Spoke Too Soon’s Joe Stainke caught up with us recently to plug the band’s forthcoming gig in Inverness and grab a few words about 2013 with the band.
Stephen Bull has recently replaced Ruri Murray on Bass, although this was not pre-empted by any Rock n Roll row or such like, just a passing of the ways. “Ruri just decided a couple of weeks ago that he’d had enough”, Joe adds “It was nothing personal and all the best to him. He stays with Hunter in Glasgow though so we’ll still see him a lot.”
The band were lucky to have a replacement especially with a forthcoming gig, “Stephen Bull ticked all the boxes”. It was this previous experience of Stephen that sealed the deal “He’s been our friend since the first proper gig we played which was with Last Summer Effect, and we could tell by his time with them how dedicated and talented he is.”
Last year has certainly been one of transition for the band, with the various members struggling with the geographical demands of studying down south. Joe admitted “We weren’t the best at organising practices in the first place so it’s been pretty tough”, however at the same time it is hoped there will be a change in 2014 ” Kieran’s hopefully moving down next year and we’ve been building up contacts so we should be able to hit it hard when that happens.”
In saying that 2013 has not been that shabby at all especially with a profile raising win at The Highland Battle of the Bands hosted at The Crofters Bar Fort William and judged by Jim Gellatly . The decision to take part in the event was not clear cut however “We’re not the biggest fans as they can sometimes turn into a popularity contest, but seeing as this was just one judge, we thought we might as well give it a go while it was still summer and we were all together and well rehearsed.” With a sense of honesty Joe states “I’m about to lose all punk cred for saying this, but the prize money was too much to not go for!”
Winning the competition came as a complete shock for the band , but the gaining of an influential supporter in Jim Gellatly has obviously had a good effect; “It’s been great. He featured us in his column for the Scottish Sun and has given us some radio play, so we’re hugely grateful to him for that and hopefully we can build on it all.”
With a mixture of influences from Biffy Clyro to Fall Out Boy,I asked Joe how he described his music to bookers “I ask them to listen to us and make up their own minds! Depending on what sort of bands the bookers normally put on, I might say we’re punk-ish with heavy parts or metal-ish with pop punk influences or some tripe along those lines, but hopefully they just ignore the labels and listen to the songs.”
Haha, we never fit in with the bands we play with. Buff Club gig will be a new level. #WhatUpDeathThrash
— Spoke Too Soon (@SpokeTooSoonUK) October 21, 2013
The difficulty in finding a clear “fit” has resulted in some contrasts in style however the strangest gig that they have played so far was self-inflicted, Joe remembering an early gig “the talent show at Kieran’s school that he signed us up for. We were the only band playing, so already way louder than everything else, and the other three of us didn’t even go there. We were just some outsiders showing up to deafen all the school kids and parents.”
Whilst first full EP Staring at the Wall was released earlier this year (and still available at bandcamp), there is potential for another return to the studio ; “We have enough songs for another EP just now so once we teach them to Stephen we’ll see what we wanna do.”
You can see our most recent review of Spoke Too Soon, when the supported Winter Tradition.
Spoke Too Soon take to Mad Hatter on the 27th of December, 2013, with support from Ross Sutherland Holland.