I’m not one for normally using the blog as a promotional vehicle for new music, but I will make an exception when it comes to the work and efforts of personal friends.
Jan Burnett, the lead singer of Spare Snare is someone I’ve got to know in recent years, after a chance encounter at an event organised by Last Night From Glasgow. He is, without question, one of the nicest and most unassuming persons on the planet, as well as being extremely gifted, talented and charismatic, a statement that would, I’m sure, be backed up by anyone who was the 2024 edition of the At The Edge of The Sea festival in Brighton where he and the band stole the show thanks to an outstanding set and performance.
There’s a new album coming out soon, on CD and digital. It’s something a bit different for the Snare, albeit it’s the sort of thing quite a few other singers and bands have done with a degree of success over the years. Here’s Jan to tell you a bit more:-
Jan writes…………………………………….
“I’m not sure too many people who follow The Snare know the initial dabbling of releases lent a little to sampling a few rhythms or guitar at a with a maximum of a couple of seconds… the most my little £30 Yamaha sampler toy(ish) keyboard could manage.
Nor that I’m a collector of 12” singles of a certain period. I’m a sucker for a ‘Super Sound’ Extended 12″ from the 80s.
So a Spare Snare remix album actually isn’t too much of a surprise, in fact we’ve had the odd remix done previously as a bit of an experiment and because people asked to do them.
This time we have a standalone album, MIX UP, which features remixes of our last album, The Brutal, recorded in Leith by Steve Albini.
It took a little while to work out the running order, I’m describing it as a ‘remix oddity odyssey’, but once I knew the beginning, middle point and end, the rest fell in to place. A perfect 50+ minute headphone journey.
Alan and Adam from the band did a few, while big hitters like Hifi Sean and bis dropping there takes into the inbox were a delight.
I’m so chuffed to have friends and comrades like White Label, Scanner, The Leaf Library, Raz Ullah and Pete Silvers involved too, cutting, chopping, and re imagining to their individual agendas.
A really variable take on an album that’s reached out to an extended audience so far. These remixes won’t disappoint any fans of The Brutal, it just gives the listener a different view through the prism, a new glimpse through the frosted glass.
All the remixers were given the original stems recorded by Albini to do what they wanted with, no guidelines. I find that the best way, free reign. So what came back was part pop, part dancefloor, part progressive, part dub and part psyche, and strangely… putting all those parts back together again is probably the original Spare Snare.
It’s released November 1st, and can be pre-ordered now.
Digital only available direct from the band. The strictly limited 300 CDs, initially signed, will be available direct from the band and couple of choice stores.”
JC writes (again)…………………………
A taster for the album was made available a short while ago through the release of some very limited edition 7″ singles which, you won’t be surprised to hear, I’ve picked up. The Hifi Sean remix on vinyl is the ‘radio edit’ and comes in at a little over two minutes in length.
mp3: Spare Snare – I Have You (HiFi Sean echoplex) radio edit
The full version on Mix Up runs to over five minutes, and is one of a number that you can listen to over at the Spare Snare bandcamp page, where you can put your order in. https://sparesnare.bandcamp.com/album/mix-up
It really is highly recommended.
And just so that you can appreciate how much work has gone into the remixes, here’s the original as recorded by the late Steve Albini
With apologies for the slightly blurred image today – I didn’t realise until looking at it for the purposes of this post that it wasn’t perfect.
The day didn’t get off to a great start. I had looked at the Scopitones website at lunchtime which gave the Saturday timings as doors opening at 3pm, so our arrival at 3.30 meant we missed all but the last song from Everett True, and it wasn’t even him singing The Fall. But then again, his take on Chaise Longue by Wet Leg was fun.
One of the things about this particular festival is the timings, with the thought process being that anyone going along can seamlessly catch every single act. The main part of Concorde 2 is badged as Le Bikini Stage, while an outdoor area takes the name of the Swim Stage.
A couple of minutes after Everett True stepped off Swim, Cinerama walked onto Le Bikini. The four members of The Wedding Present augmented by Emily on flute and Charlotte on keyboards (apologies for not catching their surnames), while at one point Andrea from Melys joined to provide a co-vocal. It was a short and very enjoyable set:-
146 Degrees Close Up 7x Ears Sly Curl Apres Ski Careless As If
Just eight songs over what should have been 40 minutes, but with David Gedge chatting away happily on stage, it meant it overran by a few minutes and led to Melys having already begun the acoustic set by the time we ventured outside into what was a blisteringly hot and sunny day. The space was rammed, and we couldn’t really see, so we went back inside to where it was a bit cooler and went down near the front to get ready for what Peter Solowka and Len Liggins from The Ukrainians were going to do.
