Meet the Spinto Band

Polite? Courteous? Well-mannered? Greg Cochrane exchanges pleasantries with the friendliest new-comers on planet indie - Deleware’s Spinto Band

By Greg Cochrane

Nice – like a hot water bottle. Nice – like a comforting arm around the shoulder and nice, like lying in bed listening to the rain or swinging on swings. Willington, Delaware’s the Spinto Band are, well, nice. Quench joins them tasting foreign treats from their travels.

“Would you like a Prez?” Thomas Hughes, (vocals and bass) wafts a coffee flavoured stick in our direction, “and this is prune juice,” yelps Sam (keyboard) “it’s really good, looks like it should be from Japan but I got it in Liverpool.”

This is just the kind of youthful glee that the six youths of the Spinto Band have bottled and preserved in the form of one of this year’s liveliest albums in Nice And Nicely Done (out later this month – their first large scale release, but also, remarkably, their seventh). Tom smiles, “The others were pretty much recorded in our basement at home on a four track,” but “those were never really released we just gave them to our friends… it was just another hobby.”

“A lot of the album was recorded whilst we were still studying at Uni,” interjects a baby-faced Joe Hobson, (guitar).

It’s an album that looks, smells and feels well looked after. Caring appears to be what they do best – not like tucking pensioners in at night – but making sure every note on every song and every brush on artwork is considered and loved. “We used to have a seventh member for a while but he’s sort of taken over the art department,” enthuses Joe. “Most of the stuff he does is pretty cool, we’ve known him since we were kids.” So you know him well? Tom and Sam exchange amused glances, “well, yeah, in fact he’s our step-brother.”

Along with the anticipation over the album it’s already been a busy year for the upstarts, including a Stateside jaunt with a certain Sheffield foursome. “The Arctic Monkeys tour was pretty wild,” gleams Tom. “It was hectic though, a lot of us got sick, in the middle we played SXSW with two shows within 15 minutes of each other.”

“One of us ended up in hospital,” chuckles Joe, “I just had to get a shot to sort it out though.” The familiar aches and pains of the road are starting to show then? “Not really, it’s easier over here (in the UK). Back home we take turns to drive the van whilst we’re all falling around in the back,” quips Sam.

And what of Alex Turner and co? “Yeah, they’re really nice guys, I think they’re just amazed at the attention they’re getting,” remarks Joe rocking gently back on his chair. “They were definitely trying to distance themselves from any kind of media hype they could, which makes sense to me,” smiles Tom. Joe – “I think their music is similar to ours though in the sense that people just have fun.” At the same time he produces a magical, naïve grin.

And fun both the Spinto band and their ever-growing following have been having. Proof that there’s a place for decent manners in rock ‘n’ roll and that nice guys don’t always finish last.