Inside Spite House’s Journey: Warped Tour, Emotional Songwriting, and Finding Family in Punk

0:04 Hi, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio, and I'm here with... Max. And I'm Nabil. We're Spite House. Nice. Here at Warped Tour Montreal, man. Oh, my God. How the hell did you get here? I don't know. Why are we here? What are we doing here? What was your journey towards Warped Tour? I don't know. We've released two LPs so far. One on NumerLTZ and the second one got out on Pure Noise.

0:50 And since that record. Got out maybe 10 months ago, we've been touring pretty non-stop. And yeah, they asked us to play Warped Tour, so we said yes. Nice. And how's it feel to be here? It's very hot. See, I'm from South Florida, so I'm thinking it's nice. We were in Florida like three weeks ago, and Florida is very hot, very humid. Yes. So... No, it's nice. This is like air conditioning to me. Yeah, right. The golf carts are very fast and they're very fun to ride. And yeah, we're seeing bands we like, so it's pretty good.

1:32 I think you should take one of the golf carts on the skateboard ramp. Oh, I'm down to try that. But yeah, it feels pretty surreal to be here, having grown up with Warped Tour. Yeah, it's like I never thought we would get to play it or let alone, you know, attend it again since it was like dead, basically. So we're very excited to be here. And that seems to be the general vibe. Everyone seems very stoked and very. Excited to be here. So it's a great atmosphere all around. It is. I'll tell you something else, too. I walked into this venue because I've never been to this venue before. And I was very excited because I'm like, it looks like just a big skateboard park. And I was like, damn, am I bored with me?

2:20 Yeah, it's one of the nicer parts of Montreal to visit in the summer. Even when there's no festivals, there's pretty much festivals all summer. I bike around here a lot. It's just beautiful. You see groundhogs everywhere. You see raccoons and they're just minding their own business. There's water everywhere. It's one of the most beautiful areas of Montreal, in my opinion. And I'll tell you what. She showed me a sign earlier that I don't see at any festival anywhere else except here. And it was a sign to basically beware the penguins. Give them the right away. The penguins? Penguins, yeah. Never saw penguins here. Yeah, I think you got punked.

3:03 It's out there. Where was that? It's out there somewhere. I think I have a picture of it. I'll show you. So, yeah, but so during the winter. Are there any penguins here? It's too south for penguins, right? Yeah, I don't think so. Maybe if it was up in, you know, the northern end. But here, here it is right there. Penguins. Oh, well, I don't know. Never seen one. Okay, well, it's a little hot out today for a penguin, I think. But, you know, you're here and... Man, tell us a little bit about what started you guys getting into music. Getting into music?

3:47 Yeah. I remember a specific time when I was... Well, my parents were into music, but 70s stuff like Pink Floyd. So I grew up being surrounded with music. They bought me a guitar when I was eight years old. Nice. I remember specifically one time during recess, we couldn't go outside and we stayed with the computer. And some of our friends had an older brother that he was showing Nirvana and a. Bunch of video on the computer. And I actually remember seeing a clip of Sum 41 playing Warped Tour when I was eight years old. And I was like, this is fucking cool. And then I was hooked and I just wanted to..

4:31 And now you're here. Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. What about you? For me, it's also very connected to Warped Tour because I got into music basically playing Tony Hawk Pro Skater, the first one, and then watching skate videos. And yeah, I wanted to see all these bands live and a lot of the videos you could find were on Warped Tour. So yeah, it's a full circle moment to be here and experience music in this context. See, I love hearing those stories because... That's what this scene is all about. You're a kid, you get exposed to it, and it just becomes a way of life for the rest of your life. Different than any other type of music. When people say to me, oh, I used to like punk, I used to like metal, I'm like, then you probably didn't, because I never hear people that are into punk or metal say they used to.

5:28 Right. Yeah, sometimes when you interact with the outside world, you can kind of feel bad about being into this thing still, you know, hardcore and punk. And then you come here and you see, oh, I found my people. Like, I'm not the only one. There's thousands and thousands of people who are into the same shit that I am. And we're about the same age, so that makes me feel a little. Better, actually. We're like a big family. And it's funny, I have a brother that says to me, oh, at your age, you're never going to find... some woman that's into your music. And I'm like, well, then why don't you come to one of my festivals and you'll see the hundred thousand people sometimes that are there. You know, like I think people are kind of oblivious. They live in their bubble and there's a, they have this image of what punk and metal is. And we're nothing near that image. We are the example of what the rest of the world should be doing right now. You know, We just all need to unite together as a community and love each other. And that's what this music does for me.