Turned out it was a mix of a Q&A with some live songs – the questions being asked by David Gedge (who also joined in on the songs on acoustic guitar) – as a way of promoting what looks like a fabulous new book ‘Taking Kyiv to the Kosmos’ which celebrates the now 35-year career of the band (a copy was bought and brought back with us). The talk and performance was a real joy, particularly when they played this
mp3: The Ukranians – Batyar
Their manic and joyful take on Bigmouth Strikes Again from their 1992 EP, Pizni Iz The Smiths. I never thought I’d hear that played live, and it put a daft grin on my face.
We forsake watching Jar of Blind Flies, instead making our way just across the road to a beachside cafe for a snack, where we could easily hear the band’s take on noisy alt-rock. Listening in, we were a bit annoyed at ourselves at missing out, but as it was about to get a bit manic for the rest of the evening, a short break really had to be built in.
Having been sure Batyar would turn out to be my personal highlight of the festival, I was soon proved wrong when the Scottish contingent had their turns in the sun.
Close Lobsters bounced on the main stage at 6pm and delivered a magnificent show. The songs covered their entire career, from the early material of the mid-late 80s right through to brand-new songs that came out on a new EP just last week, with everything in between. We stood near the back of the hall for this show as we were determined to get down the front for the next band on The Swim stage, and with things running marginally late, we had to, very sadly, leave just as Close Lobsters struck the opening notes of their last song:-
mp3: Close Lobsters – Going To Heaven To See If It Rains
And so we ended up right down the front for Spare Snare, who very cleverly waited until Close Lobsters had stopped playing before beginning their set. I knew from having a wee catch-up with frontman Jan Burnett a few weeks back that he was really looking forward to being part of the festival, and the plan was to blast out, loudly, fast and energetically, a 35-minute set of what the band was all about.
They were truly majestic, with a show that was worthy of headlining Glasgow Barrowlands and not the second and temporary stage at Concorde 2 in Brighton. Every song was given a rapturous response by an audience that was growing by the minute as word began to spread about the performance that was unfolding.
I’m not too sure just how many folk at the festival knew of Spare Snare before last Saturday evening, but I’m certain that their name was put into loads of search engines once folk got back to their hotels or returned home. There was certainly quite a line-up at the merch stall the rest of the night, where new fans took the opportunity to press flesh with Jan and the rest of the band, while picking up CDs, t-shirts etc. Oh, at Gatwick Airport waiting patiently for a delayed flight back home, we overheard a group of people who were, by the sounds of things bound for Belfast, talking about the festival and saying that Spare Snare had been the support act they had been most enjoyed, especially as they had not known what to expect.
It took us a few moments to catch our breath, and by the time we got back inside to the main hall, the show by Miki Berenyi Trio was already underway. I’m sure that quite a few of the audience, the opportunity to hear a few Lush songs sprinkled throughout the set was a real highlight, but it kind of felt a bit ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ coming on the back of the two Scottish acts. Still, finishing off with Ladykillers was a nice populist touch that raised a loud cheer.
Again, it was time for another tough decision. Back out to the Swim stage to see Lande Hekt (who I had enjoyed in Glasgow a few months back) or stay put to ensure a good spot for the second performance of the weekend by The Wedding Present? The opportunity to lean against one of the columns holding up the venue’s roof, thus giving a bit of support to my increasingly stiff back and legs, made our minds up, and so we reluctantly missed out on what by all accounts was a fine show by the Bristol-based singer.
And so to the end show. TWP Take II.
Any worries or fear I had from the previous night were quickly allayed. The sound wasn’t nearly as vicious as it had been on Friday – maybe the more gentle performance as part of Cinerama earlier in the day had rubbed off on Vince Lammi on drums as he was way less violent this time around. Rachael Wood proved to be a very fine foil on lead guitar for David Gedge while Paul Blackwood very effectively and efficiently did his bit on bass, often over in the corner out where the stage lights were shining. It was quite the set that seemed to feature a fair-amount of duelling guitars, in which David and Rachael brought out the very best in one another.
