Look out, America. The Struts are back from England and ready for another rockin’ round of tours. Originated in the U.K., this rock group is taking the States by storm, illuminating the music world with wild tunes and fun-loving vibes.
Although they’d been through the U.S. for a summer tour in 2015, they’re back with more to offer. After having released their album, Everybody Wants, in 2014 in England, they’ve decided to revisit their work and revamp it. Not only will this remastered album include updated tracks, but it also holds five brand new songs that The Struts are psyched to share with the world.
However, hard work comes with little downtime, which was evident when talking to the lead singer, Luke Spiller, as he multitasked this interview and a little work-out session. But when you’re a traveling musician, health is an immensely important factor. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to Luke about the upcoming tour and learn a little history about these rockers.
How’ve been prepping for this tour?
Well, I’ve been in the States since June last year. The other guys went back home, so they just got back to the States three days ago. I’m joining the rehearsals later today, but they’ve been warming up without me. I’ve been doing a lot of running lately—you can probably tell I’ve just been on the treadmill.
The other guys were back in England? Have you been able to write any music during that time away?
I’ve been writing a lot of stuff in Nashville. But not collectively.
In March, you’re releasing an updated album Everybody Wants. What made you choose to do that?
It’s a pretty long story… But it [the album] was quite short at the time. It came out in 2014. It was pushed to be released. But because of the push, the rest of the world didn’t really get to hear the album or what it was about. So we decided to remaster the whole album, rerecord the tracks… And then we added five new songs, which gave us a new opportunity to rerelease our music and add to the collection itself.
So it’s kind of like a brand new album. Will you be playing a lot of the newer songs while on tour?
Oh yeah, you mean the new songs from the album? Yeah, yeah. We want to kind of showcase these unheard tracks, so there’s a lot of work to be done leading up to March. There’s a lot to do like putting together the set and all. So we’re really excited. And we’re going to be touring everywhere, mainly focusing on the States, but we’ll be back in the U.K. and parts of Europe as well. But yeah, there’s a lot coming up for us and it’ll be really great for us.
So much traveling! Who do you think receives your music better: the States or Europe?
That’s hard to say at this moment in time, really. We’ve been lucky here in the States, but in the U.K., we never really received any press. Like, in 2014, we were heard on the radio once. So, once we got here, the States reacted a hell of a lot more. And we’re not hung up on this because when it comes to the U.K., we’re still fine with that. It’s just that the U.S. labels are helping us a little more.
Totally. And I saw that you were on Jimmy Kimmel in the summer—how was that?
That was great! He was really cool and then we were on Seth Meyers. So, we’re really grateful because we’ve never been treated like this before coming over. We’re loving it!
Since you’re doing so well here, can fans expect any new music once this tour is finished?
Yeah. The good thing is, the album is going to be released on the fourth of March, so there’s that. And we’ve been working on some ideas and we’ll be working on those during our downtime. New pieces will be coming really quick.
Good! And while on tour, what does a typical day usually entail? Do you guys sometimes write while on the road?
It’s kinda hard, really. I’m not the biggest fan on writing on tour because every night is so intense because of where we are now, we’re doing a long of shows in a row—four or five shows in a row, each an hour and a half… So any day I have off, I just spend resting because the last thing I want to be doing is yelling. But it’s a good time to go over thoughts and how we’re gonna approach it all. But there’s an awful lot of waiting. There’s usually singing in the morning, then waiting, then soundcheck, then we play, and then we get back in the bus and do it all over again.
Do you have a certain venue you’re looking forward to?
I’m really looking forward to San Diego just because it’s usually sold out and it’ll be a good time. So I’m excited for that. And I love the venue because it makes for great music. It’s one of the first ones, so I think it’ll be good.
Look out for The Struts as they roll into Irving Plaza on March 3. Their remastered album, Everybody Wants, will be available on March 4. For more information on these rockers, check them out at thestruts.com.
