Spirits Reveal Their U2 Crush

Sharing a bill with the Pixies is likely both a blessing and a curse. Your band may benefit from the exposure, but there's not much of a chance you'll be remembered as the night's top act.

Spirits recently found themselves in that position at an industry showcase for their debut self-titled disc, at Hamilton, Ont.'s The Casbah, when the Pixies dropped in for a surprise set.

"Our band knew we were going to be playing after the Pixies that night, so we had more time to be nervous about it than anybody else did," says vocalist Brad Germain.

Despite the evening's performance order, Germain has resisted claiming one of the biggest indie rock bands of all time opened for his brand new group.

"They didn't really 'open' for us," he says. "It'd be pretty ridiculous to say that we were the headlining band and the Pixies were our opening band. We followed them [and they were] the hardest band I've ever had to follow."

Spirits might have been one-upped on stage that night, but they're not letting it bother them. It was never a sure thing that Germain and his bandmates — guitarist Ian Smith and drummer Nick Skalkos — would be sharing a stage at all. This Spirits project wasn't originally intended to be a full-time gig.

"I think we were just goofing around for the most part," says Germain of the band's earliest incarnation. "We weren't really trying; we were just writing songs and having fun with it. My manager, once we played him those songs, he wanted us to write more songs, more often."

Germain and Smith (Skalkos joined later) had no definite plans for what they wanted their collaboration to sound like, but they did know they wanted the music to be hook-filled, fun and very different from what they make with their other bands (Smith is in The Miniatures and Germain is in The Marble Index). That goofing around took the form of carefree, '80s-style pop-rock from the very beginning.

"We didn't really want to sound '80s," explains Germain, "but at that point we were listening to Hall & Oates and Duran Duran and new wave bands like The Spoons... big harmonies, big vocals, that sort of thing."

Aside from those acts, there's also a detectable U2 influence on their debut.

"I'm a really big fan of a lot of U2's records," says Germain. "Not really the ones they made in the last 15 years, but like the first three. I like Boy and October and War a lot.

"U2 is one of those bands — you're almost not allowed to say you like them because they're so popular. Bands never say they like U2. Their first bunch of records were great. After that, they got a little like every band does when they become really popular — they get homogenous or whatever."

Spirits the album hits retail shelves on Sept. 29. In the meantime, the trio have three CD release shows lined up:

Sept. 17 Waterloo, ON @ Starlight Lounge
Sept. 18 Toronto, ON @ The Hideout
Sept. 19 Hamilton, ON @ Absinthe
Oct. 14 Toronto, ON @ Kool Haus opening for Happy Mondays and Psychedelic Furs
Oct. 15 Montreal, QC @ Theatre Olympia opening for Happy Mondays and Psychedelic Furs