Rachel A Million Miles You Should Always Keep In Touch With Your Friends Momento Mori Dalliance Loveslave Come Play With Me Crushed Don’t Talk, Just Kiss Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You Corduroy Science Fiction My Favourite Dress Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me) Crawl What Have I Said Now?
I have avoided describing it as a career-spanning set. 17 songs, of which 13 were originally released between 1987 and 1992. One from 2016 and three from 2022. Nothing whatsoever from Take Fountain, El Rey and Valentina, the three albums that marked the second coming of the band in the 00s and 10s. Over the two nights, six out of nine songs from Bizzaro were played, along with a b-side from that particular era. There really is nothing to complain about.
2025 will mark the fifteenth edition of At The Edge of The Sea and tickets have already gone on sale without knowing anything other than The Wedding Present show on the Friday night will centre around Mini, the six-track EP released in 1996, while Cinerama will play an extended set on the Saturday to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the album Disco Volante.
David Gedge looked absolutely knackered at the end of it all. Three sets plus the appearance with The Ukrainians, and at other times doing interviews/chats for those watching a live stream of the event or hanging around the merch stall chatting away to anyone who stopped by. It would take a lot out of anyone half his age – he turns 65 next April – so we might be getting close to a time where it proves nigh on impossible for him to stage the festival. On that basis, there’s every chance we will go back again next year, but it’ll be hard-pressed to better the 2024 event.
mp3: The Wedding Present – Thanks
One they didn’t play from Bizarro!
Oh…..I nearly forgot about my wee postscript.
Sunday evening, at the aforementioned Gatwick Airport just waiting to be called to board and I spot various Close Lobsters along with friends and family members. Andrew (lead singer) sits a few seats along from me and Rach with his wife/partner.
I take the opportunity to pass on my appreciation for what had been a great set and apologising for missing the last song. I also mentioned I was marginally disappointed that Foxheads hadn’t been part of the set. He smiled, said thanks and said that everyone in the band had thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend. On the plane, I found myself in the same row (but across the aisle) from Bob (bass player) and as we get ready to exit having landed in Glasgow, I take another opportunity to repeat what I had said to Andrew, and received a similar reply as to how enjoyable the whole experience had been for the band.
Your humble scribe…..rubbing shoulders with the cream of indie-pop!
The seventh of an occasional feature in which I’ll draw your attention to some albums that have been purchased in 2023 and which I reckon are worth highlighting.
The inclusion of Brutal by Spare Snare shouldn’t come as a surprise, given how much I waxed lyrically about it a few months back as part of a lengthy double-feature over two successive days with Jan Burnett, the band’s lead singer. I know that the lengthier articles on the blog are glossed over by a few folk, so I’m happy enough to do a bit of cutting and pasting from that time.
Most Spare Snare records are released in a low-key manner, partly as the time constraints on everyone really restricts how much can be delivered in the way of promotional activities. This time around, the release of the album is going to be accompanied by a week-long tour of venues in England, with Scottish dates later on at weekends. There’s a real desire and willingness to get the album out to as wide a crowd as possible, with a collective belief that it is as strong a collection of tunes as any they have ever delivered.
It’s a compact effort, with its ten tracks coming in at around 35 minutes all told. I played it with a pre-conceived idea of what a Steve Albini-engineered album was likely to sound like based on listening and enjoying his work with The Wedding Present, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey and so on, but found myself really appreciating how different and diverse things sounded on this occasion. I really shouldn’t have been caught out in that way given that Albini is far removed from being a one-trick pony, having worked with, among others, The Auteurs, Low, Cinerama and Jarvis Cocker, none of whom relied extensively or exclusively on guitars to make great albums.
But please, don’t be under the impression that the brilliance of this record is down solely to the magician behind the desk.
Far from it.
Spare Snare have very much upped their game on this occasion. As I outlined earlier, they took a different approach in the advance planning for this album, working and preparing harder than ever before. By the time they went into the studio, they knew they had a set of very strong songs, their first new material since the release of Unicorn in 2018; by the time they came out of the studio a week later, they had very much risen to the occasion and, to this particular set of ears, delivered the performance of a lifetime.
In summary, they nailed it.
mp3: Spare Snare – The Brutal
Spare Snare have always looked to closely control and manage the distribution of their music, and while there may well be copies kicking around in some of the independent record stores across the country, it’s probably best you pick it up via the Bandcamp page. Just click here.
