SPINN LINE-UP LIVE DATES THIS SPRING
SPINN
LINE-UP LIVE DATES THIS SPRING
NEW ALBUM:
OUT NOW, VIA MODERN SKY UK
“A band far too modest to save guitar music themselves, but they’re doing a damn fine job at breathing new life into its blackened lungs.” – THE LINE OF BEST FIT
“one of the most exciting up and coming bands out there” – DORK
“Contemporary and indelibly charming, SPINN are quite simply one of the most exciting young bands in England.” – FAR OUT MAGAZINE
Following the release of their second album ‘Outside of the Blue’, Liverpool-based four-piece SPINN will be embarking on a UK tour this Spring.
Kicking off on 28th April in Newcastle, the band will be taking in 11 shows in total, including a hometown headline show at Liverpool’s O2 Academy. Destinations and dates are as follows:
SPINN – LIVE DATES 2022:
28 April – The Cluny, Newcastle
30 April – The Forum, Tunbridge Wells
1 May – The Hope & Ruin, Brighton
5 May – Thekla, Bristol
6 May – O2 Academy, Liverpool
7 May – Omeara, London
8 May – Bodega, Nottingham
10 May – Mama Roux, Birmingham
11 May – The Key Club, Leeds
12 May – King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow
13 May – The Adelphi, Hull
*****
Drawing inspiration from Buddhist teachings and the hopeful attitude of frontman Johnny Quinn, Liverpool-based four-piece SPINN have returned with their staggering second album ‘Outside Of The Blue’ – out now via Modern Sky UK. The band recently released its title track as a teaser of the record, of which Johnny says:
“Outside Of The Blue” acts as a lynchpin sonically and thematically. Written in the immediate aftermath of a panic attack, following a drive down to Birmingham to work on material for the album, the lyrics poured out in just half an hour. Instead of embodying that place of anguish, it’s filled with light and an appreciation of unconditional love. “It’s about how appreciative you become of the good things in life when you realise you have them, and how you’d do anything for that.”
Produced by Tom Longworth (Oscar Lang, Spector, Vistas, BLOXX) at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, Quinn is joined on the new record by Luke Brickett on guitar, Sean McLachlan on bass, and Louis O’Reilly on drums. It’s the follow-up to their 2019 self-titled debut, which received lavish praise from the likes of DORK and The Line Of Best Fit, ‘SPINN’ saw the band head out on a sold-out UK tour with slots at Reading & Leeds and Truck followed by their biggest headline show to date in Tokyo.
Across the 11 tracks, SPINN doubles down and distill their sound, delivering festival-ready indie-pop packed with earworm hooks, feel-good guitars, and a newfound determination to break out of the boxes in which they’d previously been confined. The record splits the world into two distinct spaces; the blue, which represents periods of anxiety and depression, and the other side; a place filled with colour, endless opportunity, and brimming with hope.
The mindset and the mantra of the album can be equated with Buddha’s main teachings “avoid evil, do good and purify the mind,” having himself found solace in meditation and mindfulness over the last 18 months. Born out of a period of change for the band, including the departure of their lead guitarist, Johnny and Sean handled most of the lyrics, bouncing ideas off each other via voice notes and phone calls when not physically together in Sean’s decked out DIY studio.
Diving deeper than before, the band’s second album offers a nuanced commentary about their own experiences with anxiety, depression, the power of love (and loving someone) as well as disillusionment with the government.
Credit: Barnaby Fairley
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BIOGRAPHY
Drawing inspiration from Buddhist teachings and the hopeful attitude of frontman Johnny Quinn, Liverpool-based four-piece SPINN return with their staggering second album Outside Of The Blue. For the new record, Quinn is joined by Luke Brickett on guitar, Sean McLachlan on bass and Louis O’Reilly on drums. It’s the follow-up to their 2019 self-titled debut, which received lavish praise from the likes of Dork and The Line Of Best Fit, SPINN saw the band head out on a sold-out UK tour with slots at Reading & Leeds and Truck followed by their biggest headline show to date in Tokyo.