6:30 I agree. So what else you guys got going on this year that you want to tell the listeners about so that they can look out for it and tell them how to, you know, connect you on your socials, check out your merch, all that good stuff. Yeah. So we're working on the East Coast October tour in the States. We just announced a Euro and UK tour in December. And what else? Working on a new record. Yeah, working on the new record. And yeah, we have Instagram, we're on Spotify and everything. Tell us about the new record. Now that you've evolved as an artist, because you're always evolving, how is this music, what is it like writing this new music opposed to previous music you've written before?

7:26 Well, the band started with me and Mark, who is in here right now, on drums. And it was really out of the loss of my mom. She had cancer and it was very fast and tragic. Sorry to hear that. So that pushed me to start a band and we kind of wrote the songs together. And NAB joined a bit later than that. So that was the first record. And then the second one, we were all like a band who played shows together and toured together. So we were more comfortable with each other and we kind of wrote the record all together, which gave like a different dynamic to the record and the second one is more like an exploration of like how grief affected me growing up and becoming an adult and having like that perspective and looking back on it it's a much more like straightforward record lyrically and and also sonically it's like we're all hardcore kids.

8:28 Uh, we love hardcore. And so we try to inject that as much as possible in our sound on the second one. Sure. And so I bet you feel like she's always with you all the time on this journey now, right? Well, yeah. Uh, it's been like, I can't really put words into it, but like we've been connecting with a lot of people that lived, uh, similar stuff. Um, Like, I was doing a speech on the last tour where I say that basically I lost my dad when I was 16. He committed suicide. I talk about mental health. Sorry to hear that. And then it took, like, another 10 years and losing my mom to finally start doing what I love in life.

9:11 So I've been connecting with people on tour that live similar stuff or, you know, it's... it's always like very emotional and I don't really always know how to react or what to say to someone who also lost someone meaningful tragically. Yeah. Um, but it's been nice, not nice, but like a, a cathartic experience to play those songs night after night. Well, I love hearing that. And, uh, I'm sorry you've gone through all that. We all go through a lot of things and that's why, why music is the best therapy. Yeah. And, uh, You know, my dad, when I was 16, he tried to commit suicide, but he wasn't successful, so I feel you, but, you know, it was a rough time, and I think that's what music is, It allows you to get that stuff out of you in a way that maybe you wouldn't normally be able to do. And it allows people like me in the audience to connect with you on a different level.

10:11 Yeah, and when I lived that stuff, I was... you know, latching on to music. It was like the only thing that mattered to me at that time. And I was connecting with other artists that, you know, it was just like continuing that kind of legacy of dealing with grief and. Stuff like that through music. Absolutely. And how about you? How do you feel the songwriting process is for you with the new music of what's going on now? I mean, I agree with everything Max said. It's a record that's way more organic in the sense that we wrote all the songs together in one room. And I think you can feel that in the music.

10:54 It has that energy. And I also can definitely relate to the things Max is singing about because I think grief and loss is such a universal topic. No doubt. His approach, his perspective I found really touching and very inspiring because we went through different things but I can connect, I can definitely relate to a lot of the things he's saying and I think that's our experience in general with people who get into our band and dig a little bit into the lyrics and they come and talk to us about their experience or how much that helped them cope with things Yeah, it's a very special record that we did and couldn't be any prouder. We're so excited to play those songs night after night, which is crazy to think about. Going out on the road for 33 days and not being sick of those songs. You gotta write the stuff that matters to you and that you feel..

11:58 You feel strongly about. That's key what you just said because if you're not you're not going to want to play those songs night after night if they have no meaning to you or you're not enjoying it like so that's a testament to your songwriting that you're being real. Unless you get like a lot of money then you keep doing it and then you can buy houses cars all the things that matter I. Can play whatever you want if you pay me enough. No, I'm kidding. And the funny part about that is, is that most people that make that big money, they still are not happy.

12:38 You're happy because you're playing what you want to play. And that's cool. And it's so cool you're here at Warped Tour. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pikeman on W4CY Radio.