Exclusive Interview with Hands of Spite

Hands of Spite: We have all pursued (and continue to pursue) a career in music for a few reasons but originally because of the pure joy and energy that great music gives us. We want to give that same feeling that our favorite bands gave us to our audience. There’s nothing better than showing up to a concert at the end of the day, worn out from the day, and coming out after the show buzzing in sheer awe of the performers we just saw.

 

Outside of that, the process of working on a piece of art with a group is a big challenge, but is so rewarding. Getting to record, release, and one day perform that music for a group of strangers in a bar is a uniquely amazing feeling. It’s like you pulled a piece of gold out of thin air.

MusicWeek Staff: What inspires you to be in the music industry?
Hands of Spite: The music industry in general feels like a real meat grinder but at the same time, it’s filled with wildly talented and exciting people and places. Being around creative, motivated, and outrageous people seems like the best place to be. And hey if that means we’re in a crazy dive bar in the middle of nowhere playing to a full spectrum of people from college students to old townies, it sure as hell beats sitting on the couch wasting our time watching tv. In all seriousness, we enjoy every bit of playing, performing, promoting, recording and all the stuff that comes with that.

MusicWeek Staff: How did you come up with "HANDS OF SPITE"?
Hands of Spite: The name Hands of Spite comes from an early 2000’s punk song “My Hands Are Made Of Spite” from the band Ceremony. If you haven’t heard it, check them out. The album it’s off is called Violence Violence. 20 songs. 20 minutes. How cool is that? They absolutely rip it up. 

 

That kind of aggressive but meaningful attitude inspires the hell out of us! So basing out name off of that is a nice reminder of why we make music and what we want our music to be. 

MusicWeek Staff: How would you describe your work style?

Hands of Spite: We are very practice heavy. We will run a set or song idea over and over again until we are effortlessly playing it. That approach really gets us all in sync with each other and then when one of us pulls out a riff or lyric idea, we can each add something that fits together until, sometimes maybe 10 minutes later, we have a full song structure and all our parts figured out. 

MusicWeek Staff: Where did you get your inspiration for your music?

Hands of Spite: Our music comes from our different tastes. We all listen to different genres of music and that shows through in our songs. We also have different approaches to songwriting. This actually plays to our benefit because we’re not 4 people who are obsessed with classic rock all coming in with fully written classic rock songs and fighting it out. Sam may come in with a chord progression and lyrics but then Nate (bass), Austin (guitar), and Zac (drums) will all have a different flavor to layer in there instrumentally. And then one of us might say, hey how about we move the structure around and throw this new part in there. So to make a long answer short, variety in style and approaches to songwriting make writing songs very exciting for us. Any idea one of us has may go in a completely unforeseen direction.

MusicWeek Staff: What story behind the song "WHAT DO YOU SAY"?

Hands of Spite: What Do You Say is actually a great example of the songwriting process we just described. Austin came in with a short riff and wanted to see what we’d do with it. The band all liked the riff and before you know it, Zac is throwing down an awesome beat and Sam and Nate are playing around with guitar and bass parts that give the song a much heavier, thicker sound. Next thing you know we have a song structure drawn out on the wall and we’re running the idea multiple times to work out the awkward parts. We left practice with an almost fully written song. Sam recorded it on his phone, shared it the group chat, and Austin listened to it a bunch on the drive home working out a vocal melody. Then next time we practiced we had a fully formed song. 

MusicWeek Staff: How important do you think video is to your music?

Hands of Spite: Video is definitely a big factor since that’s how everybody consumes their social media content now. Still pictures and captions can only do so much. It’s still a big to-do on our task list as a band but we’re getting better at it! We have weird personalities, strange ideas, and rocking music so once we come up with the secret formula to bringing that into our videos, there’s no stopping us!

MusicWeek Staff: What was it about your music video that enticed you?

Hands of Spite: We’re still working on our first major video. Right now we have funny clips on Instagram and TikTok that we have our music playing over but once we get the album out in July we will be making music videos a priority. Songwriting, recording, and playing live have been our 3 big focuses for the last year plus that we’ve been a band. But hey, good things take time. And our first full music video is going to be a wild experience for us and for the viewer.

MusicWeek Staff: Do you take the context of the song in consideration when creating the video? Why/Why not?

Hands of Spite: Music videos certainly don’t need to be literal interpretations of the song and its lyrics. The mood and atmosphere of the song definitely play a part though. It’d be a shame to make a music video that perfectly illustrates a song instead of building upon the song and taking it to a whole new level. The music video should be something that extends the meaning and universe of the song. 

MusicWeek Staff: Where can potential fans find out more about you?
Hands of Spite: Fans can find us on our website, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Spotify, Apple Music and all that good stuff. Here are a bunch of links to find us!