Welcome back to the second part of my recent sit down with Jan Burnett, frontman of Dundee-formed Spare Snare, whose 12th studio album, The Brutal will be released on 12 May 2023.
You’ll have gathered from yesterday’s posting that Spare Snare are not your run-of-the-mill band. The fact that all six members give priority to their family and work lives means any musical activities have to be planned out well in advance, something which was very much to the fore when it came to writing, rehearsing and recording The Brutal.
Spare Snare have long had the habit of developing new material by getting together in the space where recording is taking place, and working on the songs in an organic way but things had to be different this time around as a result of them engaging Steve Albini to come over to Scotland for a week to sprinkle his fairy dust on the music in an Edinburgh studio owned and run by Rod Jones of Idlewild.
This meant that the band had to do a lot of advance work on the new songs, and so they would get together, either in evenings or at weekends on at least a weekly basis in rehearsal spaces in Dundee. This involved Jan travelling the 80 miles, often by public transport, from Glasgow where he has, for many years, lived and worked. It was all part of a process whereby the new songs would more well beyond the state of being mere demos by the time they went into the studio.
The connection with Albini didn’t come purely by chance. A few years ago, funding was obtained from the government agency Creative Scotland to have him come over in February 2018 to deliver a workshop for engineers/producers, after which he would work with Spare Snare over a number of days in the studio owned and run by Chemikal Underground Records. Partly due to the time constraints, the band elected to pick out 10 tracks from their back catalogue that they felt would benefit most from Albini’s way of working and signature sound.
The project was an overwhelming success. All those involved in the workshop were delighted with the way it was delivered and the time in the studio led to the release of Sounds, recorded by Steve Albini, later in the year by Chute Records. There was a great deal of critical acclaim for the new record, especially in the way that a number of long-time fan favourites had been re-imagined, and the vinyl edition very quickly sold out, leading later on to arrangements being put in place for Past Night From Glasgow to give it a re-press, complete with new artwork, in 2021.
mp3: Spare Snare – We Are The Snare (Sounds version)
Albini took his leave of Scotland, saying that he had loved the experience, and he’d certainly be up for working with Spare Snare again in the future. Chats got underway and progress began to be made, only for things to almost derail because of COVID and the restrictions placed on travelling. Jan worked tirelessly to keep the channels of communication open, as well as making plans and arrangements to raise the finance required for such a venture, with the aim being to have a new album of entirely new material recorded to mark the band’s 30th anniversary.
Everything did manage to fall into place and the recording sessions took place in October 2022. The exactness of it all also meant that aspirations to incorporate brass into some of the songs could be realised, with both Terry Edwards (The Higsons, Gallon Drunk, Tindersticks etc.) and Gary Barnacle (The Clash, The Ruts, Soft Cell etc) putting time in their diaries to come up from London to Edinburgh to play as guests.
Jan told a great story in our interview about how he came to first meet Gary; Jan’s not one for name-dropping or the showbiz life, but he was invited to Dave Ball of Soft Cell’s 60th birthday party, during which he found himself chatting to Gary and getting on really well to the extent that he later sent him a copy of Sounds with a request that he come up to the studio when Albini flew in, one that Gary had no hesitation in accepting.
I was really surprised to learn that despite Terry and Gary both being on hundreds of records over the past 40 years or so, they had never previously met, far less worked together, so new ground is being broken on this new album.
There’s an incredible sense of pride from Jan when he talks about The Brutal. The fact that, after so many years of working in a particular way, Spare Snare adapted comfortably to a whole new process which proved to be hugely enjoyable, both in terms of the rehearsals and the time in the studio, speaks volumes about their abilities as musicians and the fact they are very much a group of friends going back decades.
That sense of pride extends to all the band members. Most Spare Snare records are released in a low-key manner, partly as the time constraints on everyone really restricts how much can be delivered in the way of promotional activities. This time around, the release of the album is going to be accompanied by a week-long tour of venues in England, with Scottish dates later on at weekends. There’s a real desire and willingness to get the album out to as wide a crowd as possible, with a collective belief that it is as strong a collection of tunes as any they have ever delivered.
So…..what is the TVV verdict on The Brutal?
