Four EP's, one compilation CD, hundreds of gigs, top 10 rock chart placing, prestigious support slots, dedication, belief, tenacity, determination, sheer bloody hard work... that's all it took for SPiT LiKE THiS to release their debut album.
After 5 years of relentless DiY ambition, the band released their debut album, "We Won't Hurt You (But We Won't Go Away) to great success signing a worldwide record deal with Swedish label, GMR MUSiC GROUP. The album has since been released in Scandanavia, Benelux & Italy on 27th January 2010; and Germany, Austria, Switzerland on 12th February 2010 (on GMR via Sony/BMG).
And they're about to do it all again having just announced that they will commence working on their 2nd album with legendary producer Chris Tsangarides of Ozzy Osbourne, Thin Lizzy and Anvil fame.
Lord Zion, the bands vocalist hunted us down to tell us everything you need to know about the glam punk rockers!
How and when did the band come together and what is the particular inspiration behind the name "Spit Like This"?
The name comes from the day that I met Vikki. It was in London, in a club, we were both totally drunk but I was happy as I had met a girl version of me. The fact she played bass was a bonus! The night ended with us having a spitting competition outside the club with me showing Vikki how to “spit like this”. Fast forward a year or so, after we had decided to form a band, we were looking for a name. We pondered several names before deciding on SPiT LiKE THiS. Two that particularly sticks in my mind is Viper Room 69 and Sick Sisters, which is quite awful! Anyway, we wanted a name that summed up our attitude and we got chatting about how we met and recalled that competition. And that was it. It had the punk vibe we wanted, attitude, aggression, it wasn’t “safe”, it was memorable and could also be sexy. Shortly after, we got it tattooed so we couldn’t change it!
Can you introduce each member of the band and give us a rock n roll “fact” for each?
LORD ZiON: That’s me, co-founder of the band and vocalist. My rock n roll fact would be that I once set fire to a guy for wearing an Iron Maiden jacket. Neither of us were very amused.
ViKKi SPiT: Bassist and co-founder. Her biggest rock n roll story is that we used to sell her used underwear on eBay to earn the money to record our first EP.
ViLE GiLEZ: Drummer and longest-serving member behind me and Vikki. My god, there are so many rock n roll facts I could draw on here… How can I pick just one?! OK, he won’t thank me but once, whilst on a major bender, VG picked up a hooker in Brixton and had her sucking on his cock for about half an hour, but it wouldn’t go hard as he had a major case of coke cock. So, he chucked her out of his car and drove home. He lost his license and almost went to jail shortly after that.
CYNDi ROTT: Guitarist with possibly the best rock n roll story of us all! Shortly after he joined, we had our first photo shoot. Part of the shoot involved us all getting covered in fake blood (as you do). Cyndi couldn’t be bothered to clean up so drove home that way, topless as the blood is really sticky. He had to pull into a petrol station to fill up and, when he did, his car promptly caught on fire! The fire brigade arrived to find this man, seemingly covered in bloody, trying to put out his car that was on fire in a petrol station. Classic!
What do you think the band bring to the worldwide rock scene that you feel is currently missing?
I look around and I don’t see another band like us. We’re intense and aggressive live yet have a fun, playful side. We also look really good so people aren’t appalled by our faces! Our music is a combination of glam, punk and rock – which is something I don’t see around too much. Our visual appeal goes beyond the way we look and extends to our artwork, something we are very concious of. We try to be as unique as possible, but not in a contrived sense. SPiT LiKE THiS is more than just a band, it’s an attitude and a way of life. We have a neat equation that describes us: Sex + Subversion x Style = SPiT LiKE THiS.
In July you commence recording your second album with Chris Tsangarides who has produced albums for such legendary artists such as Ozzy, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy and most recently Anvil. How is the songwriting coming along and what are you looking for from Chris in taking this 2nd album to the next level?
We are REALLY excited about bagging Chris. Before we even started this process, we had a list of “dream” producers and he was on it. When I contacted him and he seemed responsive, I couldn’t quite believe it. When we met him and he was a great guy, that was a massive bonus. Look at it from our point of view: we literally started with nothing, having to sell used underwear to scrape the cash to get going. And now we are working with a Grammy nominated producer! Life doesn’t get much weirder.
As for the songwriting, up until now, I have been the main songwriter. It was something I needed to prove to myself and I needed to establish what SLT was all about. Well, that’s done now and we have grown together as a band. Our sound has grown and, as an ensemble, we are quite unique. We wanted to give it a go, writing as a band. To be frank, I thought it was going to be a disaster: 4 strong characters locked in a room trying to create music is a recipe for chaos but I think, as we share one common goal, it worked out really good.
