Long Read - Things get steamy for Spanish Love Songs
You would be forgiven for reading ‘Spanish Love Songs’ and picturing some steamy, Flamenco-inciting ballads, full of love, passion, and just a hint of lust. You’d also be wrong, at least in the case of Los Angeles based Spanish Love Songs. It’s not that they’re a complete departure, but the Los-Angeles based band, previously describing themselves as ‘grouchrock’, are perhaps a tad different – in the best possible way. A blend of cathartic and scathingly acerbic political indictments, poignant and pragmatic hope, and depressingly relatable despair, Spanish Love Songs find the beauty in the pain, the love in the loss and the humour in the hell. Their set at Slam Dunk 2023 was an anthemic, impassioned set that saw thousands crammed into the Kerrang tent for their first proper return to UK stages in over three years; getting to sit down with Dylan Slocum and Meredith Van Woert to discuss what everyone just experienced and whatever the hell’s up next just felt right.
But first, we had to cover what had come before — ‘Brave Faces Everyone’, an album pre-disposed with the cost of living, that just so happened to be released before a global crisis that specifically impacted the cost of living. “I think we invented COVID…’, Dylan laughs, before catching himself. “Covid didn’t create any new problems — well, obviously it created the problem of more people dying, I’m not trying to undercut that, it was awful — but it more just exacerbated existing ones. It shone a light onto the bigger social issues: the world is fragile and people are so horribly mistreated. Life is hard, it’s hard and it’s long, and then you die — you just have to remember that people aren’t your enemy. The rich are!” “The rich and the guns”, Meredith chimes in, “in America anyway!”
So where, then, did Brave Faces Everyone come from, and how is the bleaker-titled ‘No Joy’ different? “Schmaltz was an album about how much I sucked. Brave Faces is an album about how much the world sucks. But after we did that, and especially with the pandemic happening, when it came time to get back together to start writing new music, I just… I didn’t want to just keep shouting about how awful things are. It’s exhausting. So now I just want to show appreciation for the people I care about, and hopefully No Joy does that.” “It’s a transitional album”, Meredith adds — “it’s sort of an End of Summer, Fall album thematically”.
The two even go on to elaborate on the two songs from the album that we’ve heard so far - the released ‘Haunted’, and the unreleased but played live ‘Lifers’: “They're kind of sibling songs to each other. They're indicative of where we're going sonically and just what we're interested in, I guess? They’re a way of broadening out our sound, being a bit more accessible — it’s still rock music, with the same sad ass lyrics I enjoy, but they’re more upbeat. And for what they’re about? I guess it’s just been a few hard years for people, and I’m just grateful everybody we love has found a way through it, even when things are rough. I know a lot of people who don't always want to be alive, and I'm always so grateful when they are.”
Does that mean then that their intimate show at The Lexington the night before was the album’s last hurrah? Dylan hums and haws a little before he answers: “Well, yes and no. The new album has 12 songs, and at least six of those will make their way to the setlist. I’m the type of person who, for any band I listen to, the newest thing they put out is typically my favourite. It means they’ve evolved, in one way or another, and it’s what they’re interested in. In the same way, I like the new songs way more than some of our older ones. But it’s a balancing act. But we’ll slide them in and out of the setlist as we go, and see what sticks!”
At the end of every interview, there’s always one final question that works to surprise the subject and hold everything together — what does the band mean to you? Spanish Love Songs were no exception: “Oh my God”, Dylan winces — “you can go first, mine’s going to be bad!” “Everything”, Meredith answers, conclusively. “I've rearranged so many things in my life to make music with this band and it's everything to me. I’m still amazed that people like it!”
“We started this as a joke to play shows in LA on the weekend, and now it’s letting us see the world”, Dylan tells us finally. “It’s the best job on Earth”
For a band that started as a joke, Spanish Love Songs have grown into a popular powerhouse that have been absent from the UK shores for far too long; I for one can’t wait for new music and their return in September with Hot Mulligan!
Feature by James O’Sullivan
