Today's SMS post takes us to the world of local/Barrie crossover thrash quintet Spades GT, who have had an eventful past 2+ weeks! We last left off with them in mid-June, prior to the release of a new podcast interview featuring drummer Tyler Reiner, so what should you know there? This was for Drummers Paradise, a new Barrie-based interview series where drummers interview other drummers, and it's co-hosted by The Feels/Mad City drummer Adam Vetter and... Tyler himself! For the season finale episodes, the two took turns interviewing each other in shorter installments, though click here to watch longer-format episodes featuring the two interviewing other rock drummers (episodes can also be heard on major podcasting services). If you're curious, notable drummers from past local concerts like Andrew McMullen (ex-Fairmounts/Merves) and Tommy Metcalfe (of The Anti-Queens) were interviewed early in season 1, but you should recognize a few other bands.
Tyler's interview from June 20th runs for just 25 minutes, and before any questions are asked, we see a clip of Tyler drumming along to his old band Caym's song "Willow Farm", courtesy of his TikTok page. At least they zoomed in for YouTube's sake to remove the vertical pillarboxing! Strongly brutal performance, especially for fans of Caym's two local dates in the 2010s, and it's neat how the video is monochrome except for his drumkit! The interview proper begins with Adam asking Tyler about his upbringing (yes, his dad & Anvil come up), how he got into drumming and learned how to drum, and what gear he currently uses, before we jump to a different day, where Adam literally tested how fast Tyler could drum in beats per minute to compare to guests from prior episodes. Tyler next discusses his beginning playing in live bands and helping Anvil on their tours, and if you're looking to skip ahead directly to Spades GT talk, that comes in around 16 minutes into the interview.
We next hear about how Tyler was invited to join the former Jack Spades after taking a hiatus following Caym's breakup (he does reference their beginnings in the Soo), before plugging Spades' then-upcoming plans, primarily their new album "United" and how things came together in studio for it. A 90 second clip of the title track is next played, which Adam said was "a killer track". We get more insights about the recording and songwriting process to close the interview out, capping with thank yous and hype for season 2 of Drummers Paradise. Solid and comfortable interview with Tyler giving a bit more personal insight than I've seen from some of his past video interviews, so give it a watch for yourselves below!
In terms of the full band, Spades GT's next concert took place on June 27th when they headlined at the sci-fi themed Toronto venue See-Scape, and in a recent rarity for them, the show was actually all ages! The whole band plugged the show, while emphasizing the lack of an age limit, in this Facebook "Reel" a few days prior, but they did post their usual recap video from that night afte the fact, and while not a "Reel", it is still vertical. After guitarist Daniel Horton picked up singer J.D. Pearce for the drive to the venue, we see the guys mingling outside of See-Scape, before we get shots of everyone inside, where you get good views of the sci-fi and video game-themed decor! This is set to the second advance single from the album ("Demons"), more on that in a bit. After some views of one of the other bands that night, we do see Spades setting up for their set, but unfortunately, there are no clips of their set included here, not even ones dubbed over in post.
The recap video ends with the whole band praising the show and hyping future plans, though Dan did admit to breaking an amplifier. Both for the new material and the venue alone, I'd far prefer longer, raw, and horizontal videos, but this was a well edited teaser, so give it a watch at this link! As Facebook content matched "Demons", I can't embed the video on external websites like this, even though it's Spades' own song and not even in full. However, let's end on something that I can embed here, as since our last all-Spades post on June 17th, they did release the "United" album! Our coverage of the album proper and its release party is coming soon, but for now, let's stay in the rough timeline, as the teased advance singles "United" & "Demons" were released to all major streaming services as promised on June 21st and 28th! Outside of samples in prior Spades video content, I have yet to hear either track, as I'm waiting for our review this fall.
I can tell you that, from what I have heard, existing Spades GT fans will approve! Also, neither song has one of the credited guest musicians. We'll have much more from the guys on the site soon, as we outline the album release proper and its launch party in Toronto that actually took place yesterday. Stay tuned for more on "United" in the coming week, if all goes well, hear the title track below, and stay tuned for more news and notes on the site soon! Thanks everyone!
1 comment:
Awesome - 👏
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