Published by Alessandro Violante on February 22, 2023
We have talked with Chris Spencer of UNSANE, a historic noise, punk and hardcore band started in New York in 1988, which has recently reissued its early music, some of which hasn’t been released before. What will follow is the result of a Zoom chat we had some weeks ago.
Hi Chris! It’s a plesure for us to talk with you. I’ve listened to the whole UNSANE discography, from Improvised Munitions to Sterilize, and I’ve liked very much the perception of an evolution of the UNSANE sound while, at the same time, your trademarks have always been clearly perceivable. Considering that maybe not all our readers already know UNSANE, would you like to give us some information about the band?
Yeah, you probably know it, but we’ve started in New York approximately in 1988, and then we started touring with Pete and the band. We’ve toured through the US, then Charlie left and we got the drummer Vinnie Signorelli. He joined the band with Pete for a couple of years, then Pete left the band and Dave Curran joined, so that we were me, Vinnie and Dave for a very long time. Then, we’ve done what I consider a noisy rock very inspired by urban living, noisy car alarms and crazy crappy sounds of those types. We did that for a very long time and during that time in which Vinnie was in the band we didn’t play any earlier material. The band did touring for 27 years and then, after that, we made 3 or 4 tours and then we said it was probably enough.
Then, during the pandemic, my friend and manager managed all the rights of our early material and me and my friends John and Cooper got together and started playing the earlier shit. During the pandemic, we had a lot of time and nothing to do, so we started to play this early music, we did a few shows and we got offered a lot of touring, so now me and my friends John and Cooper have started a US tour, a West Coast tour, and then I think we’ll make a European tour, and we’ll work on new stuff. We should have 6 or 7 Italian shows.
Wow! It’s great we’ll have the chance to see your live performance
Yeah! What we’ll do is more aggressive, more high-energy. Doing early stuff is crazy. We have a lot of songs that are faster and more aggressive than those produced during the mid-period of the band.
If I’m correct, you also told me you’re thinking about releasing new music
Yeah, we’re thinking about releasing new music, especially singles, on 7-inches. We’ll use our label Lamb Unlimited to release reissues but maybe also new music.
Let’s talk about the reissues you have released. I’ve listened to the reissue of your first album (the self-titled album), which was released last year and which is considered an iconic release. I would ask you if you could tell us something about it. As I have a record label too and I’m starting to appreciate listening to the differences between premasters and mastered versions of a record, I would also like to know what, from your point of view, you perceive for example between the old master of the record and its new remastered version. What do you perceive as a musician and what can we perceive as listeners?
We didn’t change it too much. We’ve worked with someone who has worked with us on other records. He has added a bit of mid and high. The sound now is clearer, he changed a bit the frequencies, he highlighted more the sound of the drums. He has made it louder, while the original sounded more metallic. He basically only worked on sound clarity.
I’ve also listened to the reissue of Improvised Munitions, which also includes your demo. This reissue has been a chance for your fans to have and to listen to UNSANE early recordings
It’s pretty funny. The demo was a cassette I used to go around with in New York in shows when we started out. These songs weren’t put on an album until the reissue, so it was just a cassette. I brought them when we played at clubs such as CBGB and others. It was a different time.
UNSANE European Tour Dates
It was a different epoch; it was a different time and also a different way to release and spread music
It was never released. It was a record we did for Circuit Records, who released music by Cop Shoot Cop and Surgery stuff. After we released it, I gave a test press to someone who had his drugs problems and who, after that, just disappeared and no one has never had any information about him after that moment, so the record never came out. At the time, I was in this apartment with junkie roommates and, while we were on tour, they sold the test press, and after a lot of years, we found a copy at a local record store in my neighborhood. We got it back and remastered it as well.
We had a deal to release this record with this super small label, and then the record disappeared. Only the test pressing remained, but when we were on tour, the test pressing was stolen in the apartment. We played this gig with Sonic Youth and CBGB where we played after them at 2 o’clock. Almost everyone left, there were something like 12 people listening to the performance. During the show, there was the owner of Matador Records who offered us a deal, and that’s how we released our first album.
It’s been kind of good because he gave us little more time and we did a lot of touring with a van. The record was a more developed one and we had more time to spend on record making.
I’ve seen all your artworks share the element of blood. I know probably this question has often been asked you, but would you like to tell us what’s the reason behind this choice?
Basically, the meaning is that we’re huge fans of horror movies and of things related to this.
Do you also know Italian horror movies directors such as Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci?
