Band names are like tattoos. You have to choose them carefully, otherwise, 30 years later, you’ll find yourself with a wrinkled tribal tramp stamp telling people you’re in a band called Foo Fighters. Fortunately, U.K. shoegazers Ulrika Spacek won’t have that problem; they don’t regret their band’s name.
“I think we still like the name of the band,” says Rhys Edwards, Ulrika Spacek’s singer and guitarist, with a laugh. “I’m quite glad.”
Ulrika Spacek – who, by the way, are named after Sissy Spacek and Ulrike Marie Meinhof, the late German left-wing militant and journalist – fuse electronics and a three-guitar attack into textured indie rock. On their new record, Expo, harmonized guitars float over jazz-tinged rhythms – worlds away from their nu‑metal roots.
“The first riffs I learned were by Slipknot and Korn,” Edwards says.
“I went to see System of a Down play at Brixton,” guitarist Joseph Stone adds. “I had drum lessons for a while, and the drums were such a big part of the band. John Dolmayan had these big mirrors behind him so you could see all the drums. That was quite inspiring, especially for a young teenager.”
So what bands bridged the gap for Stone and Edwards to get from nu-metal CDs and seven-string guitars to a band with a record like Expo?
“The bridge is Deftones,” Edwards says. “They still sound really good to us now. From Deftones we found shoegaze.”
“What was really inspiring was My Bloody Valentine,” Stone adds. “How [Kevin Shields] processes the guitar so much and makes it sound like it’s not a guitar.”
Though Expo represents a step forward for the band’s focus on vocals and lyrics, they rarely build a song from melody and chords. Ulrika Spacek songs begin with texture, leaving Edwards to find the song afterward.
“I think Picto completely fucked Rhys up for a bit,” Stone says. “We constructed the song like a collage effect, and I think I probably went too far with writing guitar melodies and stuff before Rhys had a chance to really sit down and form the vocals.”
“That doesn’t mean our songs can’t be stripped back to be played with just chords,” Edwards says. “Songwriting is still important, but it’s just a bit more interesting when things are coming from different places. We’re very rarely a jam band. We kind of love throwing things at a wall.”
- Expo is out now via Full Time Hobby.
- This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.