In a year when there have already been a number of genuinely exciting new albums from, among others, HiFi Sean and David McAlmont, Robert Forster, Steve Mason, Gorillaz, and Everything But The Girl (and no doubt many more that I haven’t yet picked up on), the latest record from Spare Snare is a standout.
It’s a compact effort, with its ten tracks coming in at around 35 minutes all told. I played it with a pre-conceived idea of what an Albini-engineered album was likely to sound like based on listening and enjoying his work with The Wedding Present, Pixies, The Breeders, PJ Harvey and so on, but found myself really appreciating how different and diverse things sounded on this occasion. I really shouldn’t have been caught out in that way given that Albini is far removed from being a one-trick pony, having worked with, among others, The Auteurs, Low, Cinerama and Jarvis Cocker, none of whom relied extensively or exclusively on guitars to make great albums.
Jan had told me a while back that Terry Edwards and Gary Barnacle were only going to be in the studio on one of the five days in which recordings were taking place, and so I was anticipating their contributions to be quite minimal. It was a very pleasant surprise to hear them playing on at least half of the album, and on every occasion fitting in perfectly with all that was going on around them, a real testament to the way the album had been engineered, produced and mixed.
But please, don’t be under the impression that the brilliance of this record is down solely to the magician behind the desk.
Far from it.
Spare Snare have very much upped their game on this occasion. As I outlined earlier, they took a different approach in the advance planning for this album, working and preparing harder than ever before. By the time they went into the studio, they knew they had a set of very strong songs, their first new material since the release of Unicorn in 2018; by the time they came out of the studio a week later, they had very much risen to the occasion and, to this particular set of ears, delivered the performance of a lifetime.
In summary, they nailed it.
Thus far, I’ve only listened to a digital copy of The Brutal. The vinyl will be with me shortly, and I know that it is going to be given repeated spins over the summer months and beyond till I reach the stage where I’m 100% aware of every note and every pause for breath along the way. It’s an album I don’t ever imagine I’ll grow tired of with each listen.
Here’s 100-odd seconds of magic from it:-
As mentioned above, Spare Snare are hitting the road to promote the album’s release.
North Shields, Sheffield, Leeds, Trowbridge, Brighton and London from Monday to Saturday next week. The fact that they all have to return to work immediately after means that the Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow shows all have to be at weekends.
I’m heading down, with Rachel, to catch the show at Wharf Chambers in Leeds next Wednesday night. I’ll let you all know, in due course, how it turned out.
The Brutal should be available, certainly in the UK, from your local independent record store as from Friday 12 May. It can also be ordered from this bandcamp site, along with many other great items from the back catalogue.
TVV and T(n)VV have been on the go for almost 17 years, but today’s bonus post marks a first.
A few weeks back, I had the immense pleasure of chatting for more than an hour in a Glasgow coffee shop with Jan Burnett, the frontman of Spare Snare, all of which was recorded for the purposes of me then pulling something together for the blog. Such was the extent of the chat that I’ve decided to break the piece into two parts, the first of which will cover more general areas, while I’ll return tomorrow to look specifically at the recording, release and promotion of the band’s new album, The Brutal.
The upcoming release of the new album marks the 30th Anniversary of Spare Snare. It all began back in 1992 in Jan’s bedroom in Dundee, the fourth-largest city in Scotland, where he wrote and recorded his initial songs, releasing them later on his own record label, Chute Records. The debut 45 was picked up by the American-based Prospective Records and Jan was soon on the receiving end of an invitation to tour America and play at a music seminar in New York at the tail end of 1994.
Spare Snare quickly became a four-piece band with the addition of three more Dundee musicians – Alan Cormack, Barry Gibson and Paul Esposito – and after the tour was over they accepted an invitation to record a session for John Peel in January 1995. The following month, the band recorded a debut album, Live At Home, on eight-track, again for release on Chute Records here in the UK and by Prospective Records in the USA. The album was received very positively and the band was invited onto the bill for the Reading Festival in 1995 where six songs from their set were recorded and broadcasted by Peel, within 20 minutes of them leaving the stage, as part of the Radio 1 coverage of the event. The year was rounded off by one of the songs from the debut album being voted in at #32 by the listeners of Peel’s show in the Festive Fifty rundown:-
mp3: Spare Snare – Bugs
“I’m not very good at showing off in terms of how great we are, cos I don’t do that. I’d rather people found us, whether at gigs or through the records.”– Jan Burnett, in conversation with JC, March 2023.
