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Legendary indie rock band Spoon ventured down to Australia earlier this year for the Big Day Out. Static’s Chris Berkley caught up with razor tight drummer Jim Eno about 2007’s superb Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, the art of recording, Britt Daniel’s soundtrack work and getting remixed by Diplo.

Chris: Joining us on the phone on Static this evening it’s a great pleasure to have tracked down Jim from Spoon soaking up the Annandale’s surrounds no less. How are you sir?

Jim: Good sir. How are you doing Chris?

I’m doing alright. I’m glad to have Spoon back again. You must know your way around these parts by now. Do you get around in Sydney Ok?

Yeah, you know I get a map and wander around. It’s not bad.

I think every time Spoon has come here you have played a different venue though so you are probably crossing a few off your list as well.

Yeah, exactly right. It’s good to play the Big Day Out and everything. It is the first time we are actually on that tour, so we’re excited.

All this Australian touring for Spoon comes on the back of what was another pretty busy year in the States for you guys as well, right?

Yeah, we have pretty much been touring since about March. So it’s been a long time.

And you think that sort of relentless tour schedule payed off last year as well? The album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga was the biggest success you guys have had. It was like a charting American record, right?

Right. We’re really happy with how everything has been going. But for us it has been a gradual sales increase. Every record since Girls Can Tell has basically doubled in sales so it’s been a sort of gradual thing from our perspective.

Every person that bought the last album tells two friends or something? Do you think that is how it works?

[laughs] That is how it works I guess, yeah.

But it also speaks volumes about the groundwork that you guys have done, doesn’t it? I mean, is it nice to see it paying off in some ways?

Yeah exactly. Especially in the States we get zero radio play so it is basically all from touring and word of mouth… That’s it.

Given you’re this far in to the band’s history now — when you guys turn up to make a new album do you pretty much have an idea what the record will sound like, and what pieces will fit where? Or is it still a lot of tinkering?

Well, I think it is a lot of tinkering. The other thing is the way the record is going to sound is based solely on what Britt’s writing at the time. It depends on what he’s bringing to the table and we figure out how to approach each song.

Is there much trial and error in assembling the versions of each song that is going to be on the record?

Yeah, there is. For instance, I think for “Cherry Bomb” that was version three or something. We recorded it with a couple different people, we tried it a bunch of different ways and that one was the happiest with.

So do you or Britt wake up in the middle of the night and go “I know! It needs horns”?

[laughs] Yeah exactly. Usually Britt does that.

I mean, even a song like “The Ghost of You Lingers” is quite sort of spartan in a lot of ways. Was there ever a rocking version of that?

Actually no. That one we liked just pretty much how the demo was and Britt stumbled upon that chord progression when he was just practising one day. He put a song around it and yeah, I think it is a pretty adventurous song

And is it hard to resist putting more and more layers on a song? It always seemed to have been that the less is more approach seemed to have worked for a lot of Spoon stuff. Do you take stuff off as much as you put on in the studio?

Oh yeah, we take a lot of stuff off. We have flamenco guitar on “Japanese Cigarette Case”. I think we had five or six total tracks of that and we probably used three seconds of it.

So does the flamenco guitarist still get payed the full amount though? This is what I want to know.

Oh yeah, he does, he does.

Another song on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga that you rounded out with some studio chatter was “Don’t You Evah”. Was that the first time you put that much talk on a record?

I think so. There was actually more that I wanted on there but it was getting a little out of control. But one of the things about that is that we record on analogue tape so every time you hear the song you start hearing all the chatter and the banter and the noises and when you start mixing the record and you take those away it feels empty, just because you become accustomed to hearing all those different sounds. So it’s sort of an organic process. We do strip a lot a way but it does become part of the song for us.

Yeah, and I mean that studio chatter sort of leads into a song and gives it a bit more of a room feel. So did you have some huge compilation of all the finest studio jokes that you guys had made over the years to then chop up and put in “Don’t You Evah”? Was it much of a composite?

