I don't ever think.
- 14:16Speaker 2: Or like perceive or am aware of like genre of
- 14:20Speaker 2: music when we're writing music, and you know, each thing
- 14:24Speaker 2: has its own time. But I feel like in the
- 14:28Speaker 2: in metal especially, like I think people are very interested
- 14:33Speaker 2: in like categorizing, yeah, interested genres, Like it's like a
- 14:38Speaker 2: it's I think it's like part of it. It's part
- 14:40Speaker 2: of like finding people with like minded interests as you.
- 14:44Speaker 4: Know, each of us.
- 14:45Speaker 2: But other music that I listened to, you know, like
- 14:47Speaker 2: pop music and R and B and rap, Like I
- 14:50Speaker 2: don't people don't seem as concerned with that because they're
- 14:54Speaker 2: not having to like find each other. Everyone found them,
- 14:57Speaker 2: you know, So I kind of have that same mentality.
- 15:00Speaker 2: So I don't know, I feel like there's little bits
- 15:03Speaker 2: of everything we made that I'll kind of have.
- 15:06Speaker 4: A through line.
- 15:07Speaker 2: But probably the through line is just that I did
- 15:10Speaker 2: the singing and Michael did the music.
- 15:15Speaker 3: I mentioned you just did come from a small olive
- 15:17Speaker 3: and stuff. So well, when success came for Spare Box,
- 15:20Speaker 3: it came pretty quickly. You like, how did you handle that?
- 15:23Speaker 3: Like it was it hard to deal with? Like I know,
- 15:25Speaker 3: it was great having success, but on a personal level,
- 15:28Speaker 3: was it hard to deal with?
- 15:30Speaker 4: It was just weird because.
- 15:33Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know if it maybe it wasn't
- 15:35Speaker 2: weird and this is just how everybody feels, but it
- 15:38Speaker 2: was weird because like all this success was happening, but
- 15:42Speaker 2: it was just like on paper, like I was just
- 15:46Speaker 2: sitting in my house during the pandemic, clocking into my
- 15:51Speaker 2: job online like remotely and working and then having my
- 15:58Speaker 2: manager be like you the cover of this magazine and
- 16:02Speaker 2: and your song got played this many times, and you
- 16:05Speaker 2: know it's like my feedback is like seeing people enjoying it,
- 16:12Speaker 2: like me performing it and having and seeing people that
- 16:15Speaker 2: came to you know, paid to come see me play.
- 16:17Speaker 2: So it just really it didn't It just felt so
- 16:21Speaker 2: far away, like it didn't feel real until I started
- 16:25Speaker 2: doing shows and and going on tour again. That's that's
- 16:28Speaker 2: kind of so the first like two years it just
- 16:31Speaker 2: felt like a weird dream.
- 16:35Speaker 3: And again after winding up because we're running out of time.
- 16:37Speaker 3: But Spare Box are currently in the middle of a
- 16:39Speaker 3: massive tool you gottawn the ride with Lincoln Park in
- 16:42Speaker 3: the northern somewhich. It's going to be great, but it'd
- 16:45Speaker 3: be remission me not to ask. Is Australia and your plans.
- 16:49Speaker 2: I'd like it to be in our plans, but we
- 16:52Speaker 2: just gotta it's got to be the right, it's got
- 16:54Speaker 2: to be perfect, Like we don't want to come to
- 16:57Speaker 2: Australia and and like, okay that those are the shows
- 17:03Speaker 2: we can do, these are the venues that are available,
- 17:05Speaker 2: and then we have to like charge in a sane
- 17:09Speaker 2: amount of money for tickets just so like I don't
- 17:11Speaker 2: have to sell my left kidney to.
- 17:13Speaker 4: Like fly there.
