James Ammirato for BCN #133
March 13, 2021
In Boston, we have no shortage of indie music. The city’s DIY scene has defined the music that’s come out of it for decades, and every once in a while a band will stick out from the pack just a little more than usual. For me, that band is Squitch. I was fortunate enough to speak over the phone with frontperson Emery Spooner, the band’s singer, guitarist, and co-lead songwriter.
Squitch released their third and most recent album, “Learn to Be Alone” on New Year’s Eve, 2020, through local label Disposable America. Recorded with Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios in western Mass, “Learn” is Squitch’s tightest and most cohesive project to date.
“We went in wanting to capture our live sound, ‘cause we had been practicing so much and playing a lot of shows,” commented Spooner. “We wanted to capture how the three of us played together, and we bounced off each other in an interesting way, and we wrote it all together.”
Long-time bassist Emma Unterseher has since left Squitch, having moved to Chicago last summer. “I think you can hear our friendship in there, there’s some silly moments, some sad moments, but lyrically a lot of it is about very specific struggles in personal relationships,” Spooner said. “Some of it is dealing with thinking about harm in my community and how to talk about it and think about it, which has been on my mind lately as well.”
Currently, Squitch consists solely of Spooner and drummer Denzil Leach. According to Spooner, they’re working on a new record that’s already almost done. “None of the songs fit together super well, but it’ll definitely be a record. It’s around 12 songs, a lot of it’s quiet, some of it’s really goofy. It’s definitely different.”
When asked about the direction of the band, Spooner spoke on the possibility of expanding into a four-piece: “We have some people we want to talk to about that, but our new songs that we’re working on are layered a little more, with some more leads and stuff.”
One of Squitch’s strengths since their inception has been their versatility, and though they’ve worked on other side projects like Night Moth, Spooner expressed excitement about the music’s evolution, and concluded that Squitch will be their main focus for the time being.
FFO: Arthur Russell, Adrianne Lenker, Dear Nora, Julie Doiron, and Ultra Chapelle.
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