Rob Pope looks back at the Get Up Kids and forward with Spoon’s new album
In its two decades as a band, Spoon has developed a sound immediately recognizable as its own, an evolution you can hear from 1996’s Telephono through this past August’s They Want My Soul. The clever, hook-driven songwriting, frontman Britt Daniel’s distinctive voice: These and other familiar Spoon elements align neatly on They Want My Soul, which doesn’t break with formula but comes across darker and louder than 2010’s Transference. It is, in other words, an album by a band at the top of its game.
Rob Pope, formerly of the Get Up Kids (a veteran band itself), has played bass for Spoon over its past three records. We chatted with him ahead of Spoon’s Sunday-night gig at Liberty Hall.
The Pitch: You’ve had an impressive career. It’s crazy to think that the Get Up Kids are just about to turn 20 years old.
Pope: No shit. That’s crazy. My high school band is about to turn 20.
With the perspective of having been a part of another act now for a while, how do you feel when you look back on that time?
I have mixed emotions with it. We did a lot of great things, but we were very naïve kids. We didn’t really understand what all was going on around us. I think that we probably could have benefited a little more from some more guidance, whether it was from other bands or a manager or someone that was an adult at the time. But I don’t know if it was really available to us. We had a manager that was fine.
I think a lot of times, bands in their early 20s become their own worst enemy. We did that pretty quickly. It’s just tough when people are that age, 22 and 23, and we suddenly become so financially linked together. There’s financial pressure that most people that are college age are not dealing with. They’re dealing with student loans and stuff, and we were dealing with how to split this money. That made things a little weird in our personal relationships with each other, and it’s tough when you’re that age and you see a handful of people that have their entire financial situation based on your band. So that was a little tough for everybody.
But there are bigger problems in the world. I had opportunities in my 20s that most people never get. I don’t regret it at all. It was a very, very fun time.
Why do you think that Spoon has had such longevity?
Because we, the band, work really fucking hard. I think there’s a standard for a Spoon song that we all are aware of, that Britt in particular is aware of more than anyone else. We know whatever we put out has to be great. I just think that’s probably why every record we’ve put out — there’s not really a falloff from record to record. Not that we’re getting massively more popular every record, but it’s the consistency of the group. It is very difficult. We work really hard on that, to not repeat ourselves but to make sure it’s undeniably a Spoon record and there’s familiar things that happen. Britt’s voice is such a powerful thing, and it’s a very consistent thing, record to record.
How has making music changed for you over the years? Do you feel differently about its role in your life now, compared with when you were younger?
It’s kind of always been something that’s happened that I haven’t really over-thought. It’s not that I haven’t given it thought. It’s just that I try not to put so much pressure on myself, working at it the way that I have been.
It’s challenging to make art your career. You start thinking about it like work. It starts to feel like commerce. That somehow has allowed it to morph into commerce. No one wants commercially approved art all the time. I know I don’t, anyway.
It seems like this band is very good at both art and commerce. How do you guys in Spoon balance both of those?
I think we know our existence in the world. This band has been around for 20 years now, and we know that there are a lot of fans out there that have come to expect a certain thing. We just try to have that standard of making great records that we feel are going to stand up over decades. Or we hope that they do.