Across the 11 tracks, SPINN double down and distill their sound, delivering festival-ready indie-pop packed with earworm hooks, feel-good guitars, and a newfound determination to break out of the boxes in which they’d previously been confined. The record splits the world into two distinct spaces; the blue, which represents periods of anxiety and depression, and the other side; a place filled with colour, endless opportunity, and brimming with hope.
The mindset and the mantra of the album can be equated with Buddha’s main teachings “avoid evil, do good and purify the mind,” having himself found solace in meditation and mindfulness over the last 18 months. Born out of a period of change for the band, including the departure of their lead guitarist, Johnny and Sean handled most of the lyrics, bouncing ideas off each other via voice notes and phone calls when not physically together in Sean’s decked out DIY studio.
Diving deeper than before, the album offers a nuanced commentary about their own experiences with anxiety, depression, the power of love (and loving someone) as well as disillusionment with the government. The latter is tackled on the fiery “People Should Know Better” which Johnny describes as “a critique of the government’s and how they’ve handled the country in the last couple years; people are becoming racist, the government is incompetent and now people are dying.”
Title track and single “Outside Of The Blue” acts as a lynchpin sonically and thematically. Written in the immediate aftermath of a panic attack, following a drive down to Birmingham to work on material for the album, the lyrics poured out in just half an hour. Instead of embodying that place of anguish, it’s filled with light and an appreciation of unconditional love. “It’s about how appreciative you become of the good things in life when you realise you have them,” Johnny says, “and how you’d do anything for that.”
Other highlights include re-energised live favourite “Daydreaming” which finally gets an official release. Originally written around two years ago, the band have been trying to get this song right ever since. Louis remembers going through countless demos playing with structure, tone, and lyrics, after years of hard graft and intense back and forth in the studio, it sounds better than ever. Johnny laughs “it took two and a half years, a new guitarist and a global pandemic later we finally got it to sound good on record.”
“Getaway” sees the tempo shift as they add even more emotion, this time fuelled by Johnny’s brief break-up with his girlfriend. The pensive track still has the trademark SPINN sound but is more mellow given its delicate subject matter. “At the time it was what I thought I wanted,” he explains, “but as time went on it became clearer and clearer to me that it was a big mistake… No matter how much I tried to run away from things, they always managed to catch up with me.
Closing track “Outside Looking In” is the most intimate moment on the record and a stark departure from the uplifting nature of its upbeat forerunners. Written from a place of love for a friend, who struggles with substance abuse, this track is firmly inside the band’s conceptual blue space. Johnny cites influential American songwriter, and The Modern Lovers’ frontman, Jonathan Richman as a driving force behind the album’s positivity, even when things take a darker turn mentioning ” he always sees the goodness and beauty in life in his music.”
Packaged with a vibrant visual world created by Luke and designer Marnie Cox, the album’s artwork references some of their key external references – books and films. Notably, the album’s most obscure love song, “Stargazing”, draws on the narrative of the 2014 horror flick A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night where a reclusive vampire falls for one of the villagers she’s been terrorising. One of the most difficult tracks to record, Johnny remembers Sean taking his time to make sure everything was perfect on this one.
Produced by Tom Longworth (Oscar Lang, Spector, Vistas, Bloxx) at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, this time the process felt a lot more relaxed. “It was a lot more fun,” Johnny says, “I think you can tell from listening to the album that there were lots of good vibes in the room.” From backing vocal ad libs, to taking turns on percussion and bassist Sean adding bits of guitar here and there, together with Longworth, the band created a safe, collaborative atmosphere where Outside Of The Blue could really flourish.
SPINN have already had the chance to test drive new material during their main stage appearance at Tramlines Festival this summer. Itching to get out on the road and bring even more life to Outside Of The Blue, its overarching message of positivity is sure to resonate as the world around us continues to burn.
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