#thespells

The Spells’ unreleased debut The Night Has Eyes finally drops this Halloween via Garganta Press, complete with a 16-page photo booklet.🎸

I followed him down a cold cement staircase. He told me not to be frightened as we descended further into the basement of the Brooklyn building. Hidden away, beyond the abandoned corridor, was his studio. As we stepped inside, I immediately spotted a drum set to the left. Next to it was a small, and I would later find out, slightly out of tune, piano. Strung along one wall were white lights and a patterned curtain. As I looked around, I envisioned a room full of musicians and I could suddenly hear the faint echo of their instruments…

…We met one night in the back of a club in lower Manhattan. He had just finished a show with Brazilian Girls. Drummer for the Grammy nominated band, he has been putting the finishing touches on the group’s fourth album while working on a variety of other projects. He has created a solo endeavor called You’re All Fired and is producing and mixing music for his friend Jason Darling as well as a psychedelic rock project called The Spells. He also started the band NightShades with musicians Gabriel Gordon and Jonathan Levy.

Discovering music in grade school, his teacher realized the drums were his instrument after he snuck into the band room and started playing. With the encouragement of his mother, he took lessons in piano, guitar, and drums. However, until the age of sixteen when he threw his arm out, he had aspirations of becoming a baseball pitcher. But, as fate would have it, he received a music scholarship to Wichita State University and never looked back.

After school he headed to LA and San Francisco, but he eventually found his way to New York City in 1998. In 2002, he went to a nightclub on Ave C called Nublu where he met Sabina Sciubba and Didi Gutman. Shortly thereafter, with the addition of friend and bassist Jesse Murphy, Brazilian Girls was created. Nublu, permeating with creativity from a culturally diverse crowd, influenced not only him, but the music the band would create as well. Since then, his musical inspirations have evolved as he continues to undertake projects of varying genres… 

…We stepped onto the roof of the building. He pointed out the Barclay’s Center in the distance. Looking around at the Brooklyn horizon, below at the passing traffic, and to the company to my right, I couldn’t help but mentally return to Irving Plaza. He was on stage and his arms moved so quickly that they appeared as just blurs in the air. The heat from the crowd around me enhanced each pounding of his drums and I transcended to a plane where only the music and I existed…

-Jessica Glick

I forgot how much I enjoy staying up late. Everyone is asleep and I almost feel invincible. I am cleaning my room, folding laundry, listening to The Spells, and updating tumblr(s). Soon I will sleep, for my car is going into the shop tomorrow morning. Here's to hoping that Corin (my car) will not have anything drastically wrong and expensive to fix.