Blues Traveler

Blues Traveler

In 1987 the four original members of Blues Traveler—John Popper, Chandler Kinchla, Brendan Hill, and the late Bobby Sheehan—gathered in their drummer’s parent’s basement in Princeton, NJ to jam. From these high school sessions emerged a band that would go on to release 14 studio albums and counting, four of which have gone gold, three platinum, and one six-times platinum- selling more than 10 million combined units worldwide. Over an illustrious career Blues Traveler has played over 2,000 live shows in front of more than 30 million people, and, in “Run-Around,” had the longest-charting radio single in Billboard history, which earned them a Grammy® for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals. Their movie credits include Blues Brothers 2000, Kingpin, Wildflowers and others. A television favorite, they have been featured on Saturday Night Live, Austin City Limits, VH1’s Behind the Music and they have the record for the most appearances of any artist on The Late Show with David Letterman. Blues Traveler’s latest effort, 2021’s Traveler’s Blues, is nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Traditional Blues Album,” bringing their 35+ year journey full circle.

SPIN DOCTORS

Spin Doctors’ first album in 12 years is at once a bold leap for a legendary band and the sound of a group truly revitalized. Marking their debut on new label home and iconic major Capitol Records, Face Full of Cake finds the alt-rock veterans in top form with an abundance of hooks in their arsenal and the warm, funky sound that longtime fans have come to expect from them. The record truly marks a new era for Spin Doctors, and with a blockbuster summer tour on the horizon and new bassist Jack Daley in tow, it’s impossible not to catch the thrilling feeling that this 35-year-strong-and-running crew is, despite their wealth of experience, just getting started.

Face Full of Cake marks the quartet’s return after 2013’s If the River Was Whiskey; according to drummer Aaron Comess, its creative genesis began while the group was isolating during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It had been a while since we had made a record,” he recalls. “We had talked about it for a while, but nobody was really motivated enough to get together and start the process.”

Initially, several writing sessions took place; at one point, guitarist Eric Schenkman and singer Chris Barron hunkered down at the Vermont studio space of Phish member Mike Gordon. No one in group had seen each other since before lockdown, so these early creative huddles provided a sentimental bent that supercharged their creative energy. “It wasn’t just a writing session—it was a very heartwarming reunion between two old friends,” Barron says of his and Schenkman’s time in Vermont. “We really missed each other. We would goof off and end up writing three songs in like, three hours.”

The album continued to come together after a series of intimate hangs between Comess and Barron (“I’ve figured out after 35 years that the best way to get Chris to write with me is to invite him over for dinner,” Comess chuckles), but a crucial element to Face Full of Cake’s formation was the addition of new bassist Jack Daley, who makes his studio debut with Spin Doctors after joining the band full-time in 2021 to replace former bassist Mark White while on tour. Following the extensive demoing process, the quartet decamped to Asbury Park, splitting time between hotel digs and Daley’s studio space where recording took place. “I was super psyched that they wanted to do it at my studio,” Daley recalls. “When we got into the studio, everyone was really supportive and gave me some pointers about not being afraid to step out a little bit or play a little busier. We had a blast making this record—it was nothing but positive energy.”

“Jack is very humble, and he’s good at being a journeyman—but he’s also a great freaking ensemble member,” Schenkman beams when talking about the latest addition to the band. “The studio was great, the vibe was incredible, and we were getting to know each other even better than before.” “Any time you add a new member to a band, it can go either way—but there was a renewed energy, and Jack just brings this really fat groove to the band while also sounding authentically like Spin Doctors,” Comess adds. “It’s hard to understate what a monumental musical achievement that is. The second we started playing with him, it was instantly evident that it was going to work out.”

There’s a freewheeling and easy energy to the 12 tracks that make up Face Full of Cake, reflecting the refreshingly breezy recording process that the band experienced as a result of fostering a low-pressure environment. “We weren’t really thinking of it as a record,” Comess explains. “We’ve gone through a lot of phases in our 35 years, and sometimes things really gel and sometimes they’re just extremely difficult. When we made this record, we captured a moment where it felt effortless. There’s a really fresh energy in the tracks—a sense of us discovering the songs as we played them.”

At times, inspiration would come from surprising places: The riff-heavy “Still A Gorilla” had been knocking about in Spin Doctors’ drafts for a minute, and at times it seemed like the song was a locked door with no key. “Aaron had that piece of music around for quite a long time, and whenever he and I sat down to try and write some lyrics to it, it just never quite came together,” Barron explains—but after Comess sent over Swedish electro-pop sensation Robyn’s “Konichiwa Bitches” as a possible reference for the energy they wanted to capture, Barron locked his part in. “He was like, ‘A vibe like this would be cool,” he laughs, “and the humor of that song gave me the entree into the song, so I just sat down and wrote that in an hour.”

The shimmying “Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven” is a wry slice of observational lyricism from Barron, reflecting on his and the band’s career as musical journeymen and the highs and lows of being a musician at large. “I’ve always been obsessed with the idea of a rock and roll afterlife,” he recalls while explaining the song’s lyrics, which came together during a trip to Spain.” I was walking around jotting stuff down about what it would be like to go to heaven and be around a bunch of other musicians. I’ve never been the kind of person who complains about rock and roll and stuff, but it’s a job, and just like any other job there’s a lot of b.s. that you have to deal with. What would it be like to eternally have all of those things be solved in the most pleasant way possible?”

Then there’s the soaring, passionate “Heart of the Highway,” which Schenkman enthusiastically refers to as “emotive as fuck” and zooms in on the risks and rewards that come with a life lived on the road. “One of the ongoing themes of this band is the juxtaposition of living your dream and doing what you love,” Barron says, “but paying the price of being away from home and the people that you love in order to do that. The song is a bit of a poem about how it feels to be far from home.”

Indeed, Spin Doctors have been on a journey for the last three-and-a-half decades, and they show no signs of stopping—and as Schenkman points out, Face Full of Cake feels like a true full-circle moment in regards to their starmaking 1991 record Pocket Full of Kryptonite. “The moment that we walked into the room, there was plenty of reasons to believe it wouldn’t work—but as soon as we played three notes, we knew we had it,” he says. “The same thing happened with this record. There’s a lot of joy emanating from all of us in this band.”