The new songs we are writing seem to be a natural progression to what has come before. Personally, I am spending much more time on the lyrics than I had in the past (I’m still the sole lyric writer and it finally dawned on me that people actually listen to them!) and drawing heavily on our experiences of the last couple of years, good and bad. The songs are much more autobiographical and a bit nastier. It’s exciting and I cannot wait to hear them for the first time as recorded by Chris. I believe he will help establish the SLT sound once and for all.
Your first album "We Won't Hurt You (But We Won't Go Away)” has been released throughout the UK, a lot of Europe and even in the land Down Under and New Zealand. What has the interest in the band been thus far outside of the UK? Have you had much interest coming from Australia as yet?
It’s very strange for us as, within the UK, we are a fairly well-established band. We are kind of used to a particular level of recognition. Of course, outside of the UK, we are nothing so, in that respect, it’s like starting at the beginning again. The difference this time is that we aren’t on such a steep learning curve, although every territory has it’s unique slant. I can always tell when our record is about to come out in a new country as I start getting lots of people from that country add me on Facebook and our website starts getting more hits from it. So far, so good! We are getting a lot of reviews – which either seem to be REALLY good, or REALLY bad – and we are getting people talking. We polarise opinion, which is a strength as it means we are igniting people’s passion. As soon as you can do that, you are on to a winner!
We have always had a little bit of interest from Australia – I guess all English speaking countries – so I was so glad when I learned our CD was coming out there. We got our video played on Rage TV which, from what I can make out, is a pretty big deal, so that is awesome. I just wish that I understood more about how the Australian & New Zealand market worked – I don’t even know where you guys go to buy CD’s online!
You have certainly shared the stage with some of the biggest names in hard rock and some of the more visual bands in rock, such as Twisted Sister, The 69 Eyes and W.A.S.P. For those of us that live in galaxies far, far, away and haven't witnessed your live show....tell us what we are missing!
Excitement and energy. We love playing live – that’s the whole point of being in a band – so, cliché or not, we really do give it as much as we can. I used to start our sets by telling the audience that, the better we are, the better they are and, the better they are, the better we are. And it is so true. The live experience is one to be shared, not just viewed, so we always try to reach out and touch every member of the audience. Not physically, you understand! But it can be hard for someone right at the back to get in to the vibe, but we normally win everyone over. We are quite relentless!
Everything from your website, promo pictures and video clips etc is all visually strong. Is this something that as a band you have full control over...from concept, design to end product?
That’s my department and we do have total control over it. I cannot imagine it any other way. How can anyone, other than us, determine what we should be? That, as a concept, is beyond me! So I tend to have these crazy ideas then spend an awful lot of time working out how to execute them. Some work better than others but, on the whole, I think I do a good job! Like I said before, SLT is more than just a band so, when people buy our CD, they are buying more than just music. They are subscribing to an attitude and becoming part of our history.
We are living quite extraordinary lives, getting to do things that most people never, ever get to do. Given that opportunity, why wouldn’t you go over the top??! I never got the grunge thing when that happened, it seemed so pointless to me. They didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves or making the most of it and that, to me, was such a lie. Here was this movement, seemingly full of sincerety yet the people creating the music were just as rich and obnoxious as anyone from Mötley Crüe! More so, in fact, as they were saying one thing but doing another. Back to SLT, we have the chance to have ourselves potrayed as 100 foot tall characters looming large over London. OK, I’ll do that! We have the chance to shoot a video in a crazy house full of mad props. OK, I’ll do that! And we will keep on doing these things for as long as we can!
I think it's now the perfect time for a brief advertisement. Here's your chance to tell us all about smellyourmum.com and why we should support the merch on this website...
Shortly after we formed SPiT LiKE THiS, Vikki and I realised that we needed to do something other than sell used panties to earn money. I had these ideas for offensive slogan T-shirts so part of the panty money went in to setting up smellyourmum.com. The basic premis was that we needed the freedom being self-employed brings so we can always do the band stuff without having to ask for time off. We also wanted to do something that complimented the band. And, finally, we enjoyed the notion of offending loads of people with our sweary T-shirts!
We started off with just 6 designs. Vikki learnt to screen print and I quickly became a master of website coding. Those 6 designs have now expanded to 4 or 500 designs and the site is nudging 12million hits! It wasn’t supposed to take off in such a big way; since launching the shopping site in 2004, we have sold literally tens of thousands of T-shirts – every single one of them hand printed by Vikki. She has painful RSI as a result and has to have her thumb in ice water twice a day to cope with the pain.
To this day, I design the T-shirts, put them on the site, process the orders and Vikki prints them. On the most basic level, every single T-shirt sold helps fund SLT. It pays for our rent, our food and our share of SLT. We have total punk DIY ethics and just get on with it. On the broader level, every item we sell is a genuine rock n roll artifact.
We ship free worldwide as well, and have many Australian customers. We even had comedienne Christina Davis (who I believe was on your version of Big Brother?) buy some of our tees to wear on her tour in Oz!
