New Hands: Spence Newell

Thinking about my connection to the city of Toronto always seems to activate some strange emotions in me. When I was a kid, there was a sort of metropolitan grandeur about it, like everyone there wore suits and walked in synchronized motion between buildings I had to break my neck to see the tops of. I remember going to my first (and only) Blue Jays game and loving it; suddenly, Toronto was less of a menacing hub of politics and business and more of an exciting place to be. Over the years, experiences like these have kept changing my view of the city. I’ve also noticed that the experiences that stand out the most for me are the ones associated with music.

I think it’s a rule of thumb that most singers dabble in the dark art of musicals. I come from a family that loves the theatre, and so I’ve been brought to tons of musicals in Toronto. I’ve seen “Mamma Mia” twice, once with my family when I was super young and once in high school. My band doesn’t really draw any musical inspiration from ABBA, but we do listen to ‘Hung Up’ by Madonna (which has an ABBA sample in it) whenever we’re drunk and feel like aerobic dancing. I’ve seen a bunch of other standard musicals too, like the Lion King, Sound Of Music, and The King And I. I remember laughing hard when I saw Spamalot and I remember thinking the story line of We Will Rock You was a bit ridiculous. When I took my girlfriend out to see War Horse this year, I felt very mature and decided to dress impressively: I wore a black blazer, a black bow tie, nice black pants and a white dress shirt. Unbeknownst to me, I was dressed identically to all of the ushers at The Princess Of Wales theatre, and I had at least three people come up to me asking where their seats were. I’ve always had a great time visiting the theatre in Toronto and I think everyone should try to see at least one show a year. Here’s my plug: check out http://www.mirvish.com/ to find out more.

As I grew older, Toronto didn’t just draw me in for musicals, but also to see my favourite artists perform. Of course, I didn’t initially go to see the artists that I wanted to see, but the ones that my parents wanted me to see. Early on in high school, my dad brought me to see The Who and Neil Young at the ACC, a band and an artist that I had listened to but had never thought (back then) of going to see perform. I was so happy that he did because both performances, despite the age of their artists, were great (I would call Neil Young’s incredible – his encore was “A Day In The Life” and he nailed it). After that, I went to more and more shows by artists that I wanted to see: Julian Casablancas during the “Phrazes For The Young” tour at the Kool Haus; Devendra Banhart during the “What Will We Be” tour at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre; Paul McCartney at the ACC; a James Murphy DJ set at the Hoxton; and most recently, Dirty Projectors at the Danforth Music Hall. All of these performances blew me away and did something that musicals can’t do: they make me want to write and perform music in a band. If you click on the links provided, you can hear the songs by these artists that have inspired me most as a singer.

Now, part of the allure of going to Toronto is still to see music performed, but it’s also to have people hear our music. One of my favourite shows was when we played the El Mocambo last December with our friends The Abbreviations and DangerBand for Slish Fest. If you don’t know what Slish Fest is, it’s basically an excuse to get really smashed and watch some great bands perform. Clinton’s Tavern is another pretty cool place to play; everyone there is crazy nice and the food is delicious. Playing in Toronto is so neat because it’s a little bit of an uncharted territory for us. The unfamiliarity of certain venues keeps us from getting lazy and makes us prepare much harder for shows. If you want to see that preparation at work (and here’s my final plug), come see us play the Drake Hotel on Friday, September 7th with Maylee Todd, The Magic and Modern Superstitions.

Out of all the members of my band, I’m probably the one that visits Toronto the least, not because I don’t love it but because I’m way less hip than everyone else. As a result, every time that I do get the chance to visit the city, I experience something so fresh that it really sticks with me. My memories of Toronto have never homogenized because each one is so distinct from the other and there really aren’t that many of them. I think they’re increasing exponentially as the years go on, but I can say this with certainty: Toronto has yet to bore me.

Spence Newell (Lead Singer for New Hands)

Banner Photo by Stephen Hargreaves for OTMzine Issue 12