Those words are very much at the heart of why Spare Snare are probably Scotland’s best-kept secret. Thirty years in the business, with a back catalogue of eleven studio albums that have been augmented by compilations and, if Discogs is 100% accurate, a further twenty-four singles/EPs across a diverse range of indie labels, including che and Deceptive.
It’s really an impossible task to suggest where anyone new to Spare Snare should start, but probably the most comprehensive oversight of their work can be found on a release from 2021.
The Complete BBC Radio Sessions 1995-2018 contains 42 tracks, sourced from three John Peel sessions (1995, 1998 and 2001), two Marc Riley sessions (2009 and 2018), along with numerous sessions and live recordings for BBC Radio Scotland which were broadcast in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2018.
mp3: Spare Snare – I Am God (Marc Riley Session, 2018)
It is also where you will find their take on Amazing Grace which was aired in 2007 during ‘Good Morning Sunday with Aled Jones’, a show in which the former teenage chorister turned presenter/broadcaster mixed music and discussions about religious and ethical issues with faith representatives.
mp3: Spare Snare – Amazing Grace
One of the most fascinating things about the box set is that it enables listeners to appreciate how much the band evolved over the years. It would have been so easy just to take what had brought them to attention in 1995 and gone down a path of churning out variants on a similar theme in the years that followed. Things have been kept fresh and the musicians have never fallen into any sort of rut.
Jan is, quite rightly, incredibly proud of all that Spare Snare have done over the past 30 years. While the band was very much the be-all and end-all in the early years, it inevitably reached a stage where being full-time musicians wasn’t a viable option. The current line-up of Spare Snare is six-strong, with Jan, Alan and Barry still involved as they were back in the mid-90s, while Graham Ogston and Adam Lockhart have been part of things for around 20 years, with Michael Lambert being the relative newcomer, although he’s been known to the rest of the band for around a decade, so it’s accurate to describe the six-piece as being close friends with one another. It’s now very much a situation where family and work lives take priority, and a great deal of forward planning is involved when it comes to band activities.
Our chat was wide-ranging and space doesn’t allow me to cover everything, even across a two-part feature. I learned that Jan has always been astute in his workings with the music industry. The band has never had a manager, but he was still able to negotiate a position where the full copyright issues came back to him after a relatively short period of time, unlike the situation most new and emerging bands find themselves in. It’s also been one of the factors that has helped ensure the longevity of Spare Snare, where more or less everything can be done in-house, including the distribution of any new music. Costs are kept down, and the band members are never under pressure to tour/perform to pay off any sort of debts. Looking at it as an outsider, there really is much to admire about the way Jan and his friends have navigated their way through the business over the past 30 years.
The biggest thing to emerge from the chat was the passion that Jan has for music, going way back to before he picked up any instrument or wrote out some lyrics. He talked about his working-class parents being totally into music, but never having enough disposable income to build up any sort of collection of vinyl. Their love was to go to gigs at the Caird Hall in Dundee, to which Jan began to be taken from 1974 onwards on the basis that a ticket was cheaper than paying a babysitter. He talked about seeing the big pop acts of the day such as David Essex and the Bay City Rollers, and later on being taken to see Dr Feelgood and Elvis Costello & The Attractions among many others – always up in the balcony as the seats were cheaper, and it was safer for a young kid to be; he’s in no doubt that this very early exposure to live music was the thing which ignited the lifelong passion.
He was just the right age for to immerse himself in the explosion in synth music at the start of the 80s. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark and Soft Cell were among his first loves, and it was the former’s connection with Factory Records that led him to New Order/Joy Division and then going back into the post-punk era. All of these influences were at the forefront of the earliest bedroom recordings. He’s a self-taught musician/performer/writer, someone who has never learned to read music (something, as he pointed out, he has in common with OMD), who has just been happy to pick things up and improve as he’s gone along, acknowledging fully the vital and contributions of everyone who has ever been part of Spare Snare over the years.
He’s become a self-confessed collector/hoarder of music, someone whose collection of albums and CDs now sits at around 15,000 in number across all sorts of genres, although his real passion remains towards electronica rather than guitar-based music.
Knowing all this, I ended the interview by asking Jan to curate his ‘Fantasy Festival’. My idea was that Spare Snare would play as headliners, and that five other bands/musicians would support in the role as special guests – I thought it was a variation on the ‘Dream Dinner Party Guests’ that you often see in magazines/newspaper features. The only proviso was that the musicians/bands had to be alive…..