- 17:15Speaker 2: And then we also but we also are just we
- 17:19Speaker 2: want to come so badly that we're trying to figure
- 17:23Speaker 2: out the way that everybody can win, that we can
- 17:25Speaker 2: put on a really good show that you know, and
- 17:27Speaker 2: have some pretty cool production and kind of try to
- 17:30Speaker 2: bring this tour to Australia. But then also you know,
- 17:35Speaker 2: compromise a bit because we just so badly want to
- 17:38Speaker 2: come and play there. Because when we did come and
- 17:41Speaker 2: do a show and then don nof s, like you know,
- 17:45Speaker 2: we still talk about that all the time because it
- 17:47Speaker 2: was such an incredible week for us. We we love
- 17:50Speaker 2: it and we really want to come back and see,
- 17:52Speaker 2: like with the how how things change for us there,
- 17:58Speaker 2: Like how can we can we play a bigger venue?
- 18:01Speaker 2: Can we like push it a little bit? So we
- 18:04Speaker 2: we really really want to come back.
- 18:06Speaker 4: I would prefer not to come back when it's really
- 18:08Speaker 4: hot there, so I prefer to.
- 18:12Speaker 2: I've heard I would prefer to come in our summer,
- 18:13Speaker 2: not your summer. But it doesn't matter whenever. I whenever
- 18:17Speaker 2: we can get out there, I think we can have
- 18:19Speaker 2: an amazing tour and we can have some incredible friends
- 18:24Speaker 2: that you know go on the tour with us and
- 18:27Speaker 2: have some great opening acts on it.
- 18:30Speaker 3: Fantastic con Well, thanks very much for you talk.
- 18:31Speaker 4: It's been absolutely pleasure speaking with you.
- 18:33Speaker 3: So not me see is at my seven and it's
- 18:36Speaker 3: an absolutely precu of an album to see. Congratulations and
- 18:38Speaker 3: hopefully we say you when you do.
- 18:40Speaker 4: Come out, thank you. I can't we can't wait.
- 18:42Speaker 2: It'll be It'll be sooner than later before I'm before,
- 18:46Speaker 2: I'm too.
- 18:47Speaker 4: Old to you know, to get up on stage. And
- 18:50Speaker 4: I have like a knee brace on it.
- 19:00Speaker 5: I f alllive job.
- 19:01Speaker 6: I lay hid out of side, sorry job as my
- 19:05Speaker 6: roll shy side. I sat out ry side, sorry job
- 19:12Speaker 6: at all.
- 19:12Speaker 5: Longs all ride as a job, I got.
- 19:16Speaker 6: Lies sorry lies.
- 19:18Speaker 5: I make jobs like.
- 19:19Speaker 2: My y'all.
- 19:22Speaker 6: T I say fong shady job as a roll.
- 19:33Speaker 5: Long who.
- 19:41Speaker 1: I was born in the estuary distance to the sea.
- 19:48Speaker 1: I was surrounded but cross and then I could knock
- 19:51Speaker 1: me and so I instead I could not drink drawing joy.
- 19:57Speaker 5: Sho drop job by I'll dropp your frere sid well
- 20:04Speaker 5: God asks your joy Yeah girl.
- 20:10Speaker 6: Last as a side sorry jos shot side as sad
- 20:19Speaker 6: as sne sorry jocks away as a jellgas. My last
- 20:28Speaker 6: I savers down.
- 20:30Speaker 4: I felt as hair.
- 20:35Speaker 5: So sor.
- 20:52Speaker 6: It was like guys sign.
- 20:59Speaker 5: Rash white God, No, Lord No.
- 21:05Speaker 4: And obleaged to have it of bones.
- 21:07Speaker 1: I reached my destination, an island of solace beneath a
- 21:15Speaker 1: corps of city. I can feel something sinister under the surface.
- 21:26Speaker 1: I know in other in that breath is somebody that
- 21:29Speaker 1: needs and meds showing an.
- 21:35Speaker 2: I die.
- 21:38Speaker 6: Now h white side
- 21:41Speaker 4: God, I die