photo: Marc Goldstein

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-photo: Marc Goldstein

written by Jennifer Warner

Bet you wouldn't guess that vocals recorded in a bathroom (an overflowing one at that) could sound this good... Bet you wouldn't guess that Spooky's latest album Open also must have infused some of the surrounding pagan crazy counter-culture madness... Bet you probably guessed that this is leading up to another of our exclusive by-email interviews! You won't need a spell to decipher the typing Duncan and Charlie, the masterminds that are Spooky, either.

Who’s doing the reading and typing for this email interview?

Duncan, with Charlie in the background adding to it.

Let’s give our readers a little visual... where are you right now, and what do you and the space around you look like?

We're in a studio Sasha has rented in Manhattan, I'm sitting in the kitchen bit between the 2 rooms I can hear Baz editing keyboard sounds in one room and Charlie working on bits for tomorrow's live set in the other - a bit like being caught in that space in a club between the main room and the back room but not so loud.

What are you doing tonight?

Flying down to Buenos Aires, we play Cordoba tomorrow and Pacha on Friday night.

Have you answered thousand of questions about your album already?

We've answered a few questions yeah, but it's always great to talk about something that you've put a lot of time and effort in to. And nice to be asked!

What’s something fun about your album that you like to share... a story maybe, or an influence or idea...

Just a bit of info really on the recordings. Julie lives near Glastonbury in the south west of England - for people who don't know it, there are lots of pagan sites nearby and it attracts people from all over the world, so there's always this mix of weirdness and cosmic culture / counter culture. We recorded the vocals on most of the tracks in her small toilet which flooded half way through our sessions. So we'd stay in the town with all this madness going on - and believe me while you're there for any length of time you see some interesting characters - and every day drive over and sit in her living room with headphones on and record vocals, with all her harmonies it was a lot of recording.

How’d you come up with the title Open?

It took a long time to come - we don't find titles easy - Spooky was a last minute decision while we had the pressing plant on the phone ready to press what would be called "Don't Panic" our first single on Guerilla records. We had a list of names and that's what we ended up with.

How did you come to work with Julie Daske and Celestine Gordon?

Julie was introduced to us through a friend of a friend. We were taken to see Celestine sing by a singing teacher friend of ours called Netty - we were blown away by her.

Were there any other people you worked with on the album?

Yeah a Danish friend called Bastian played bass on a lot of the tracks. An old friend Jessica Lauren (check out her album Film) came down with a bunch of keyboards and played over all the tracks and we use small moments from what she played as subtle textures and fills. We also got a couple of guitar tracks done by Same Lewis and a friend of a friend called Greg.

What are you working on with Sasha and how do you three work together?

We're working on an Involver album - it's a bit like being in a band with people vibing off each other, Sasha really cares about his music.

Your myspace fans seem to want to send you their mixsets and tracks and get your input... what is the best way for someone to get a track to you if they wanted you to listen to it?

Send it to us through the website - we try to respond to everything in time. Sometimes things slip through the net cause we move around a lot and emails sometimes disappear into the in box void.

Speaking of fans, what’s the craziest thing a fan has ever done?

Can't think of anything that crazy.

Anything you’d like to say to your fans?

Thanks for being there and supporting us and enabling us to carry on doing what we do.

Thanks for answering our questions!!

:: spooky.uk.com ::
:: myspace.com/thebandspooky ::
:: myspace.com/spookychilled ::