INTERVIEW: SPKEZY
Spkezy are true musicians who push the bounds of their creativity. Known for their poised approach to genre-bending music they have produced an extremely well balanced fusion of dark pop and alt-rock in ‘Hell House’.
Tori met up with Luke and Joel to talk about the new single ‘Hell house’, history of the band and what the future holds.
So, tell me about yourselves - how long have you been a band?
Luke: As Spkezy, I think it's about three years.
Joel: Two and a half years.
Luke: But before that, Joel and myself played in bands together since college, so we're pretty old now.
Has it always been this style or genre for your band?
Luke: No…. well, for this band yes. But the other bands, it was definitely metal core/post hardcore. I think that the older that we got, I didn't want to be screaming about stuff that I wasn't mad about anymore.
Joel: Funny thing is the lyrical content now is probably just as angsty, if not more.
I guess that leads to who are your biggest inspirations?
Joel: I'm listening to a lot of Rain City Drive, they were formerly called Slaves. They're excellent. Another band called Set It Off, they’re a genre bending band, so I really enjoyed them too.
Luke: I listen to lots of rap, but band wise, Issues are really cool. They are able to blend pop and r&b vocals into genti type metal stuff.
Tell me more about this new single?!
Joel: It originally was slated to come out as part of an album but we analysed the market a little bit to see what's working and a lot of bands are focusing on singles. So we put a heap of time and effort into the song itself, the hooks and the whole writing process. It's kind of heavy, a bit more foot to the floor, doesn't really let up. We want the single to be in your face most of the way through. We went through two or three different chorus’ before we settled on the one we did. I was really happy as soon as I heard this chorus and I knew the song was going to be potentially a single. Once that was down, everything else sort of flowed around it.
And you record, mix and master everything yourself?
Joel: I studied in college. But the landscape of recording music has changed so significantly since I actually studied it. I learnt the fundamentals in school, but pretty much everything I've learned to this point, especially over the last two years is online courses, that sort of thing.
Is this your favourite song that you've released so far?
Joel: Every song has a different memory of recording, what we're feeling at the time. So I think it's really hard to answer. It's a song that doesn't really let up and I like it for that.
Have you had a chance to play this one live?
Joel: Very much looking forward to it.
Luke: This band kind of started at the wrong time when it comes to COVID and all that stuff. We weren't able to play any shows. We've only played… I think it's three shows as Spkezy. So we just, I guess we really want to play shows!
Do you think that being based in Tassie has an impact on I guess your music and how it can be absorbed by the world?
Luke: 100% Yeah
Joel: It's a matter of getting us in front of people. That's always been the struggle. Even with the old band, we toured a lot, but theres the cost and then there's so many other things involved with being isolated by water. We're definitely looking to play shows, definitely wanting to get over to Melbourne, Adelaide. Adelaide was our second home. So, I cannot wait to get back over there again. This is really the point where we're starting to go, Okay, we really want to take this seriously.
Check our their video below!