For Britt Daniel, Radio Is Both a Comfort and Inspiration
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Ever wondered what some of your favorite artists are listening to on the radio? Even in the age of streaming where Spotify, Apple Music, and Tidal rule the world, there is a magic in AM/FM that we, as a society, thankfully haven't lost yet. Just as you have the tracks of your local radio station to keep you company during traffic, awkward drives, and excruciatingly long road trips, your favorite artists may be going through the same. The long hours spent on tour buses and in transit all but ensure it.
We caught up with Britt Daniel, co-founder, lead singer, and guitarist of Spoon, about what he's listening to during those listless hours. The Austin, Texas, outfit has been busy in 2022. In February, they released Lucifer On the Sofa, a straightahead rock LP that, deservedly, caught fire. And now, they've announced a curious companion set, Lucifer On the Moon. The collection, as the group is billing it, "flips Lucifer on the Sofa’s rhythm tracks inside-out, and often rebuilds them wholesale." Elsewhere in the release for the November 4 project, they note, "the result airlifts Spoon’s trademark melodies into lush alien terrain, replete with vibrant echo and rumbling low-end."
Below, Daniel runs us through some of his favorite local stations—and, more importantly, what the radio means to him.
Britt Daniel's Favorite Radio Stations Are Weird—And Local
I listen to KUTX in Austin a lot. They just have great DJs. It seems like that station is run by music fanatics and for the variety of music that they play, you know, from hip hop to Willie Nelson and everything in between. It runs a pretty wide gamut, just like my music collection does and so I appreciate that.
There's a station in Austin called KVRX that I used to work at and I still listen to them quite a bit. It's the actual student-run radio station at the University of Texas. I used to be a DJ there and I worked in production and stuff. Their ethos is to play a lot of Texas Music, a lot of brand new music and to play music that you can't hear anywhere else on the radio in Austin. When I was working there it was a pretty exclusive and eclectic direction of music they were they were walking in
KEXP—it's a great station from Seattle. One of the cool things about that station is they have this performance space. They put on these sessions for touring bands or local bands when they come through, and we've done maybe four or five of them. The funny thing about this station is they do videos of all of these performances and they're massive in Latin America, they're probably massive in the states too, but they're huge. That's the way that a lot of people in Mexico and a lot of people in Brazil and Chile, get to see our band for the first time.
At Times In His Life, They've Also Offered Real Comfort
There was a period of time where there was a stereo in the living room, but I didn't have a stereo in my bedroom. I spent a lot of time in my room when I was a kid and so I would listen to the radio. That was the one thing I did have, this clock radio and it would keep me company. It felt good knowing that I could hear something live that was going on, real people out in the world outside of my house talking. I felt like they were talking to me. It just made me feel very comforted as a kid just knowing that the big wide world out there still existed.
And, Those Memories Have Even Influenced Spoon's Music
There's a song on our new record called “On The Radio,” which is about my experience growing up as a kid and how I felt like the voices on the radio were talking to me. It felt like they're talking specifically to me, you know, I knew in my heart that they weren’t talking to me, but it felt that way. You know, I felt like someone was in my room, talking to me, and that made me feel good.
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