Photo by: Juan C. Quimper
Happy Monday babes! We have quite a treat for you, check out our interview with the "good kids making bad decisions"- Spud Cannon!! Be sure to follow them on social media and give them a listen! xoxo
1) Hi Spud Cannon! Thanks so much for chatting with us:) Crazy times right?! How are
you all hanging in there?
Lucy: There have definitely been ups and downs throughout this past year, but despite the pandemic we’ve managed to keep finding ways for the band to practice every once in a while, and put in work. Now it feels really special when we get the opportunity to all be together. Personally, my post college life is not going how I expected, but I’m rolling with the punches and keeping active. New York City is still New York City and I’m extremely grateful that I live here.
Ben: Agreed, time together as a band is always a highlight. From video shoots in the city to beach house jam sessions on Cape Cod, we keep finding excuses to reunite the Spuds!
Ari: Surprisingly, I’m busier now than I was pre-pandemic! I started a graphic tee business which led me to start designing and printing Spud merch, and I’ve got some other creative projects in the works. I’m just trying to stay as artistic as possible, since the band is really what keeps me going.
Jackson: Appreciating the little things. Skating a lot, eating yummy food. Like most people, this pandemic definitely derailed my career and a lot of other things, but I’m grateful for my health and all of the wonderful people around me. And of course, the spud nuggets!
Meg: I often struggle to get enough sleep between my neuropsychology research, a part-time farm gig and volunteer work, but I enjoy keeping busy and find new things to be grateful for every day. Like everyone else said, the creative and social outlet of band activities adds much-needed and appreciated fuel :)
2) Congrats on signing to Good Eye Records!!! What hopes do you have for your music
in 2021?
Jackson: Thanks! It’s definitely exciting to join the Good Eye family. And a big thanks to Michael at Good Eye for believing in us. It’s been a few years since we’ve put out a record, so I’m very excited to finally release something. This album has been in the works for quite some time--it’s truly our squash court magnum opus (we recorded the entire thing in a squash court).
Lucy: I’m hoping to perform live at some point this year. Playing and watching live shows are probably what I miss most about pre-pandemic life. Also, I can’t wait for the rest of the world to hear the absolute bangers that we’re sitting on.
Ari: Hopefully we can play live and in person soon! I miss the energy of live shows, especially when we’re performing. And I’m definitely excited for people to hear some of our new stuff.
Meg: We’re all so excited to be working with Good Eye and feel like 2021 could really be our year! I couldn’t be more pumped to share some new tunes with friends and anyone who will listen– and the ultimate dream is playing live again. I have to agree with Lucy that performing and witnessing live music is one of the things I miss most about pre-pandemic life.
3) Love the potato theme lol. Where did that come from?
Lucy: I actually came up with the name Spud Cannon on Thanksgiving of 2016. I was with my sister, lying in bed and trying to recover from stuffing ourselves with turkey and pie, making up completely random names and writing them down in a note on my phone. When I later read through that ridiculous note to the band, “Spud Cannon” was the name that piqued interest. With a name like that, the potato branding is a pretty straight shot forward. Plus, who doesn’t love some hot potatoes?
Meg: I’m just grateful for the potato-inspired content it allows. See it, smash it, eat it, BE it there’s nothing you can’t do with a spud.
Jackson: When Lucy said the name for the first time, I remember thinking it was so incredibly stupid, but simultaneously so phonetically appealing. I couldn’t stop saying the word ‘spud’ for the rest of the rehearsal. When I was a kid my neighbors got arrested for firing a potato gun that was launching potatoes so far that they were landing in the middle of Hollywood boulevard blocks away. At the time we settled on the name I doubt any of us would have thought we’d still be together four years later.
4) How did you all meet and what made you want to make music together as a band?
