the AU interview: Jim Eno of Spoon (Austin, Texas) reminisces about the Big Day Out, talks this week's tour and SXSW!

Ah, Spoon. It’s hard not to love that band. And wouldn’t you know it, the band kick off their all-too-brief Australian tour tomorrow in Brisbane. In anticipation, I spoke to drummer and producer Jim Eno last week while at home in Austin, not long before he was set to fly to Australia. We talk about the tour, their past experiences in our country, adding a fifth member to the band, their latest album They Want My Soul, SXSW and more…

So you’ll be getting on a plane in 48 hours or so – you can’t be looking forward to the flight from Austin though…

Well, it’s like a 16 hour sort of break, you know, where you don’t have to do anything. So it’s actually not too bad. I’m looking forward to it. I can read a book, I can doze off. I’m fine with it.

A good opportunity to catch up on all the Oscar films…

Oh yeah, that will be good.

Well let’s talk about your Australian tour, it’s been a while since we last saw you down here!

Yeah, I’m pretty sure we came in 2010 to play Groovin’ The Moo.

What are your memories of Australia over the years?

Pretty great, the one time in Australia that was our favourite was when we playing Big Day Out. It was the year LCD Soundsystem played, and Arcade Fire and Rage Against The Machine (2008). That was the most amazing tour that we’ve ever been on… I know it’s a bold statement. I was like high school Summer camp. We’d go see Arcade Fire, they’d come and see us, Battles would come along, we’d go see LCD… there were all these afterparties… it was three weeks of great shows and fun… we really love going to Australia.

The whole national tour for a festival is really unique to Australia – I guess you have the Warped tour in the US but that seems to be about it. For a band, it must be a great way to build relationships and potential collaborations with other bands and people in the industry… has anything ever come out of it for you as a producer or for the band?
I’m always looking for that – nothing came out of the BDO tour that time for me, except for the fact that we’re pretty close with Arcade Fire now. We did a few shows with them in 2014, I think we played the day their record was released. We played the last show of their tour in Montreal. We opened them for there too. They’re close and we can consider them friends. Pretty much hammered that friendship in at the Big Day Out.

It’s been a few months now since They Want My Soul was released – how’s it been being back on the road? It was a while between drinks after all…

We were fired up to get back together again. It was four years between records, three years between touring… We always loved playing together, so it’s something we missed. It was nice to get back. It’s fun to play live and the thing for me, is I basically did production for three years straight when Spoon was on hiatus. I missed the part where you tour after you finish a record. I think it’s so important to play in front of people and see how they react. Here in a studio, you’re working crazy hours with 5 or 6 people, and you think what you’re doing is really good, but once you play it live and the things you put into those recordings… I guess it really completes that circle. Makes you realise how great it is… It’s

Did that surprise you at all, that you’d miss the live show as much as you did?

It was surprising – but, I imagine if you missed Austin for five years, you’d be itching to get back. You’re missing your BBQ! Same for us and Australia. It’s something for us to go out and do.

I miss Austin BBQ the minute I leave!

*laughs* Well perhaps that wasn’t the best analogy.

What has changed for the band on the tour this time around?

Well, we’ve added a new keyboardist and guitarist – Alex Fischel – adding a fifth member, it frees Britt up on some of the more sparse songs so he can just sing and interact with the crowd more. And on the songs where we need more instrumentation, it allows us to actually have a bigger and thicker sound. So songs like “Knock Knock Knock”, Alex is able to do all that crazy distortion, he’s doing the piano part in “I Just Don’t Understand”… there’s just a lot of things he’s pulling off and it’s great to have him in the band.

Does that change up the older songs too?

Yeah – there’s new things in “I Summon You”, for example… he’s not going to sit around and do nothing! We’ve figured out cool ways to do the older songs to make them sound better. Which is exciting if the song is ten years old.

What comes next for the band after your Australian tour?

Then we come back at do SXSW (at home in Austin), then we have tours in May and June. We’re still scoping out what happens after that. We may work on some new songs after that, even during May/June. We want to get a jump on a recording. We don’t want it to take another four years. We don’t have any songs yet though! But we want them! *laughs* They don’t just appear! It’s weird!

Have you ever been a band who have been able to write and record on the road?

No, we need that separation. It’s too hard on the road with interviews and travel and sound checks and shows and finding food… it’s just too difficult. Britt needs time away to write. He’s actually in Melbourne now, doing some writing – he went over a couple of years early. He’s got to get in the right headspace and I think Melbourne is the right place for that.

You mentioned SXSW, and being an Austin local, it’s got to be a bit of a difference experience for you than for everyone else who goes to the event.

Yeah I love it, it’s the kind of thing where all these different bands that I know come to down, I get to see them, I get to see them play and then I get to go home and sleep in my own bed. It’s a pretty great situation all around.

When you’re in Sydney you’re playing a show on Valentine’s Day… have you ever had anything romantic happen during a show – has anyone ever proposed during a show?

No I don’t think so… two of my really good friends here in Austin, who I met after they were dating, they told me their first date was a Spoon show. So there’s that connection! But we’ve never really had anyone do that… maybe on Valentine’s Day will be the time!

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They Want My Soul is available now. Don’t miss the band on tour this week:

SPOON AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES