The Spitfires made a name for themselves in the late 90’s and early 00’s not only for their raucous, beer-soaked live shows, but also for their well-crafted rock songs. They shared stages with contemporaries like The Hellacopters, The Murder City Devils, The Black Halos, and the New Bomb Turks while winning awards from the Georgia Straight, and CFOX radio’s Seeds competition. The band toured extensively in the United States, the U.K. and Canada, but unfortunately, they’ll probably be most remembered for the night they were banned in Toronto.
What first got you into music?
My folks would have house parties and the music was always crazy loud Bad Scene by Ten Years After , Whole Lotta love by Zeppelin and Troglodyte by Jimmy Castor Bunch are three songs that made my child brain go into hyperdrive , My parents would put one of those three songs on at parties so they could all laugh at their kid run up the walls , that was probably the first time getting a jolt from the power of loud music , the 2nd game changer was at age 4 bought KISS ALIVE 1 at a garage sale …. I thought the 4 guys on that cover were from outer space but after that record I had made up my mind to play music
Where have you performed?
Mostly dive bars, couple nice places here and there.
What is the best advice you’ve been given?
Likely from my dad, don’t get tunnel vision, listen and find the good in all styles of music and never quit your day job ha ha
If you could change anything about the industry, what would it be?
One thing that would be great to see change is maybe the musician gets paid first instead of last, everyone gets taken care of first, the person at the door, the person selling drinks, the soundman blah blah then the person who actually brought most of the customers to the venue gets his due, it’s kinda backwards
What is your top two favorite albums of all time? Why those albums?
KISS ALIVE 1 and Alice Cooper schools out , Kiss alive is a sonic monster of everything great about RnR glory , rowdy crowd , concussion bombs wailing guitars over the top stage raps , for me it’s the bible of what Rock n roll is about , and having heard it at such a young age is more likely the real reason , It was my Wizard of Oz and Shools out is the first album that made me listen deep to what was going on , it’s a musical journey and the playing on it is amazing , for me as a whole it’s one of the greatest record ever made
If you were to write an autobiography, what would the title be?
No clue?
• What would be a good theme song for your life?
Uh the rodeo song? I Dunno
If you were a member of the Spice Girls, what would your spice handle be?
Tired spice?
What makes you nostalgic?
HR puff n stuff and stretch Armstrong
If you were talking to a younger version of you, what advice would you give yourself?
Don’t eat fast-food
It’s been eighteen years in the making but The Spitfires have finally managed to release “Live at the Pic,” recorded by producer Howard Redekopp (Tegan and Sara, Mother Mother, New Pornographers) on his mobile recording studio at Vancouver’s infamous Piccadilly Pub in 2003. The album celebrates their 25th anniversary and the accompanying video showcases a time-capsulized look at the Canadian underground rock ‘n’ roll scene of the era. The live footage for video “Down On It” was shot via Danny Nowack (Hard Core Logo) and Doug Donut (Death Sentence) in the sweatiest, smokiest, mainstay-venue of Vancouver’s “Gunk Punk” revolution: The Pic.
Order New Red-Color-Vinyl LP “Live at the Pic” https://yeahrightrecords.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-the-pic
Bandcamp: https://thespitfires.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thespitfiresvancouver
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thespitfiresslickblackcats/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2e7SJL364siMONdgS1ThWU?si=DVbbjJcaTeqNsqrihK-wYg&dl_branch=1
