SPINN: Single + Inside Look At The Making Of The New Album
This past Friday, the self-proclaimed “Jangly Dream Pop” band SPINN released their second single “Believe it or Not” off their self-titled debut album that’s due out May 3rd. We’re excited to share a lil’ sneak peek into the the behind the scenes of the recording process, so keep scrolling’ for some quality content!
Studio photos by Dylan Mead.
SPINN on the recording process…
Johnny
Nothing happens
We just made loads of coffee
And super noodle sandwiches
We used to get too cold bc the air con was broke
Sean got drunk once when I was doing my vocal take, and I got jealous because everyone was having a party and I had to work
Sean
My bass broke and had to play some parts upside down
I turned up to the studio after 1 hours sleep to do Notice Me because I was queuing for Record Store Day from like 3am
Whole band
Louis had pneumonia
Louis
I slept a lot because I had pneumonia
Track-by-track by SPINN’s lead singer Johnny Quinn.
Believe it or not:
"This one is one of my personal favourites on the album. It's so bloody poppy and luscious and full of texture, and omg them harmonies. Lyrically it's about going out but not really wanting to be there and making a dickhead out of yourself whilst you're there. I guess you could say the chorus is me apologising to anybody who's ever encountered an inebriated me, sorry if I was a bit of a fool, because 'I never mean to come across like I do'... haha!"
Is There Something That I Missed?:
"Is there something that I missed is a catchy little number we wrote a while back, it is about two thing really, firstly having an argument with somebody, secondly it's about wanting to better the situation you're in which is something everybody can relate to, you cant ever be truly content, its the human condition, we always want more.
FUN FACT: I play the guitar for this song sometimes when we play it live, which is a nice change up.
Bliss:
I must have been 16 or 17 when I originally wrote the chord progression for Bliss, and honestly I'm amazed it managed to get on the album but, much like SPINN, its a survivor. We recorded it years ago and we really didn't like it but it's a fan favourite, and where would we be without the fans? Nowhere. So we brought it back for you lot, reworked it, rerecorded it and now all really like it, its a good way of showing the progression in our art and our songwriting ability, at least for me it is anyway.
Sunshine:
This was us trying to be the La's, they're a band we all love. If there were one song that as a band we wished we had written it'd be There She Goes, it's the perfect pop song. This is us trying to write something vaguely La's-Esque to show of our lovely Liverpool heritage to our audience. I'm particularly fond of the lyrics in the second verse to this song, I felt like Robert Smith when I wrote them. Yeh this song is The La's + The Cure + SPINN, and thats that!
July, At A Glance:
This is the best song we've ever written in my opinion, and always will be.
We couldn't think of what to name it, so we asked the fan and that was the best suggestion.
I love this song.
Notice Me:
It's back baby, and better than ever! I mean we couldn't do a debut album and not throw it on, and guess what?! It's had a glossy new make over, nice shiny new vocals and the drums are actually being played by Louis as opposed to our old Drummer! Worry not SPINN Purists we're leaving the old version up too, just because we love it so much x
Shallow:
This is my second favourite song we've ever written, it's just everything I want SPINN to be and reminds me of a boss time. When we were recording the music video for this, it was summer and rally hot and it was a gorgeous morning filled with flowers and good vibes (Two of my favourite things) so for me it is just a song that overwhelms me with positivity and endless optimism and yeh, what can I say I'm just enthralled that its on the album because it's so much more than a single.
Keep Dancing :)) :
This track is really personal, I love the idea of having a really happy sounding song and putting a jovial little melody over the top, then just pouring your aching soul into it, Alex Turner style. Most of my favourite bands are brilliant at that, The Smiths, The 1975, The Drums. I'm into the contrast, their songs have. Lyrically its a song about insecurity created by expectations, it's me saying "yeh I'll just keep on dancing, if it makes you happy, no matter how I feel, as long as I still look pretty". It's a song about worrying too, worrying about losing my old friends, and becoming distant in my personal relationships. You have to be selfish to be in a band because it always comes first and it does have a toll on your relationships. Luckily we're all selfish as fuck, but sometimes it gets hard, I don't know if that sounds really self centered or not, but is that not the point I'm making?
Green Eyes:
This song is like Bliss on Steroids hahaha. I wrote this aged 15 in the hall way of my mums house, it was some weird kinda jangly jazzy number back then, but it wasn't ready to be released but we released it anyway and it built us a dead small fanbase but some of those fans are still here so we wanted to honour them by rereleasing this one. I wrote this the week after my grandma died, it's about building up a mental barrier and holding things inside when really you just want to scream and let everything out, its got this driving frustrated feel to it, thats the place I was in when i wrote it. I like how pure this song is, it's the ramblings of a 15 year old kid trying to make sense of stuff, and thats beautiful to me.
FUN FACT #2: The green eyes in this song are mine lol
Foundations:
Another one of my favourites from the album. It's about being young and waiting for change, but it doesn't come unless you make it happen, hence why the chorus talks about being in 'the sad part' the only way to get out of that cycle is to make it happen, when you're young you have to do stuff yourself, otherwise nothing will change.
FUN FACT #3: We recorded this song on a whim and we're all really glad we did.
Heavensent:
Musically we just wanted a proper classic album closer and this felt like the most natural song for the position, so thats why its the last song of the album. Lyrically it feels like like the end of a chapter or something, its like my little homage to my my teenage years I guess, so it's definitely the most emotional track on the album for me after, I got a bit teary eyed when I first heard it after we recorded it I'm not gonna lie God help me whenever we play it live. I always want this song to go on forever when I listen to it, so I suppose thats a good sign.