Spoon's Britt Daniel Calls 'Transference' an 'Uglier Record'

Posted on Nov 2nd 2009 3:00PM by Jason Cohen
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With the recent announcement that Spoon will release its seventh album, 'Transference,' in January, fans have been wondering what to expect from the new material. "Every record's always a little bit of an unconscious reaction to the one before. I think it's an uglier record," frontman Britt Daniel tells Spinner, comparing it to 2007's 'Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga.' "A lot of it is either demos, or tracks that started out as demos and we just built on top of it. That earlier, rawer, more spontaneous take on what the song was just seemed like the way to go."

'Transference' was recorded in Austin, Texas at producer Mike McCarthy's studio and at Daniel's house in Portland, Ore. But Daniel, Eno, bassist Rob Pope and keyboardist Eric Harvey also convened at Rare Book Room studio in Brooklyn, N.Y. where Daniel had previously produced the White Rabbits with Nicolas Vernhes, who's also know for his work with Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Fiery Furnaces and many others. "I liked how fast things went," Daniel says. "We don't have really a history of going fast when we're running it ourselves." Those sessions were somewhat unique for their live-in-the-studio, full band approach. Among those tracks are 'Written in Reverse,' which is likely to be the first single and video.

"We've done it before, but not a lot," Daniel says of the recording process. "'My Mathematical Mind' [from 2005's 'Gimme Fiction'] was live. 'Jonathan Fisk' [from 2002's 'Kill the Moonlight'] was. It's different. We did some shows in May right before we got to Nicolas's place and I think we all thought those songs were sounding so much better and faster than the recorded versions we already had, so we totally redid them. There's something about playing live a bunch of times that give you a certain level of confidence and swagger in the studio."

But anyone who saw the band perform songs like 'The Underdog' -- at times complete with a live horn section -- last time around will find 'Transference' to be very different. "'The Underdog' has a million chords," says Daniel. "A lot of songs on this record are just one or two chords. There's a lot more droning."

'Transference' is out in the US on Jan. 26 from Merge and overseas on Anti- the day before.