Adam Ant Spin Doctors

ISSUE #26 MMUSICMAG.COM SPOTLIGHT Chris Crisman l ucy o nions

spin doctors the alt-rockers revisit their blues roots and reinvent their sound eric schenkman, aaron Comess, Chris Barron, mark White

While touring in england it. it sounded amazing. We did it in embracing their early music created a behind the 2011 release of Pocket Full the encore that night.” rift of sorts among fans of their mainstream of Kryptonite: 20th Anniversary Edition, Fan reaction was so strong they started hits and those drawn to the blues. Barron the spin doctors made a discovery: playing their old blues music at shows. remembers “looking over at parents and their their future lay in their past. Before the as the tour came to a close, the band— 10-year-old kids and thinking, ‘this isn’t really band hit the charts in the early ’90s with Barron, drummer aaron Comess, guitarist my scene anymore.’” But the instinct to return peppy, poppy alt-rock tunes such as “little eric schenkman and bassist mark White— to their blues roots was bolstered during the miss Can’t Be Wrong,” “two princes” started talking about their next record. london run. as Barron says, “We went for a and “Jimmy olsen’s Blues,” their stock in “it didn’t take us long to take the jump to drink after a show in london and there were trade was the blues—honed by playing the making a blues record,” says Barron. “We two blokes telling us, ‘We saw the show new york club scene. said, ‘hell, let’s just do it. We might as well and figured we’d hear ‘two princes,’ which two decades later, the band is returning make the record we want to make.’” they was my favorite song when i was 12, but i to those musical roots for their latest release soon gathered in Comess’ home recording really wasn’t expecting much. you guys really If the River Was Whiskey. “on the england studio to demo songs from the band’s club caught us off guard coming out and playing swing of our tour, we had a couple of days and began writing new material. all that blues stuff.” über fans who taped everything we did,” says “it all came together really fast,” recalls Barron and the band are energized lead singer Chris Barron. “We asked these Barron. “We went in on tuesday and nailed about their new-old direction. “this is our guys what they wanted to hear, and they five tunes, went in on Wednesday and nailed music,” he says. “this is who we were were naming some of our earliest songs. five. then we went out to dinner and said, before Pocket Full of Kryptonite. this is like i didn’t even remember all the verses ‘i think our demo is our new record. it’s a a new band.” to one, but of course they had a tape of blues record—and it’s fantastic.’” –Nancy Dunham

adam ant the former U.K. chart-topper gets back into the swing of performing

Creatively speaking, adam ant has soared over the mountaintops and stumbled on the valley’s floor. Clinically diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2003, he had fallen off the radar eight years earlier, after the release of Wonderful. he eventually battled through the disease to release Adam Ant Is the BlueBlack Hussar ISSUE in#26 Marrying M theMUSIC Gunner’s & Daughter MUSICIANS, his first studio MAGAZINE recording in 18 years. “Bipolar means up and down, which also means light and shade,” ant says. “you do need the light and the dark, and i think the album reflects that. this record shows both sides, and it would have been cowardly and inappropriate not to address it.”

16 MARCH/APRIL 2011 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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