Jackson: We were actually all complete strangers. It was the beginning of my sophomore year at Vassar College, and I had just come off the summer having assisted Jason Hill on the score for Mindhunters. I was supposed to learn more about composing music for TV, but instead Jason got me all jazzed to start a band. Initially, there was no grand plan, I just thought it would be fun to get a group together and play some house parties. Thus from the get-go we decided we would play almost exclusively uptempo, just something people could move to even if they didn’t know the songs.
Lucy: I joined the band my freshman year at Vassar. I saw a strangely bare flyer hung up in the music building that said “bass player wanted,” with a phone number underneath. Intrigued, I texted the stranger who turned out to be Jackson. I sat and watched him practice a few times with the original drummer Sam before ultimately deciding to buy a bass guitar and join the band for real. Ari was one of my first friends from Vassar orientation, and I knew she could play keys so one day I brought her along and it was a perfect fit. Other than Ari, I wasn’t friends with anyone in the band until we all started playing together. Even that first year of us playing, band practice felt more separate from my social life and I didn’t know the other members very well. It was all about the music and chasing the excitement of making something we were proud of that people could dance to. We’ve grown together so much as
musicians and over time become life-long friends.
Meg: Looking to find a singer, Jackson happened upon the right portion of the right a cappella concert to hear my very first performance at Vassar, which I somehow scored a solo in. He approached me as I left the stage to ask if I’d “ever thought about singing in a band?” – and the next Thursday, I showed up to their jam with no idea of what to expect... It didn’t take long to get hype about making music together! I remember the rush of banging out the full lyrics of Midnight in one workstudy shift in the Vassar Library, minutes before running to Skinner for the band’s third or fourth practice...
Ari: My freshman year, Lucy and I became friends during orientation week. She was telling me about the band she joined, and it turned out that their original drummer, Sam, was the guy I’d been crushing on in my International Studies class. When Lucy brought me along to practice, I thought I’d just be hanging out, but as soon as I walked in the room, Jackson said, “You play piano right?” So I said yes, he told me what chords to play, and we wrote our first song together that night.
Ben: Meg serendipitously snagged me out of a crowd of jugglers during a Vassar circus troupe rehearsal. Apparently she was interrogating first years as to whether they could drum, looking for people to try out for Spud. Right place right time I guess.
5) Favorite movie you've watched in quarantine?
Meg: I FINALLY watched This Is Spinal Tap after years of not understanding references made by the rest of these fools. “This is SO Spinal Tap” was said at many points on tour– for example, when Lucy’s bass went missing or when one show was moved to three different locations and then never happened.
Lucy: Over the summer I watched Sorry to Bother You, and I still think about it. It’s an absolutely bizarre movie with a stacked cast and an ending that I did not see coming at all. I am a big fan of horror movies and this film has some unsettling qualities that I appreciated.
Ben: Just watched the Rolling Stones documentary Gimme Shelter last week. The concert footage of woodstock-sized crowds has me pining for the return of live shows and festivals.
Jackson: All quarantine I’ve been trying to watch as many ‘classics’ as possible. I think my
favorites thus far in quarantine have been Badlands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Midnight Cowboy,
and Metropolitan. The one that has really stuck with me is Paris, Texas. The first two hours or
so are pretty slow, but the final act is so touching, sad, and beautiful. I think it captures the
complexity of the human condition.
Ari: Black Swan. I did ballet pre-professionally for 12 years and throughout college, so it was scarily nostalgic to watch it. Lucy and I are both horror movie fiends, but I think Black Swan really made an impression on me because it was so familiar. It actually inspired me to return to ballet, so I’ve been doing ballet classes online during quarantine.
6) Any upcoming new music/fun things to announce? Where is the best place for fans to
follow you?
Jackson: Finally a new record!!!
Ari: We’ll have some hot new merch coming soon!
content. And don’t be shy, follow us on Spotify.
Meg: We’ve got all the standard accounts, but Insta and TikTok are your best sources for spud news and fun, funky content! We’ll be announcing a big project soon, so definitely stay tuned!
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