Keeping it fun and light hearted has been a running element of Thomas’ efforts.
The Simpsons was what set Thomas Hughes on his musical journey. His appreciation for Lisa Simpson led him to first playing saxophone. Also, Do The Bartman was the first CD that Thomas ever owned. This set the tone for many more album purchases as time went on.
Burt’s Records was the go-to place in Newark, Delaware for lovers of music. It was the only place in town but that worked to the advantage of everybody. It built a sort of tight knit community. Thomas also started playing live dates early on. East End Cafe was a local dive bar that Thomas’ step dad would regularly perform at with his band. Thomas’ band would open for his step father’s act and both ended up being regulars. Nashville Slow Bar was another essential venue where Spinto Band honed their chops. They were too young to be in that building in any capacity other than playing. That meant Spinto Band would wait around outside, come to the stage when they were called up, and leave immediately afterward. Funny that the band, at the time called Free Beer, could not even stay in the venue to enjoy any beer.
It took a while for the band to get to playing live though. The Spinto Band steadily recorded and had at least a hundred recordings before their first live gig. Spinto Band first came to the stage under the name Free Beer and performed at a local battle of the bands. A name change would come for the group eventually when unused lyrics from Roy Spinto were found. Unused lyrics from a band member’s grand father, frontman Nick Krill, resulted in the name change to The Spinto Band and the rest is history.
The band are not afraid to try new things (ie/ new name, recording act transitioning to being a live act, etc) and this is reflected in their songwriting. A Nintendo DS Synth has been used for a few songs in The Spinto Band’s canon from recent years. This is derived from an appreciation of chip tune music which comes from a love of video games. Thomas Hughes and his bandmates had a regular ritual of playing video games for five hours, jamming for five hours after that, and eating pizza all throughout. 8 bit sounds evoke nostalgic memories for the band members but it also provides euphoria in a present sense. This goes along with the overarching theme of keeping things light hearted and fun that I saw as a constant in Thomas’ career as a musician.
This extends out to live shows and incorporating comedy acts with live bands. I asked Thomas about his thoughts on this combo package that I am seeing pop up a lot more lately on festival bills. Thomas loves the melding of the two entertainment mediums and discussed an effort they made years ago to get buddies from a comedy improv group performing at their show. This was years before that was commonplace and people in the audience weren’t as receptive to the experience. The Spinto Band more recently played with Reggie Watts on a bill and look to do more comedy/ music events in the future.
On tour, the band also likes to have themselves a good time. An online series where Jenny Lewis plays a magician served to keep Thomas and company enjoying themselves on a European jaunt years back. The Spinto Band extends their weird, goof-around attitude to their performances on public access TV. Thomas and the others love the lo-fi, delightfully corny aspects of some public access TV and appeared on TQ Show with belly dancers. This happy go lucky, self effacing demeanour seemed to reflect in the sound and netted the band quite the following in the UK.
Though they were getting huge UK audiences ou to their shows, that wasn’t necessarily the case in the states. Often times, The Spinto Band would be playing sleepy Georgia towns to crowds of five people. Thomas also had a particularly rattling situation happen to the band involving a bee hive. There was a van seat left outside that was brought back in for a tour voyage but a bee had made a hive in the seat. That being said though, Thomas laughs a lot telling the story and notes only the humorous aspects of that ordeal.
Nice and Nicely Done has been re-issued, containing the original album on vinyl and a second vinyl with b-sides as well as rarities. They have teased doing this reissue for years so the positive reception to it brings relief to Thomas and the other band members. Other than the reissue effort, Thomas has been delving into soundtrack writing. He revels in the different considerations and how much of an enlightening, learning process it was. To write music sympathetically to someone else’s vision is something Thomas wants to do more of in the future. As far as new material, The Spinto Band is in no rush. After losing their studio, the individuals that comprise The Spinto Band have been pursuing their own projects.
Every bee hive in the van, every summer/ winter break spent in Nashville, every intercontinental gig has lead to where the band is at now. The Spinto Band has truly accomplished quite a bit but if Thomas’ generally upbeat overall outlook is of any indication, I feel like the band is just getting started.