Irish band Spy-Fu recently played in NUIG as part of the SU Sessions.
After their set, I caught up with Dave Skelton to talk about the upcoming debut album...
Katy: To start off, you’re a Galway man?
Dave Skelton: Yes, I’m from the East Side of Galway, originally, and living out in County Galway now.
Katy: Where did you get the name “Spy-Fu”?
Dave: There are a lot of different explanations. Some people think it’s if spies learned to kung fu… that’s what it would be. Apparently it’s the Swahili for “arse biscuits”. We didn’t know that at the time though. Other than that, it was stolen from a friend’s company! My friend works for a company in Phoenix, in Arizona, called Spy-Fu. We thought it was a cool name anyway, and a band hadn’t taken it. We used to be a band called “Jaga” but we found out there was a Norwegian band with that name so we were robbing it and had to give it back!
Katy: How did the band itself come about?
Dave: The band is primarily a project, or it started off as a project by me whereby I was doing a lot of studio work, writing songs and ended up winning a couple of singer/songwriter competitions in England, and stuff like that. Then, finally, after about three or four years of writing, we had the band together. So we’re probably playing, not even a year together yet. Early days.
Katy: You started playing guitar a little later, when you were in college…
Dave: When I was 19, I just wanted to learn how to play guitar so I could play it at parties. It seemed like the “cool thing” to do.
Katy: Is there a musical background in your family?
Dave: Yeah, I come from a long musical background, but mostly trad. None of this devil’s music!
Katy: Being from Galway yourself, do you think it’s a good place for young bands to start off? Is it an easy place to get gigs?
Dave: I think it’s a difficult place to get gigs. Particularly now that The Cellar is gone, they used to be the ones that gave the opportunity for young bands you know? I don’t know how much The Roisin Dubh do. It’s not Galway or anything, it’s just a very tough time to get gigs and stuff like that. I think you have to have a little following or have a big following even, to get a gig nowadays. It’s kind of a difficult situation for bands starting off because how do you build up your following if you’re not playing in places?
Katy: Any musical influences?
Dave: Feeder. I used to love a band called Ruby Horse from Cork. I used to love a band called Therapy from Larne in Northern Ireland. Who else? There are so many… Inkelderumpeldink would be a big one as well. I’m only joking. You can put that in if you want. Yes, main influences, Inkelderumpeldink, Pavarotti, and the woman who reads the palms down in Eyre Square! That’s it.
Katy: Your debut album is out soon…
Dave: Yes, we’re just nearly at the halfway point of recording it. It’ll be a ten-track album and we are hoping to have it done and dusted by late April, but it’ll probably be the end of May. We would have played probably seven tracks off it there tonight. “Oxygen” would be the big release. It was actually picked by Tony Fenton from Today FM just before Christmas as his ‘Recommended Daily Download’. I also won an international songwriter competition for that song a few years ago. A slightly different version, it was over in London. That was, I think, out of 1200 songs. So that was cool, we flew over to London then and we were working with producers and stuff like that over there… I’ve started working with two producers in Dublin and they were very good, Chris O’ Brien and Graham Murphy in the production suite. So they’re kind of re-molding my sound, so to speak, a small bit to something that’s edgy and modern. So that’s it! We’re currently in the process of mixing the fifth track out of ten. We should have a single coming out to coincide with the release of the album.
Katy: On to my few “getting to know you better” questions! First, your favorite YouTube video right now…
Dave: “Bobby the Cat”. He’s a poor little cat that has fluid on his brain and he walks kind of funny, but it’s funny!
Katy: Cat or Dog?
Dave: Dog.
Katy: Maltesers or Minstrels?
Dave: Maltesers… C’mon Maltesers!
Katy: A line of a song that means something to you…
Dave: A line of a song that means something… That’s a tough one. Can it be any song?
“Sometimes it’s hard to breathe”. There you go!
Katy: Apart from your upcoming album release, what’s up next for Spy-Fu?
Dave: We’re putting together a tour at the minute and we’re hoping to fit in Cork, Dublin and Galway and if we can sneak our way into a couple of colleges on the way too, great. But at the minute a lot of the work is going into getting the album together. We’re trying to get in a little tour before that, and then hoping to do a good scatter of dates after!
Also keep a look out for their debut album in Spring 2011!
