Roots rockers Quiet Life play the Iota Club April 8. We called up lead singer Sean W. Spellman to get the inside scoop on the band’s new album (due out April 8), sustainable fuel and President Springsteen. Below is an edited transcript. –MacKenzie Reagan
Q: Your latest LP, Foggy, is out April 8. What can you tell me about the album?
A: It’s definitely the best thing we’ve ever done. We’re all real stoked about it. We were in the studio for two weeks, and we had free range to do whatever we wanted. We’re excited to get away from that more Americana tag that we’ve been doing.
Q: What’s with the album artwork? It’s a person dressed up as a red mushroom from, like, Super Mario.
A: [Laughs] I just really liked that photograph. It’s [from] this art collective in the Ukraine called Gorsad. I thought it was so funny. It was kind of sexy, kind of childish and just sort of absurd. It just made me smile. That was how we felt about the record. I thought it was kind of a good representation of the album.
Q: You drive a 2002 Ford E350 diesel van powered by vegetable oil.
A: We had a friend [whose car] has been running on grease for, like, 15 years. We’ve been touring a lot, and it’s really expensive to tour, especially when gas prices were high. We’ve always, always been intrigued by the idea of running on alternative fuel. It’s a direct form of recycling. It saves us money and enables us to tour more, and it’s just a really cool thing to do for the Earth.
Q: A while ago you Instagrammed a photo of one of you wearing a T-shirt that says “Springsteen for President.” If he were president, which of his songs should he make the national anthem?
A: There’s so many. They could just change every week. The obvious one would be “Born in the USA,” right?
Q: But isn’t that song kind of negative?
A: Yeah, but, I mean, it’s perceived as positive. It’s funny, you know how people adopted the Confederate flag as a thing to represent their pride for the South? It’s kind of like how people adopted “Born in the USA,” when really, it was just talking shit on the Vietnam War.
Q: You also tweeted that Brandon Flowers [of the Killers] is better than Bono. But Flowers has said U2 is one of his influences. Does that mean that we have to like Bono, then?
A: Oh, shit. I didn’t tweet that; my brother’s the one who does all the Twitter and stuff. But I definitely agree with him there. I think that—wow, that’s funny. I bet you when Flowers talks about Bono being an influence, I bet you it has to be purely with stage show. He definitely is channeling him live, that arena-rock performance vibe.
QUICK HITS
Q: Stones or Beatles?
A: For me, Beatles. But … different reasons, you know? I think if I had the opportunity to sit in a room with either one of those bands, I would say that I would want it to be the Beatles, just because I think that there’s more going on that just what’s with the band, if that makes sense.
Q: Biggie or Tupac?
A: Biggie—New York, all the way! Although I do love Tupac—I think he’s smarter than Biggie.
Q: Your music, in three words:
A: On the beach.
Q: First thing you do when you get up in the morning:
A: I try to avoid looking at my phone.
Q: What’s one thing you can’t leave home without?
A: Lately, it’s been a box of tea tree oil toothpaste.
