Spearmint

Is it me, or are there fewer English bands invading our CD players and radios? If so, why haven't we noticed? TGB has uncovered a few gems, and I am certain we have uncovered another one in Spearmint.

The band is comprised of original members Shirley Lee (lead vocals), Ronan Larvor (drums) and Simon Calnan (keyboards). Within months, James Parsons signs on as bassist. This core was joined by bassist Andy Lewis in 2000. Parsons would move to guitar.

In 2005, Spearmint celebrated their 10th anniversary. Recently, TGB caught up with lead singer Shirley Lee and discussed those ten year as well as the next ten. Enjoy this conversation with one of Britain's hidden treasures, Spearmint.

As you complete the 10th anniversary of Spearmint, what would you say are the highlights and lowlights of the past ten years?

Highlights: getting our debut album out (I mean A Week Away), the tours we have done particularly in Japan, Germany & Sweden, doing the acoustic tour this year as it stretched us, and making the new album as we love it!
Lowlights: Martin, our first bass player dying in 1998, falling for lots of promises from music industry types in the early days, and a few miserable British gigs...

I can't help but compare your band to, let's say, Status Quo. Both have huge followings in countries outside of America, but have made very little impact in America. Would this be a fair assessment?

No that's not a fair assessment! Status Quo are considered a bit of a joke here and they have been going for nearly 40 years! Though I guess without them there would be no Spinal Tap. Our records have never been released in America. We have always thought that one day we would come over there and play and find someone to put our stuff out. I'm sure that will happen! We kind of potter along at our own pace, and are happy as long as we are making the albums.

With an album of new material a few months away, why put out another release so close?

The Boy and The Girl That Got Away is a limited edition acoustic album only available via our website, so in a way it's a good trailer for the new album. We did an acoustic tour earlier this year and wrote these nine songs especially for it. It seemed like a cool idea to record them and do it as a really limited thing. I like the idea that it will be gone once we sell out.

The songs on The Boy and The Girl That Got Away are new, and meant to be played acoustically. How do you determine whether a song is material that's to be interpreted acoustically or should be plugged in?

I suddenly got very excited about the idea of writing songs for an acoustic tour rather than for an album; it brought the whole project alive for me. These songs were just written with playing acoustic in mind. I guess some of them would have been written for the whole band and come out differently if we hadn't done the acoustic thing...

Are there plans to re-record these songs with full instrumentation?

No, we won't re-record any of them, but we may play band versions of one or two of them live.

What can you reveal about the forthcoming release? Any song titles? How about a title for the CD?

Mmm, it is just slightly early for me to reveal that. I think in about one month we will be ready to let people know what it is called. I can tell you that it is a kind of cross between A Week Away and A Different Lifetime in that it has an ambitious concept, but is full of pop songs!

I was noticing that your pattern early on was to release singles, but that you have gone away from that. Could you explain that?

In the early days we were learning how to make records and how to release them and we didn't have any money, so we put out quite a few singles before we finished our debut album. By the time we made My Missing Days, we were confident of how to make an album, so we did that rather than singles. Having said that there will be four singles off the new album - different coloured vinyl and some cool b-sides.

Are there plans to come to America? When? Will this new record be released in America?

I think a few copies will find their way to America on export, but as yet it will have no official release. We are open to offers; we would LOVE to come and play in America!

What does 2006 have in store for Spearmint?

Get the album finished, get it out, get the singles out, do a lot of gigs!

Click here to check out Spearmint's website.