No, those were all done live pretty much where you hear them. You know, they’re on Britt’s vocal tracks, they’re on percussion tracks, and they just happened to fall where they are. It was not a past compilation or anything. It was all live when we were tracking the song.

I was wondering if there was ever going to be a strictly Spoon banter album somewhere down the line?

Yeah, exactly. I wonder if the record company will allow us to fulfil our obligations with that one. [laughs]

Have you captured a few zingers in the studio? Have there been many jokes that you guys have made that have missed tape then Jim?

Yeah, I don’t think my lawyer wants us to talk about those though.

Well you guys in Spoon also seem to keep a pretty watchful eye on the business side of things. For the last album, Gimme Fiction, you gave Matador a try in terms of releasing it in some territories but then you haven’t gone with those guys again. It is important for you to keep an eye on the ball? I guess Spoon is a band that learnt that early on with the troubles that you had with Elektra.

Yeah right exactly. We’ve always had our hand in everything and we felt that was the way you… no one is going to look out for the band except for the band, you know? We are always looking for different labels and things like that because you just have to see what’s out there.

I’m guessing that a major label would never have let you to name your album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga as well.

Oh yeah, they would have. I don’t think we would ever go to a major if they wouldn’t allow us to do whatever we do.

Was that a hard sell to anyone, calling the album that?

No, not at all. We thought it was pretty cool and ballsy. We didn’t really realise what some people would think the name was. I guess we should have thought a little bit more about it.

Did people think it was some off-the-cuff babble or the fifteenth letter of some outer space language or something, were they?

Right, right. Do you know where the title comes from?

No, do tell.

Ok, well “The Ghost of You Lingers’”, the second song on the record, working title was “Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga”. Seven Gas.

Because of the way the song goes?

Yeah, the piano. So you spend five months in the studio and little things amuse you and we used to get a kick out of that. And when Britt changed the name we’re like — hey that would be a good album title.

Has it been sort of important for you guys in Spoon to experiment in different ways the last few years as well? Britt did some soundtrack work, he scored the movie Stranger Than Fiction. Was it kind of good to open things up a bit since you guys have working together for so long?

I think so. I mean, Britt’s always been really good at, sound scapes and sounds in general and it was probably good for him to do that.

So you weren’t upset and looking for some Steven Spielberg movie to get your claws into or something like that?

No, no, not at all.

I thought that in most musicians after awhile there is always a frustrated soundtrack composer that thinks he needs to come out.

[laughs] Right. Maybe that’s me. I haven’t tried it yet.

Maybe there are other bits that you could do as well. Because in a minute we’re going to have a listen to something else that I guess Spoon has dabbled with for the first time — which is you guys got the current essential accessory which is the Diplo remix.

Oh yeah, ok.

So has there always been a bit of a hip hop sort of side to you guys waiting to get out as well maybe?

Maybe. We love that stuff. We are looking for people to re-mix “Don’t You Evah” and he wanted to do it which was great.

Are you ever worried about farming those things out to see how they come back? If you have so many versions of your songs when you’re making a record it must put a bigger spin on it to give it to someone else to see how it turns out.

Yeah, totally. But you know, with a remix you can take them with a grain of salt. People understand that it is a different interpretation of the song and it’s not something that is going to go on our record. So we are cool with it.

We’ll let you get on with enjoying the mean streets of Annandale until you have to play later on this evening.

Yeah, yeah well thanks for talking.

That’s alright. Have yourself a great show. I hope you get everybody on stage tonight. You’ve got a horn section and everything. It is a much smaller stage than the Enmore theatre so good luck.

I know, we’ll need it.

Thanks Jim.

Thanks Chris.

First broadcast on Static on 24/01/2008. Static can be heard on Sydney’s 2SER (107.3FM) and via the internet (www.2ser.com) every Thursday evening (AEST).