The Tab speaks to Spector

Since performing on Later… with Jools Holland and being nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2012 award back in November 2011 Spector have seen their debut album Enjoy It While It Lasts reach number 12 in the UK album charts whilst touring both as headliners and supporting Florence and the Machine.

The Tab caught up with drummer Danny Blandy and guitarist and synth player Jed Cullen just before they played at the O2 Academy on Saturday as part of Gathering Festival.

Spector: (L-R) Thomas Shickle, Chris Burman, Fred Macpherson, Danny Blandy, Jed Cullen

Who or what would you say are your biggest influences?
JC: I would say ‘what’ is more interesting. This whole album, Fred basically wrote the whole thing and you can tell if you know him that it’s all from his experience.

You had a big month in November 2011 but we were forced to wait until August for the release of your debut album, why the long wait?
DB: We had like two or maybe three songs ready.
JC: When we did Jools we only had two singles.
DB: It was just us trying to figure out what we actually were. We toured as well, we had four kind of tours going on while we were recording. Normally when people realise who a band are they expect an album soon afterwards and we just weren’t ready.

Are you afraid of the clichéd difficult second album?
DB: I think if you make music you’re happy with then that’s what’s important. This whole second album thing is just a lot of stuff from the media, we’re not worried about it.
JC: I think that as a band we have some extra firepower up our sleeve that we can use, that people haven’t seen. We’ve worked with seven producers already and we’ve learnt so much from that process.
DB: Even if everyone said it was shit I wouldn’t mind if I liked it.

If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
DB: I want to work with Dev, yeah Blood Orange would be sick. We’re also thinking of, I’m not sure we should mention this…
JC: Yeah, go on
DB: Well, a J-Pop girl band and it’s still early planning but we’ve been speaking to their manager, that’s pretty exciting.

If you had to listen to one artist for the rest of your life, who would it be?
DB: Erm, I always say Wu Tang but probably Wu Tang or the Beatles, they’ve got the strongest discographies and the kind of widest range of music. So one of the two I don’t know.
JC: Probably Frank Zappa

What’s the biggest compliment anybody could pay you?
JC: Probably “you are not as much of an arsehole as I thought you were”
DB: When you read people’s comments saying “that song’s cool” even just something small like that, I like that.
JC: If someone said “oh I had a really fucking awful day, my grandmother was in hospital, blah”, and even if it wasn’t the music, even if it was just “ah I read this interview and there was a funny story” and it made my day, then that’s really nice. It sounds really saccharine but it’s why we’re here, we’re entertainers.

What’s the worst habit anybody in the band has?
JC: Danny always puts his feet on my chair.
DB: I’ve got really long legs. My foot touched his head in the van the other day and he went really mental.

What’s your favourite chat-up line?
JC: Hi, I’m Jed, what does that mean? I don’t even know.
DB: [Laughing] Yeah, that’s a good one.
JC: Really play with their heads, y’know.

Spector’s album Enjoy It While It Lasts is out now as is their sixth single Friday Night, Don’t Ever Let It End. You can follow them on their website, facebook and twitter.