Spin Doctors: A ‘Face Full of Cake’ and a Conversation with Aaron Comess

Spin Doctors are back with ‘Face Full of Cake,’ their first album on Capitol Records, dropping April 11. And if the first two singles are anything to go by— the heavy-hitting ‘Still A Gorilla’ and the anthemic ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven’—this record is all about cranking up the amps and having a damn good time.

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Recorded at new bassist Jack Daley’s Asbury Park studio, ‘Face Full of Cake’ has the kind of effortless chemistry that only comes from a band that’s been in the trenches together for decades. It’s loose but locked in, full of jams that stretch out without losing their punch. There’s grit in the guitars, a little extra weight in the low end, and a raw energy that makes it feel like you’re right there in the room with them.

And they’re not just dropping the album and calling it a day. A massive summer tour with Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms kicks off at Red Rocks, plus they’ve got a Brooklyn Bowl release show, a four-night residency in Park City, and festival stops lined up. More than 30 years in, Spin Doctors are still bringing it.

“Spin Doctors fans are going to be knocked out by this new record,” shares Barron. “It’s got that vintage Spin Doctors sound of ear candy and denser material that harkens back to ‘Pocket Full Of Kryptonite’ but with years of experience under our belts.” Drummer Aaron Comess gives us the inside scoop on the new record, the upcoming tour, and more.

“All these songs are the four of us playing together live in the studio”

‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven’ is a wild ride—anthemic, loud, and dripping with that afterlife fantasy. What possessed you (maybe literally) to write this song? Did it come to you in a vision, a dream, or was it just another night of too much cake?

Aaron Comess: Well, thanks. That was one of the last songs we put together during the writing sessions for this record. Chris brought that one in and showed it to me and Eric. We loved it right off the bat. It sort of has this old-school rock ‘n’ roll vibe to it musically, and the lyrics are great. Once the full band got a hold of it, it started to feel kind of like an early Who song in a way. We wanted it to feel raw but still have the pop sensibility that it naturally had when Chris brought it in. It’s a song any working-class musician can relate to, and I think it’s also something real music fans can relate to as well.

You kicked off the ‘Face Full of Cake’ sessions with ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven.’ That’s like starting a bar fight before you’ve even ordered your first drink. Did this track set the tone for the rest of the record? Did it send you down a rabbit hole of reckless rock abandon, or was it just the first wild swing?

Haha, you know, it was really just a wild swing. We had a list of all the new songs in no particular order and just went down that list in the sessions. ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Heaven’ was a good place to start, and we hit it out of the park. We just kept going from there, and about three or four songs in, we all looked at each other and realized we had a good thing going with these songs and how they were shaping up.

‘Still A Gorilla’ feels like someone poured gasoline on your amps and lit a match. It’s heavier, noisier, and a bit unhinged compared to some of your past work. What led you down this louder, meaner path?

Haha, love it, man. Well, for anyone who has dug deep into our catalog, you can hear a lot of heavier songs in there, so it’s not a huge stretch. We pride ourselves on being an eclectic band, and a lot of that comes from everyone’s contributions to the writing. This piece of music is one that I had kicking around for a while. I had an instrumental version that I play with my instrumental jazz-leaning group, and it’s something that always got a really strong reaction. I had been wanting to bring it to the Spin Doctors for a while, actually. The first try didn’t really go far, but I brought it back in during these more recent writing sessions, and Eric really loved it, and Chris came up with some great lyrics and melodies for it. It was one of the only songs that we worked on a few times before getting it right. Everything else was super easy, but this one took a minute. I’m glad we stuck with it. It’s turned into one of our strongest songs in the live show these last few years.

Recording at Jack Daley’s studio in Asbury Park sounds like the kind of setup where you could work in your pajamas and still crank out a hit. Did that laid-back vibe lead to a different kind of record? More spontaneous or just more fun?

Jack’s place is great—he really did it right. He has great gear, the room sounds amazing, and the vibe is really relaxed. Plus, Asbury Park is a great town, and it was fun to hang out there for a few weeks when we recorded. The environment you record in is always a big factor in making a record, and Jack’s place was a very positive experience all around. We stayed at this great hotel called the Ocean Club right on the boardwalk and would go for great dinners every night after the sessions. We had a blast.

Let’s rewind to New York City, back to the primordial ooze that birthed the Spin Doctors. How did this thing even come together? You morphed from The Trucking Company into a band that somehow hijacked the radio for the better part of the ’90s—what was that transition like?

Chris and Eric met through John Popper of Blues Traveler. They had a band called Trucking Company. Eric and Chris didn’t really get along well on the first meeting, and that band was short-lived. But they met up again in the halls of The New School in NYC in the fall of 1988, and Eric asked Chris to give it another shot and form a new band. A few weeks later, Eric heard me practicing behind a closed door, knocked on it, and asked if I wanted to be in a working band. I said, “Sure, I’ll check it out.” The three of us got on well right away, and from there, we started putting songs together and gigging regularly on the NYC club scene, quickly developing a big following. There was this amazing downtown music scene with bands like us, Blues Traveler, Joan Osborne, The Worms, The Authority, God Street Wine, and many more. It was a great time for original music in NYC. Eventually, we got a record deal with Epic Records and toured all over America for a few years. Then, after a slow build, the thing exploded.

Take us back to teenage you. Where’d you grow up? What was daily life like?

I grew up in Dallas, Texas, which was a great place to be. I had amazing music programs in my schools and went to a performing arts high school called The Arts Magnet High School. Lots of amazing musicians have come out of there. My daily life was playing music all day at school and then jamming with all my badass musician friends at night. We smoked a lot of weed and listened to all kinds of music as well. Everyone had a really open mind and was really serious about music early on. Somehow, we all managed to graduate high school. It was great times.

