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what anyone thinks. “I tend to not really
listen to a lot of people, and I’ve done pretty well so far,” he says, confidently. “I just
like doing whatever I want, really. And
that’s the bottom line – I do what I want.”
Of course, none of this might have happened – nature and nurture be damned – if
Spiller hadn’t met his perfect musical foil
in guitarist Adam Slack, whom he met in
2009. They were both staggering out of
failed combos, so they moved in together
in Slack’s hometown of Derby and wrote
steadily for three years, until they had
achieved the perfect rabble-rousing sound
they wanted. Eventually, they added
bassist Jed Elliott and drummer Gethin
Davies and issued their first single, “I Just
Know,” in 2012, then a Kiss This EP, and an
early version of their now-retooled debut
album in 2014, containing five extra songs
written at these certain points in our career,
and I definitely draw on social experiences
a lot of the time,” he admits. “”Could Have
Been Me” was before we signed to
Interscope and before we came to America,
and we were like, ‘Shit! We are at a crossroads!’ And “Changing” is all about the
present moment in time, and the feeling
that there’s a change in the wind. The lyric
goes, ‘I’ve been to New York City, I’ve met
The Rolling Stones – things you cannot
buy with your weight in gold’ -- stuff like
that.” And what wisdom did he acquire
from The Struts’ summit with Mick and
Keith? “Nothing I hadn’t known already –
I’ve been studying them for five years
before supporting them, so it was just great
to finally see them in the flesh, you know?”
he says.
Now, Spiller is glad that he chose music
for a profession. Or that it chose him. Just
look at the career of a professional athlete,
he invites – there’s a built-in life expectancy that usually grinds everything to a halt
way too early. “By the time you’re 40, you
have to stop and then you go and do talk
shows, but if you’re a musician, you do
your job well until you drop dead,” he
says. A technique he’s finessing as the days
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The Struts in 2011
not featured on the original. The band has
even temporarily relocated to Los Angeles,
the better to launch its assault on America,
which it should conquer by Christmas.
Along with Dorothy and Spain’s The
Parrots, The Struts is easily one of the best
new rock groups of this ho-hum year. No
joke. One listen, and you’ll be hooked.
And Spiller loves paying tribute to his
influences through Struts cover songs. He
can’t bring himself to croon any Queen
cuts, he sighs – he never wants to be that
blatantly obvious. Instead, he’ll do David
Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel,” or something new
from English peers The Vaccines. But there
is one rather unexpected re-do that’s
quickly becoming the band’s trademark.
“One our favorites is our version of
“Royals” by Lorde,” he reveals. “We wondered, ‘How would Oasis play that song?
Or if Queen had Noel Gallagher ding a
cover of it, what would it sound like?’ And
I think we really hit the nail on the head,
and I just love doing that song.”
Spiller’s own compositions are
equally striking, and they boast many of
his life philosophies, lurking just beneath
the jagged riffs, handclap percussion, and
anvil choruses. Especially “Could Have
Been Me” and the prophetic “These Times
Are Changing.” “Those two were both
pass. If you had met him two years ago, he
wasn’t physically up to snuff, he concedes.
“But I’ve learned to take myself – and the
job – a lot more seriously. I’m in this for the
long haul, so I’m trying to take care of
myself more, so I’m trying to stay off burgers and all the fatty stuff. I’m doing a lot
more things to make me slow down and
not be so wired, so I’m making the most of
every day.”
But mainly? Spiller swears he’s simply
over it – the fast-lane life that’s synonymous with his style of music. “You know,
the good thing about all this is, I’m
approaching my late 20s now,” he concludes. “So in terms of sex, drugs, and rock
and roll, I’ve had more than my share of
STDs and staying up ‘til 8:00 a.m. with a
ten-pound note sticking out of my nose. So
I’ve been there, done that. And I’m in a
lucky position where I can learn from my
heroes’ downfall. And not mistakes – if they
wanted to party like that, fine. But I think
it’s something that they themselves would
advise me not to do, if they were still
here….”
Appearing 7/28 at Bottom Lounge; 7/29 at
Lollapalooza, Chicago
july
2016
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