After much thought, he offered the following. Iggy Pop, R.E.M., New Order (preferably with Hooky), Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys. The man certainly has great taste.
You might wonder why I’ve gone into such detail and gone off at tangents today. But all of this backstory fits into the way Spare Snare have gone about recording the new album, working for a week in an Edinburgh studio with Steve Albini, and having a couple of high-profile guest musicians join them to play on the record. I hope you’ll come back tomorrow for Part Two.
….in that you wait ages for one and then another comes hard on its heels
It was just last month that I gave Spare Snare a first ever mention on the blog, thanks to the Scottish songs series reaching that part of the alphabet.
I mentioned that the band, having previously worked with Steve Albini in 2018, were reuniting with him in an Edinburgh studio later this year, only this time instead of revisiting old songs, they will be looking to make an album with exclusively new material.
Spare Snare will be offering fans and other interested music lovers the opportunity to hear the new songs before they go into the studio, thanks to a couple of small venue gigs in Dundee and Glasgow next month. Details can be found here. I’ll certainly be making my way to the Hug & Pint in Glasgow on the 19th.
I thought it would be worthwhile demonstrating exactly how Steve Albini shaped things up by offering the chance to hear the original take on a couple of songs alongside the versions issued on Sounds, which originally came out on CD on Chute Records in 2019 and last year, on vinyl, via Last Night From Glasgow.
mp3: Spare Snare – Super Slinky
mp3: Spare Snare – Super Slinky (Sounds Version)
The original dates from 1995 and was issued on the very first Spare Snare CD, Live At Home.
The original dates from 2006 and can be found on the album Garden Leave. The re-recording shows that Steve Albini isn’t just about making loud music, and with a trumpet solo from Ali Hendry of Randolph’s Leap very much to the fore, maybe it’s one for Jonny’s next themed ICA…..
As I said last time out, I’m really looking forward to this latest album hitting the on-line and physical stores next year.
Spare Snare is a lo-fi band from Dundee. Founded in the early 1990s, the band have released 13 albums to date, released on their own Chute Records, or licensed to another label. They have also recorded four John Peel Sessions. In the 1995 John Peel Festive 50, the band were number 32 with “Bugs”.
Mike from Manic Pop Thrills has long championed Spare Snare and has suggested often that I’d like a lot of the material. I’ve never found the time to dip into the catalogue, in all honesty, unsure of where to start.
It was last year that I found myself at an event at Big Blue, the HQ of the Last Night From Glasgow (LNFG) record label. It was the launch of the book The Perfect Reminder, as mentioned within these pages last October. I got talking to someone and found him to be an entertaining and informative individual on all sorts of aspects of the music scene in Scotland. His name was Jan Burnett, the lead singer and mainstay of Spare Snare. We found ourselves getting along very nicely.
We agreed to meet up further and have now done so on a couple of occasions, the first of which saw Jan come up with a great idea to get me introduced to the band when he gifted me a 3 x CD box set, The Complete BBC Radio Sessions 1995 – 2018, offering up 42 songs. A couple of days later, LNFG re-released, on vinyl, a Spare Snare album from 2018. Sounds had been recorded at the Chem Underground studio with Steve Albini at the helm.
The collaboration came about after the band, as part of an idea to make that they had been making records for 25 years, got a ‘Yes’ after asking Steve Albini if he would be up for co-hosting a Scottish Engineers’ Workshop with the band, and to record 10 songs from their back catalogue for an album. The funding for it all came from Creative Scotland, the government-backed cultural organisation.
Having liked a lot of what I was hearing on the box sets, but even more so on Sounds, I sent off, via this Bandcamp page for a great deal of the back catalogue which I’m still working through with the idea of a compiling an ICA. I had hoped to get it done for today, but the building works of the past couple of months put paid to that.
Spare Snare have also not long announced that a further collaboration with Steve Albini is in the pipeline, with an album of new songs being recorded later this year in a studio in Edinburgh. It will likely prove to be one of the records of 2023 when it finally hits the shops.
In the meantime, here are a couple of songs to enjoy:-
mp3: Spare Snare – Bugs (Peel Session)
mp3: Spare Snare – We Are The Snare (Sounds version)
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 