Every musician had their scene. What was yours? What were the dive bars, the record stores, the places where you wasted countless hours absorbing the good stuff? Any shows that completely rewired your brain?

Well, again, in Dallas, it was what I mentioned before, but also hanging out in the mall when I was even younger, hanging in the skateboard shop. I remember hearing from the older kids in the skateboard shop about the Sex Pistols, who had just played a show in Dallas. Also, the record stores—always looking for the next cool album. I remember when Kiss’ Alive II came out, seeing it in the store, and freaking out. And all the Van Halen records, AC/DC’s Back in Black—a classic—and so many more. We went to all the rock concerts that rolled through town; those memories made a huge impression on me as a kid.

Then, once the Spin Doctors were going in NYC, our home base was this dive bar in the East Village called The Nightingale Bar. We played there every week. We have a song called ‘Laraby’s Gang’ that is about it. All those bands I mentioned cut their teeth there. Just a shithole of a place, but what an amazing place it was.

If we cracked open your teenage bedroom like an archaeological dig, what would we find? Piles of vinyl, torn-up music zines, posters barely clinging to the walls—what was the soundtrack to your formative years?

You would find everything from Steve Gadd, Kiss, and Led Zeppelin to Farrah Fawcett and everything in between on my walls. Lots of Modern Drummer magazines, Creem and Circus mags laying around. Tons of records—from Zeppelin to The Who, Zappa, and on and on. I had an older brother who would turn me on to all kinds of great music at an early age.

“We would jam all the time.”

What kind of noise were you making before Spin Doctors?

Growing up in Dallas with all my musician friends from Arts Magnet High School made for all kinds of cool music-making. We would jam all the time. We all loved everything from Miles Davis to King Crimson to The Grateful Dead, so we had some great jams on a regular basis. I also played in lots of rock bands, did blues gigs, jazz gigs, and wedding bands to make some money. It was a great time and good prep for moving to NYC.

‘Pocket Full of Kryptonite’ blew up in ‘91, and suddenly, you were the band. What was it like to go from playing sweaty NYC clubs to having your songs in every car stereo in America? Did it feel like a rocket ride or a rollercoaster about to fly off the tracks?

When we formed the band, our goals were just to be a great band, write great songs, and make a living playing them in NYC. Things just sort of organically happened from there. And as fast as things took off, it seemed slow at the time. We were just doing one show after another, and more and more people would be showing up. After a few years of constant touring, things started to take off. Once Epic got wind of it and started helping out, the thing just blew up. It was exciting for sure.

From ‘Pocket Full of Kryptonite’ to ‘Face Full of Cake,’ how would you describe the evolution of your sound? Is it a full-circle moment, or did you take the long way around?

We really are doing the same thing we have always done—just trying to write good songs and play them with our own personal styles. I think this new record has a similar vibe to ‘Pocket Full of Kryptonite,’ actually, in that it has a lot of different types of songs on it that all work well together. That’s kind of always been our thing if you dive deep into our music.

We had such a great time making it, and the recording process was effortless. It’s not always like that with us, so to capture that on record is a great thing. All these songs are the four of us playing together live in the studio, with some additional overdubs done later, and it’s usually the second or third take we used. So we really were able to capture a fresh feeling in these songs, and I think you can hear it in the record.

How do you put together setlists these days? What can fans expect from the new tour?

For better or worse, I have the job of writing the setlists. My goal is to mix up the sets but mostly please the people who come to see the band. So you can expect to hear the hits and the songs everyone wants to hear, but we mix up the set every night with deep cuts and new songs. Nothing’s worse than going to see a band and having them play a bunch of songs you don’t know. You have to be careful how you throw those in. It’s important to keep things fresh for us but not at the expense of the audience.

This summer, you’re hitting the road with Blues Traveler and Gin Blossoms. That’s one hell of a nostalgia bomb waiting to explode. How did this tour come together, and what’s going to make it unforgettable?

We have known both bands for a long time, going back to the very beginning with Blues Traveler. John Popper has always been an honorary member of the Spin Doctors. He played our very first gig with us. We love having him sit in with the band, and back in the day, we did many shows with those guys. Also, we did a big summer tour with Gin Blossoms back in 1994 and have done many shows together since, so there are some really great memories with both these bands—for us and for the people who have come out to see us. All three bands sound as good as ever. This is going to be a great tour.

Do you have any side projects at the moment? What else currently occupies your life?

I have my own group that plays my original instrumental compositions, and at our live shows, we lean heavily on improvisation inside those songs. I also play with lots of other artists in the NY area and do a lot of studio work on people’s records in studios in and around the New York area. I also love to cook and have been working on a bunch of new dishes I’ve never tried before, like Thai, Mexican, and Indian curries and stews.

Let’s end this interview with some of your favorite albums. Have you found something new lately you would like to recommend to our readers?

I honestly have not been listening to a lot of music lately other than stuff I have been working on or recently worked on, but I do like to listen to Sirius radio in the car and scroll through the channels. I always enjoy the yacht rock channel. But if I do listen to a full album, it’s usually ‘A Love Supreme’ by John Coltrane or ‘In a Silent Way’ by Miles Davis—two of my all-time favorites. I hear the Spin Doctors have a killer new record coming out soon…

Thank you for taking your time. The last word is yours.

Thanks for having me, and thank you to everyone for all the support all these years. It is very much appreciated. Peace.

Klemen Breznikar

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