Spineshank play a furious brand of modern metal with melodic vocals and extensive use of electronics for added spice. Spineshank’s music is aggressive yet immediately accessible and their latest album Self Destructive Pattern is a worthy follow up to The Height of Callousness, which received universal acclaim. James O’Toole spoke to drummer and main songwriter Tommy Decker during a break in their US tour.

O'Toole: What’s the longest run of dates you’ve done without a break?

Decker: We did 23 one time, that was pretty rough. Everyone was baked, bloody and bruised, we needed a day off and it was right before Christmas. I’m actually looking forward to breaking that this time, I’d like to play upwards of thirty dates, to make me feel like I’m working hard.

O'Toole: You’re credited with co-writing the music and lyrics on the album. With lyrics would you usually write full lyrics for a song while Johnny (Santos, vocalist) writes others or do you collaborate with him on certain songs?

Decker: I’ve written lyrics on every record. The way we work musically is the best part wins. If you have your ego involved, too bad because it’s going to get hurt. I can’t play a note of guitar but I can come up with guitar riffs. I hum them to Mike (Sarkisyan, guitarist) and he interprets it.

O'Toole: So it comes down to survival of the fittest where ideas are concerned?

Decker: Yeah, sometimes there are fist fights and people get their feelings hurt, but to me Spineshank is bigger than the four of us.

O'Toole: You use a lot of electronics, can you run through your drum set up?

Decker: I have really screwed myself on this drum thing! With all the electronics I didn’t want to play to a tape or hire a keyboard player, so I do all the samples. Everything you hear on the record you will hear live. I play a Tama Star classic maple five piece kit. I have an 18 x 22 snare, 10 x 10 tom, 13 x 13 floor tom, 16 x 16 floor tom, plus a Roland V Drum with nine pads including two electronic kick pedals. So I have five pedals and all these pads I have to manipulate. It’s second nature now but it’s not really just playing drums any more. I wish sometimes I could just play drums and lay back and enjoy the show, but instead I had to try and be a big shot and set up all the loops myself (laughs). The loops kind of give me my click track and I can judge how well I’m playing the show by how well I play against the loops. We still maintain a live attitude, you can still hear mistakes and it doesn’t sound processed, like we’re playing to a tape. Every night you don’t know what to expect, I can hit the wrong loop and all hell breaks loose! The electronics are so temperamental that sometimes a really low bass note will set off a loop. Sometimes Johnny comes and jumps on my drums or someone throws something on stage and it hits a pad. Every day I’m wondering, ‘What’s god going to bestow upon me today?’ (laughs). It’s kind of cool, that’s what rock ‘n roll is supposed to be, dangerous. Sometimes the mistakes are the coolest things that happen.

Article by James O'Toole