Cold Specks Pukes Less Before Shows Now, Never Wants to Play SXSW Again

Cold Specks' Al Spx likes her anonymity. Spx isn't her real name and Cold Specks is just one of many aliases the singer-songwriter has cycled through, but Spx's reasoning behind the mystery is quite simple.

"Out of respect for my family," Spx tells Spinner. "They're really religious and probably wouldn't approve [of me using my real name] so I just decided not to put the family name out there."

Admittedly, Spx's family hasn't been very supportive of Spx's musical aspirations, but at the end of the day, they've just agreed to disagree. Spx clarifies that her and her family are still very close but "we're just from two different worlds; it's difficult for them to understand because they'd prefer me to stay in school and be a doctor, but they're happy that I'm happy."

She solidified her stage name almost out of necessity, Spx says, because she recently signed to Arts & Crafts Records to release debut album I Predict a Graceful Expulsion. All of this also involved Spx working with others for the first time and acquiring a band, something she had never done in the past.

"It was difficult at first to work with other people because I had never done it before. It was something new," Spx says. "But as time went on, I got used to it and I realized that [producer Jim Anderson] was there to make things better."

As for live performances, Spx still dreads going onstage.

"I still sort of puke every now and then before I go on. But I'm used to that now," she says. "That's just a time thing -- it'll only get better with time.

"If I had a choice, I'd be giving out records from my apartment and handing them out to people, but you have to play shows and make people listen."

The addition of her backing band has since put her at ease a bit when it comes to performing.

"If you f--k up, they got your back. It's like having a posse behind you," she says. "You can't crumble."

Regardless of that support, there's one place that Spx never wants to play again.

"I really wasn't comfortable with playing South By Southwest and I never want to do it again," says Spx. "It was fun and I got to see loads of bands that I really liked but I never want to play it again. I would prefer a bit more time with our band because we're pretty big and we need a decent soundcheck but this was just very much plug-and-play.

"It was just a huge, ridiculous festival."