Ahead of the release of Doom & Gloom Sessions, I sat down with Dylan Slocum from Spanish Love Songs to discuss the upcoming EP that’s out on April 21st and why they chose the covers they did. In addition to the EP, Dylan and I discussed a few things about Slam Dunk and what the festivalgoers can look forward to from their side. We even discussed if they’d one day release a second EP with more covers. And for those who have yet to hear the news, Spanish Love Songs have announced a show at The Lexington in London on May 26th. You’ll be able to find out more below.
You’re about to release the EP Doom & Gloom Sessions, four songs you covered during COVID. How did you get the idea to release them as an EP?
So, when the pandemic started, we started our Patreon as a social club where we recorded a cover once a month from April 2020. At this point, there are over two dozen songs, but most of them live online on Patreon. So, we’re trying to figure out anything we could do in the front part of this year before the new album is ready to be released. And I’m like, why don’t we pick some of our favorite covers that we did and put them out and make them widely available instead of, you know, somewhere behind a paywall?
Many people subscribed to the Doom & Gloom Sessions community during the pandemic, and it was a big hit.
At our largest, we were 700 members or thereabouts. Many people became friends; some made new friends. We’re still 500 members or thereabout, I think. So, it’s really maintained, and people stuck around even though we’ve slowed it down quite a bit because of the new album. Like the energy that goes into putting out a new album, it’s significant. So, even if it seems like we’re not doing anything, a lot is happening behind the scenes. But the community has been great. We have Patreon and a pretty big Discord server.
You’ve released two covers, “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers and “Futures” by Jimmy Eat World. But there are two more songs, “Portions of Foxes” by Rilo Kiley and “Now It’s On” by Grandaddy. Tell me about them.
So, the last two songs. The first one that might be out by the time this article is up is “Portions for Foxes” by Rilo Kiley—one of my all-time favorite songs. And then we’re doing “Now It’s On” by Grandaddy, a great song from a great album. We’ve done so many covers that it can be hard to keep track of them. It’s funny, I think; a lot of the songs we’re releasing from the EP, except for the “Now It’s On”, are more straightforward covers. We typically had a thing where we either did a very straightforward cover of a song we loved because we didn’t want to miss it, or we tried to destroy a song because it was interesting.
And after we put out that Blink-182 cover last year or the year before? So many people scratched their heads over what we did to it. So, we said, “Oh, let’s put out some of the normal covers because they might be a bit more accessible.” All four songs are just songs that we enjoyed and were important to us, collectively as a band, and sort of the songs on our minds as we worked our way through the pandemic and started the new album.
It’s a path forward for us and trying to figure out where we go after this Brave Faces Everyone and what we are interested in doing. It was a lot of fun exercising our musical skills and trying to stay fresh. We don’t all live in the same city, so these covers were a really good way for us to come together and work together and still feel like a band.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’re starting your tour with Slam Dunk, and it’s your first time there, right?
We were supposed to play last year. But a week and a half before we were supposed to go, I got COVID on tour in America. And I couldn’t go or breathe properly, so we had to cancel the entire European tour we had planned. And it was heartbreaking because we love coming to Europe, especially the cities we had booked on tour.
Will you add any of the covers on the setlist for Slam Dunk?
Probably not. For all the covers we’ve done, we don’t like covering songs that much. I think it’s a fun exercise to do in the studio, and it’s fun. Maybe if we were playing longer sets, we might consider it. But we haven’t been to Europe since 2020, and many people haven’t heard Brave Faces Everyone. So, we will be doing that. That’s the focus. During the last tour, we only played Kick Losers and Losers 2 of Brave Faces Everyone, and there are seven other songs that people haven’t heard yet. So that’s more important for us, especially after we had to cancel last year, that people had some experience with Brave Faces Everyone.
But back to the EP, will you release more covers after dropping your next album?
That’s a good question. I don’t know, it’s probably a good idea, right? To have more music in the world, which seems to be the market works these days—having as much music for people to consume. And we have it. They are always up on Patreon. I don’t think we’ve thought of that. We’re in new album mode, right? Some of these covers will be three years old by the time the album comes out. But it doesn’t matter if you’ve never heard them.
In addition to their Slam Dunk appearance. Spanish Love Songs have announced a show at The Lexington in London on the 26th of May. Tickets are available on April 14th.
Facebook – Instagram – Twitter
Photo credit: Ashley Mays
