Spiral Beach takes over the Whippersnapper Gallery for their first all-ages show since last Halloween's Centre of Gravity extravganza!

It's FREE to get in with a NXNE pass, otherwise there will be tickets available at the door

7pm - Spiral Beach
8pm - VERY SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST!
9pm - French Horn Rebellion

We're very excited to have our special guest on this show - all we can tell you is that they've played the Whippersnapper before, and they're NOT from Toronto.

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Check out CHARTATTACK's feature on SB!!!!

05/26/09 5:21pm
by Bianca Marcus (CHARTattack)

While talking with Spiral Beach drummer Daniel Woodhead in Kensington Market, one of the band’s usual haunts and a frequent busking location, a few things become apparent: Spiral Beach love their friends, they love to experiment and they’re artists in every sense of the word.

The Toronto quartet have just come off a six-week North American tour and just finished recording an album, which Woodhead calls “a long [due] baby.”

Spiral Beach started writing demos in November and continued to work on the record while on tour by emailing audio files back and forth with producer and Hidden Cameras member Mike Olsen. The band hope to release the album in September and tour through the fall.

Spiral Beach received the final master of the record while staying at Edmonton poet laureate Roland Pemberton’s place.

“This was just the tour of meeting people,” says Woodhead. “I think we only ever stayed in a motel five or six times the whole tour because we had met people while we were there or had connections from before.”

Other hosts included B.C. duo Hank And Lily and alt.country singer Carolyn Mark.

Spiral Beach will play a handful of music festivals through the spring and summer, starting with Pitter Patter’s Guelph and Peterborough, Ont. locations, and then moving to North By Northeast in Toronto.

“North By Northeast is gonna be really, really crazy,” says Woodhead. “We’re playing with Black Lips, which is one of our favourite bands.

“And then we’re doing a show at the Whippersnapper. I can’t tell you who it’s with, because it’s a secret. But it’s somebody really cool. They’ve played the Whippersnapper before. That’s all I can say.”

Spiral Beach often set up their own shows, choosing bands and locations themselves to create a prime environment to draw inspiration from and share ideas with their peers.

“The Saturday [of NXNE] I’m most excited about because we’re doing an after-show of our own, just for fun,” says Woodhead. “If everything comes together, there’s going to be a bunch of bands coming up from Brooklyn to do it, and it’s just at our friend’s loft.

“It’s going to be total overkill of good bands, just a party. We love doing that stuff.”

The members of Spiral Beach have music in their blood, as the saying goes. Brothers Daniel and Airick are the sons of David Woodhead, a Canadian folk musician who has contributed to records by Loreena McKennitt and Don Ross. Maddy Wilde is the daughter of Nancy White, a musical satirist perhaps best known for her songs that were featured on CBC Radio’s Sunday Morning from 1976 to 1994 and her Momnipotent: Songs For Weary Parents CD.

The Woodhead brothers grew up attending music festivals, one of which — Blue Skies Festival in Clarendon, Ont. — they may hit again this summer.

“It’s really insider, an old-school serious folk festival,” Woodhead elaborates. “You camp over and there’s tons of kids and old hippies and young hippies and acoustic guitars everywhere, and face painting and stuff. I love that shit.”

Woodhead also has a way to get into the annual Hillside festival in Guelph, Ont. this year, even if he’s short on cash.

“I might go and wash dishes. That’s the easiest way to get in if you don’t have tickets. The whole band was washing dishes one year. Dishwashing is not the hardest thing. I washed a bunch of dishes, then saw Arcade Fire. It’s pretty good.”

Even though Spiral Beach have just finished a relatively lengthy tour, they’re already chomping at the bit to get back in the van. They’re mindful of pacing themselves, though.

“We’re really into this idea of playing a lot, and then doing nothing and recording some stuff in blocks,” explains Woodhead. “We’d much rather play every day for two months, then don’t play for two months.

“You get into the bubble — the van bubble. We all really like it in the bubble. It’s nice there.”

Since they released their self-titled debut album in 2005, Spiral Beach have learned from their experiences and made a few changes to their performances.

“I actually have started wearing shoes on stage,” says Woodhead. “Because I figured out I can kick the kickdrum harder if I wear shoes.

“Another one of the things that has happened over the years is everybody plays so much louder. Everybody just turns up every couple months.”

Given the partially visually driven nature of Spiral Beach performances, does Woodhead consider the band to be an art rock outfit?

“Yeah, totally, for sure. The pylons [we use on stage] are this weird art thing… [They] indicate that there is something there. The projections are also a big part of it. It’s a cross-influence of the ’60s psychedelic thing with this digital modern effect.

“It’s definitely a mix of old and new, which is everything about the band. But we’ve definitely always consciously not tried to be anything retro or nostalgic at all. A bit Bollywood influenced, a bit ’60s influenced, and a bit very modern, digital-looking.”

Spiral Beach hope to build upon the sound of 2007’s Ball for their new album, incorporating a few different elements.

“We didn’t use any analogue recording techniques on the album,” explains Woodhead. “Some of the songs have cheesy ’80s synth, old analogue synth, and a sample we made out of a plug-in on Logic.

“It’s definitely mixed up, all these different eras. We tried to make the record as if it was the first thing that people were hearing [of our music].

“It’s not a party record in the way that you could put it on at a dance club. There’s not a lot of booty-shakin’ beats and bass. But it’s definitely a lot of fun.”

Finally, here’s what Woodhead says people should expect from a Spiral Beach show:

“Pylons, lots of dancing people, really loud noises, and very nice singing, which is a good combination.

“Just expect to have a lot of fun, no matter what. We always have a lot of fun playing, and it’s very easy for the audience to enjoy. And people get more excited, the more that’s happening on stage.”

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