Is there much of a glam/punk rock scene in London/UK in 2010? Do you find that your fellow country people "GET" bands like Spit Like This, or do you find that some of your neighbouring countries like Germany show a bigger interest in this kind of music and visual appeal?
Um, no, I think we are it! When we started out, we were a fly in the ointment on the London scene. No-one was doing anything remotely close to what we were doing, so we grew pretty quick. London did have a fairly healthy rock scene but, mainly, they were copycat bands, clones of stuff like Guns N Roses, not putting their own spin on it. So the scene quickly imploded. We are our own scene though and don’t subscribe to anything. Some people REALLY get what we do, other people don’t have a clue. It’s funny! And I’m sure it is something we will encounter in most countries. Our strongest selling point though is our live show. It’s pretty much universally acknowledged that we are awesome live! So, the more people we can play in front of in other countries, the better!
Is there any such thing as a typical "Spit Like This" fan, or are they all a differen't breed unto themselves?
I’ve thought long and hard about this – over the years, not just now. I’m really interested in marketing and understand how important that is for a band, especially in this day and age. One of the first things any marketing book will say is “identify your audience and target them”. So, I have sat down and tried to do that, and I can’t! I am sure there is something that unites all SPiT LiKE THiS fans, and it is probably the same thing that unites SPiT LiKE THiS itself. But I haven’t put my finger on it just yet!
There are some bands where you can say, “if you like Metallica, you will also like Slayer” – chances are, that is true. But we aren’t one of those bands. I can look out in the audience and see a glam fan, sleazy rock fan, goth fan, punk fan, guys, girls, classic rock fans, middle-aged people, teenagers and everyone and everything in between. So we appeal less to the “tribe” and more to the individual, which would make sense, as we are all individuals within the band.
The follow things we know play a part in the evolution of the band, can you give us some words about each:
a) Rocky Horror Show - a lot of our early reviews would mention The Rocky Horror Show – I think something about my voice reminded them of it? Or perhaps it was the dark, sexy nature of some of our early tracks. Whatever it was, as fans of the RHS, we thought we would work on a cover of “Sweet Transvestite”. We did, it worked and, live, it is HUGE! I think we’d be shot if we ever left it out of our set. So, we put it as a bonus on our disc and even have the seal of approval from Rocky creator, Richard O’Brien, who called it a “fab spin on an old favourite” – high praise indeed!
b) Freedom - I appreciate that we are lucky to live in a country that values freedom more than other countries but, especially since 9/11, a lot of our freedoms in the UK are under threat. Our government has gone a very long way in taking away the responsibility of the individual and creates new laws at the drop of a hat. I find this a worry. Already the UK has more CCTV cameras than any other country and we are truly under constant surveillance. You cannot get away with anything! And that is not a good thing. Human beings NEED a certain amount of freedom, some more than others but, at this rate, the whole country will be criminalised as we are ALL guilty of breaking various laws, bit or small. It can only end in revolution!
c) GMR Music Group - Our saviours! We love, love, LOVE Lena and GMR. She was the first to express an interest in us early 2008. Unfortunately, at the time, they weren’t in a position to take us on and we then got offered another deal, by a UK label. So, our album first got released in the UK in November 2008 but with no support. (Here’s how great Lena is, by the way, she actually purchased a copy of it!). We parted company with the UK label in 2009 and begged Lena to take us on to re-release our CD in the UK and release it across Europe. She was concerned about doing that as she’d had a bad experience doing something similar before. But I threatened to come and camp on her doorstep until she said Yes, which she eventually did. I now feel bad for her though as she IS experiencing problems due to the original release – but she isn’t complaining at it has been a pleasure to work with her. I am so excited about being able to give GMR an album to work with from scratch so they can do their job properly without these ugly problems coming up! We <3 GMR!
d) 70's B Movies - Are so much fun! 80’s ones too. I think it is quite obvious that we are heavily influenced by cinema. It is that exaggerated life we all crave. A lot of what we do, visually, is a nod toward various cinematic experiences we have had.
e) Sex Drugs & Heavy Metal - An important song in my life. It was written many years ago. Like most bands, our debut album has been written over years and years, not just a few months, and this song was one of the first. I wasn’t sure whether to include it or not – I have passed my “drugs” phase so it is maybe not as relevant to me as it once was – but I’m not preachy or straight edge about that sort of thing so, fuck it, it stays. Not only that but, for me, it is more a song about rebellion than specific things. It’s just saying “hey, do what you want with your life and don’t give me any shit” – and I still 100% subscribe to that!!
Lord Zion, thanks for taking the time and please add anything else you feel needs to be said.....
You have covered a lot, thank you. And many thanks for being the first Australian publication to interview us! I wish I could tell your readers where they can buy our CD from – but I haven’t a clue – so I will just say “the usual outlets”!! You can actually buy it direct from us, on our smellyourmum.com merch site. Again, free shipping!
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