New Music: The Spider Ferns; Interview

Kelly and Alton Fleek are a local electronic trip-rock duo known as The Spider Ferns. These two have dreamy, spaced out soundscapes and lush, languid vocals on lock with their new record, Soon Enough.

I had the chance to chat with the duo about the origins of the band, recording in a barn late at night, spiders and action figures.

See The Spider Ferns play Barboza with Public Service Broadcasting this coming March 28th!

the mixtape: Where did you get the name The Spider Ferns?

Alton Fleek: We began this project under the moniker Mardou Fox… the name came from one of Kelly’s favorite characters in the Kerouac novel The Subterraneans, but we discovered that a lovely artist from the U. K. was already using the eponym. We also had a friend request that we choose a name she could say clearly while drunk… she simply couldn’t spit out our former name at a party one night. At about this time our children became fascinated with spider fern plants after being given the gift of some spider fern babies. Before we knew it, every window sill in our home was full of spider ferns. It was a bit ominous. They are beautiful and a little haunting… they creep out of their soil and propagate from tendrils in midair. They feel like we sound: airy, languid, intense and ethereal.

tm: According to your bandcamp page you say: “We make music late at night in a converted barn at the base of a small mountain.” Can you give a bit more detail into this statement?

Kelly Fleek: Twelve years ago we bought a derelict piece of property in Skagit County and converted a barn to serve as our home and studio. We needed space to make noise and I needed a larger studio to create visual art. We also desired mental space and nature as a backdrop to our lives. We wanted our children to experience running and playing amongst the trees.

It was also a great way to scale back on our financial needs and focus more on our creative lives. We still maintain a place in Seattle, though we are only in town a couple of days a week. So we really do live in a barn at the base of a small mountain at the beginning of the Cascade Foothills.

tm: How much does your recording space influence your music? In other words, if you were recording on the beach in sunny California, would we have a less haunting, downtempo sounding record?

KF: We have contemplated this many times over. A few years ago, we thought about moving to southern California, so we took a trip with our family and began house hunting. We thought the sun and dry climate, the pounding surf of coastal towns, would somehow change our vibe. We actually found ourselves writing songs on the road that were just as dark and introspective lyrically as we always seem to create. We ultimately decided to stay in Washington. We found the darkness in our work is simply within us. We see beauty and intensity in equal measure, no matter where we are or what we are engaged in.

tm: You play music as a duo. What’s the writing process like? Do you create the pre-programmed beat tracks first or do you write the guitar and bass parts and then add the beats after?

KF: Our process is very organic. We never just sit down to write a song. The majority of our songs have begun with either stream-of-consciousness lyrics I’ve written or with Alton hitting a chord during practice that has us stopping in our tracks and working it out.

We both play a variety of instruments, so inspiration comes from an amazing array of sources. The track “Fortune” from our new album Soon Enough is an example of a time when Alton shared a symphonic piece he’d written that inspired me to literally burst into song. He had a story running through his mind that he conveyed before I heard the track. I was overwhelmed by his thoughts and the piece itself. It took me several days to pare it down the piece and find my voice within it. When I brought it back to him, his guitar parts were almost magical in their immediacy.

We can almost always strip our work back to acoustic instruments as well, which is very important to us. We want our music to live in many dimensions.

tm: What’s the history with Kelly and Alton regarding the decision to create music?

KF: We both have diverse musical backgrounds. I was trained in classical European music at a young age and Alton played everything from Punk rock to Jazz. We tried early on to create together, but we were both so headstrong that we shelved the concept until about six years ago. We had grown so much as individuals and had mellowed considerably as well. One night, Alton was in a fussy mood. He was actually mad that I was always avoiding making music with him. We had a very heated discussion that ended beautifully with Al grabbing an acoustic guitar and me singing jaunty lyrics about how “we resolve, after midnight, to be happy alone. . . . everyone is sleeping, no T. V. , no telephone. . . just the night.” And our first song came into being. We’ve never recorded “We Resolve,” but we play it together at home. It’s a great reminder not to be afraid and to keep moving forward.

tm: You regularly work with New York-based DJ and producer Audiosapian. How did this relationship with Audiosapian come along and what, exactly, does Audiosapian add to your music?

AF: We’ve worked with many wonderful folks across the globe, including Audiosapian. He approached us online a few years back about a collaboration and we have since developed a wonderful friendship. He’s a great producer and he loves our sound. He really understands our vibe and seeks to work within it.

The two tracks he contributed to are “Distant Meadows” and “Ghost Cowboy.” “Ghost Cowboy” is his remix of our original LoFi recording from a live album we released years ago. The instrumentation for “Distant Meadows” was his emotional reaction to hearing The Spider Ferns for the first time. Kelly wrote the lyrics and melody in response and we created the track together via file sharing. It was the greatest “hello” to one another.

We created the video for “Distant Meadows” on a cross country journey to meet Audiosapian in person. It’s a video essay of our emotions surrounding the song and of our friendship.

'Distant Meadows' by The Spider Ferns featuring Audiosapian (Official Video) from The Spider Ferns on Vimeo.

tm: You’re playing an upcoming show with Public Service Broadcasting. What’s the challenge in translating the sound of the record to the stage?

AF: There isn’t really a challenge translating the record for the stage, it has been the other way around for us. We wrote the songs and created the live set first, which we played and refined over the course of a year prior to recording the album. We regularly hear from folks at our shows that our live sound is the visceral expansion of our recording. . . that we envelope people live in a way that is both the same and much more intense than the album. After all, most people’s home stereos aren’t thousands of watts with several sub woofers.

As for the upcoming show with Public Service Broadcasting at Barboza on March 28, we’re delighted to return to that club and support a band that we truly love. Barboza’s sound system is fantastic for our music because the room is so bass heavy. You can really “feel” the sound as we play.

tm: Are either of you scared of spiders? Also, if you find a spider creepy crawling around the house do you kill or set free?

KF: Absolutely not! We LOVE spiders! They are beautiful. We are some of those lovely vegan types.. We appreciate all that spiders do for us, which is good because living in a barn on six acres, they are absolutely everywhere. I vacuum the cobwebs, but endeavor to avoid the little creatures themselves. If ever a scream is heard in our home in relation to spiders, it’s that we have accidentally killed one and we feel terrible.

tm: If The Spider Ferns was an action figure what kind of accessories would you have?

KF: A hybrid of Wonder Woman and the KISS action figures from the 70’s would be great! Alton definitely needs his action figure to have his Hagstrom guitar and some seriously huge boots.

AF: Kelly’s needs her bass and signature straight mic stand with goose neck and fancy microphone. Also, some nice wedge heels with her outfit. We like to be tall. No capes.