The best laid plans of mice and men don’t count for much these days. With shows, tours, and festivals being cancelled left and right, most bands are questioning the point of even releasing an album right now. But they’ve got nothing on Halifax’s Electric Spoonful. They’ve just released “Chain Gang,” their first single in three years, and five years in the works.
“It’s got a lot of feeling in it,” says C.J. Hill, bass player for Electric Spoonful. “Towards the solo section things start to get a little weird, a little more chaotic. Maybe it’s dreaming of escape . . . it’s about being trapped and wanting to break the chain.”
“It took 5 years for the entire album that’s very very close to finished,” says Rudy Pacé, Electric Spoonful’s lead singer and lyricist.
Pacé notes that “Chain Gang” stands out from much of the album. It’s one of the few tracks that saw additional work from Electric Spoonful’s new lead guitar TJ Plougman, following the departure of Brently Campbell.
The song itself didn’t quite come to Pacé in a dream, but it’s not all that far off either. The story goes that he fells asleep listening to a playlist of blues music on YouTube..
“When I woke up, this collection of audio recordings some university had taken back in the early 1900’s was playing. The whole collection was audio recordings of actual chain gangs across the United States singing work cadences. All of it was incredible, harsh, spooky, deep, heart wrenching and basically anything else you could think of. As soon as it was over I started writing the song!
“It was awesome! But I can not find the audio collection anymore which suck, but there are still a couple of songs from it floating around on the internet. I’m sure the whole thing is buried down deep somewhere,” laughs Pacé.
Naturally, when the album is finished, the band don’t expect they’ll be approaching it as a traditional album release. That’s not only due to the current restrictions of the pandemic, but also the simple fact they they’ve already been playing these songs for the last five years.
“We’re super proud of it and we like to think this is more of a tribute to everyone that’s been following us from the very beginning and a thank you to everyone that has helped us through the years,” says Pacé.
Making up for lost time, however, Pacé notes that Electric Spoonful have an EP that’s expected to be released within just a few months of the album.
“This record should be released most likely by the end of June or July,” says Pacé, “but who knows?” The thing is friggin’ cursed, it should have been released five times already!”