Yeah of course, they’re classics and I like them. Argento, Fulci, Bava…
As I’ve told you at the beginning of the interview, one of the things I like the most about UNSANE is that personally I perceive an evolution on your sound which is not so common. At the same time, your trademarks never got lost. Is it only my perception or do you agree with this?
Yeah, I agree, as with every record we have toured a lot with a lot of different bands, so we were influenced by these experiences. I think every record is a snapshot of the period and of that time. You know, things change as time goes on, and different things happen. Things happening in life surely influence sound, as well as also the will to develop the sound in specific directions.
Listening to UNSANE records, I feel one of your trademarks has always been what I could describe as some kind of “southern” riffing style, which I find in songs such as Exterminator on your self-titled album as well as in Factory in Sterilize, which is your last album. Is it only my perception or do you agree with it?
Ah yes, this style of playing guitar was also influenced by the fact that my mother played in a bluegrass band, and I listened to a lot of blues stuff when I was learning playing guitar. I’ve developed a style of playing guitar which included a southern, noisy style influenced by blues music.
That bluesy influence is one of the trademarks of your style
Yes, thanks.
Of course, Italy is geographically and culturally very different from United States. How noise rock and noise hardcore scenes were in the eighties and how do they change until today?
When we started out, there was a local scene with bands that sounded in very different ways, with very different styles, such as Pussy Galore and Cop Shoot Cop, and Helmet. We played together and we tended to help each other. In the Lower East Side of Manhattan there was a network of artists who supported each other, then, later on, all these bands started touring a lot outside of New York. In the local scenario, the scene was very vibrant. When we started touring, we stayed friends but it was different because we were in different areas and we started to play with people we’ve never met before. For example, we’ve toured with Biohazard we didn’t know about. We’ve started touring with these other bands and we developed more our style which made us different from others, but in the beginning we all shared the same scenario and scene.
Listening to stories so different from what’s your personal background is very interesting and engaging. When I think about New York, I think about one of the most interesting contexts in which these things could happen
Yes, this happens where there is such a lot of people, a lot of underground clubs and scenes. Musicians had a lot of chances to play and play together. It’s a city that made possible this. Now, New York is very different. It was dirty and fucked up. It has really changed during these 30 years. Maybe in Brooklyn you can still find signs of what New York was, but the city is always changing and it has really changed.
All these big cities always change and are in constant mutation. New York is the most important of those, but in smaller scale we could say the same about European cities such as Milan
Yeah, it seems there’s a decent scene in Milan too.
Yeah, in Milan there is punk, punk hardcore and noise rock underground scenes. There are lot of bands playing in small venues or squats. Even this evening, at the of the interview, I’m going to listen to some punk bands near my house
Yeah, cool.
As I didn’t find a lot of UNSANE lyrics while searching on the web, I would like to ask you which your lyrics are about
Usually, lyrics are about fucked up shit happening during time and about being in New York, a city in which a lot of people are crammed. It’s claustrophobic. I don’t find value in writing happy songs. They’re a lot about urban living.
I would like to ask you which is the release that, according to you, you feel more personal and representative of yourself as an artist
I think all do, as every record is a representation of a period of time and things we’re doing at the time. The self-titled record is a very important record as it was the first one. I would say Visqueen as well as Sterilize and Scattered, Smothered & Covered are very high points for me. I like Blood Run too, but I think it could have had a better recording.
What are your upcoming plans, besides the tour and the rehearsals?
As said, we’ll do a US tour, a European tour, we’ll probably release new music and during the fall we’ll make an Australian tour.
During your career, you’ve released music with many labels. What could you tell us about this choice?
We always wanted to release music with people we know and trust, instead of releasing music with big labels as bands like Nirvana did. Things go smoother. The only not so good experience we had was with Ipecac. We prefer to work with smaller labels which we trust.
I would also ask you if you would like to tell us something about your side projects such as, for example, The Cutthroats 9
The Cutthroats 9 were born in 1999 when I was in California for a while. We had fun playing music with friends and doing tours. We smashed our equipment and we fixed it the next day. We had a lot of fun smashing and breaking stuff. Besides it, I had the project Human Impact with Jim Filer Coleman of Cop Shoot Cop. I always wanted to play with him in a project. It has a more electronic sound. There is some new stuff in the making.
I want to thank you a lot for this interview
Sure! Thank you!
IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR ITALIAN UNSANE FANS: UNSANE would tour Italy this Summer!