A Conversation with Panic! At The Disco’s Spencer Smith – HuffPost 4.25.11

Mike Ragogna: I caught Panc! at SXSW this year, and it seems like you and Brendon are having a lot of fun.

Spencer Smith: Yeah we are. It feels sort of like a fresh new start for us. It’s been quite a while since we released new music, and we’ve been doing single shows and festivals. But to now get ready to go on tour, it’s just really exciting. It’s always been a big part of our band, to put on a live show. We’ve been looking forward to just having a good time on stage.

MR: It really looked like it. The energy was great and the repertoire was wonderful. It’s a shame, I wished you had played longer than the mandatory half hour or forty minutes. What are your thoughts about SXSW? This isn’t your first time, is it?

SS: It actually is. It’s interesting. During all of the press we did, everybody was really surprised. Most bands either play there when they are starting out, or it even doesn’t matter where you are in your career, it’s a place where a lot of bands seem to play. For us, it just seems to contradict with other tour schedules and recording dates and things like that. So, it was really exciting for us and, actually, all the other bands we talked to had played anywhere from five to ten gigs within four days. We got lucky, we only had to do the one.

MR: Yeah and Stubbs was the best place, I thought, to hear concerts.

SS: Yeah, Stubbs is amazing. To have that vibe that you’re playing in the back of a barbecue joint, you don’t really get that anywhere else.

MR: New album time. Vices And Virtues feels like you guys are going into new territory. Is that your opinion about this album too?

SS: I think so, yeah. For me and Brendan, the past couple years of writing and recording have sort of been. I guess it came from us being so young and we weren’t expecting anybody to hear our first record. It ended up being this big thing that was amazing beyond any expectations we had. It was weird that stuff we were writing as we were getting out of high school be that big. Then, to have eyes on you as you’re changing, we just kind of realized we can’t be concerned with trying to stick with what people expect. We just had to go through the changes that anybody does at our age and write what we want to. We honed-in exactly what we wanted the band to be. So, I think it feels like a fresh start even though it is still Panic.

MR: So, was there a different approach that you took creatively or in the recording process with Vices And Virtues than Panic’s other albums?

SS: Well, I think we are always trying to figure out the best way that we write songs and we never can do that. It always ends up being a mixture of different approaches, whether it starts with a lyric or a musical idea, or somebody has the whole thing start to finish before they show it to the band. I think we really did, in the recording process, mature a little bit. We sort of understand how it works better. We were able to kind of take a page out of some older techniques that were used by some of our favorite bands in the ’60s and ’70s, but still take advantage of some of the technology that we have nowadays. I think, yeah, in the recording process we became a little more efficient and knew how to get what we wanted easier.

MR: I want to ask you a delicate question. You did have a band line up change. So, coming in with new members, how does that affect the chemistry and creative process?

SS: Yeah it’s interesting because that relationship is so unique, especially if you’re writing with new people. We always looked at it as having a relationship or a marriage or any strong relationship. Not only do you have to live with these people and spend a lot of time with them, but everybody is trying to get out their ideas, and the more people that are writing, the more compromise it is unless your idea is going to be the one that makes it, so you kind of have to figure out how that’s going to work. I think, luckily, we didn’t like the idea of just having hired musicians on stage, so we are working with some of our friends that we’ve known for a few years. That relationship is already started. It’s actually kind of got us kickstarted and how we did when we were writing the first record. It feels new, energetic, and a lot of the tension that sort of started before the member change has gone away. I think that’s also being shown on stage as well.

MR: There is also that fun of exploring new friendships.

SS: Yeah exactly, and we’ve only been working with each other for a year, year and a half, so it’s still a lot of unknowns. I think as we get on tour, something that we didn’t do as much in the past few years, is we’ll start writing. We are going to bring out a little homemade demo setup and start working on new music because we don’t want there to be another two years before we release another record.

MR: Spencer, Panic! has been described as alternative dance. Is that accurate?

SS: Well, yeah, why not. (laughs) It’s always a question that has different words plugged in there. Whether it’s rock or alternative or dance or techno or burlesque–I think that’s pretty close to this record. Brendon and I wanted to get back to the dance side of it, we kind of went away from that on the second record. We kind of took advantage of some electronic instruments, some electronic drums and some synths for this one. Those are real exciting to get back into, so I guess that’s a fair judgment.

MR: Are loops a big part of what you’re doing as well?

SS: We’ll use pre-made loops when we are demo-ing. Then, when we actually go in to record the song, we like to create a loop ourselves where we can throw in a few variances every once and a while when we want to change it. We did have a lot of fun, though, layering electronic drums over live drums and getting a nice mix.

MR: You would be the go-to-guy within the band being the drummer, right?

SS: Yeah, that is something that I kind of start, whether it’s coming from an idea that Brendon had and I will initially go to what the drum part might be. But the cool thing is that Brendon is actually a good drummer. So, that’s how we started getting into music in middle school. He joined and probably played snare drum. I think we, more than some other bands, are really rhythmically approaching it just as much as melody. It’s always fun because everybody can throw ideas out there.

MR: In one of your interviews you had evoked Paul Simon as one of your influences and I recently interviewed him for The Huffington Post. Just sayin’.

SS: Yeah, I’m jealous, man. Paul Simon was one of my favorite musicians and songwriters.

MR: He’s the reason why I got into music. Who else do feel are great musical influences?

SS: There are certain bands that have remained influences and probably never will leave. That’s a lot of stuff that our parents had, just loving late ’60s and early ’70s bands. There is a lot of Beatles, Stones, The Who, The Kinks, The Zombies, stuff like that. It’s interesting because we grew up in the ’90s where we first got into our own music, but our parents stopped listening to new music after the ’70s. because then, you’re 30 years old, and you just listen to what you did when you were 20. So, then, there was this whole decade through the ’80s that we were unfamiliar with. We only knew it for the big number one hit songs, so it’s fun to get into this band XTC and Peter Gabriel–he just had those huge hits. But I loved getting deeper into those records. Then, obviously, there are other great ones like The Smiths and The Cure and stuff. It was fun to get into that and sort of have these new influences that we had never heard before.

MR: By the way, my favorite artsy album of all time is Peter Gabriel 3, the one with “I Don’t Remember” and “Biko.”

SS: Yeah, “Biko,” that song is so great man. We actually potentially thought about covering it, but then you have to get into the whole are you doing the song enough justice thing. Maybe we will work out a cover on tour that will do it justice.

MR: Do you have advice for new artists?

SS: I guess it’s sort of fair to ask that, but we still feel like we are starting and have a lot to learn. I think that because everybody was a musician releasing music now or just a music fan, most people are aware just from reading things online that the music industry is changing so much. There is becoming less and less of a need for some of the rolls that were (once) there and necessary. It’s much more of a DIY set up now for bands using the internet and everything. So, I just would say stay as true to yourself as you can because if you get into the mindset of writing for what somebody else is telling you to do, those people might not even be necessary in the music business five years from now. Always just stay true to yourself, work on writing the best songs you can. There is no replica for pure practice.

MR: Oh yeah, one last thing. I want to ask you about the song “Sarah Smiles”– you have to know the Hall & Oates hit “Sarah Smile.” Do you care to explain yourself?

SS: Just about the song in general?

MR: Yeah, the title is so close, I figured could give you a little crap for that.

SS: Yeah, I know so many people are like, “Wait is this a cover song?” That was a song that Brendon wrote for his girlfriend. It wasn’t even going on the record and then it ended up being a pretty good song, so we decided to do it full band. I don’t know how, but it made it through all of the cuttings of all of the other songs and it found its way on the record. It’s not the Hall And Oates song though.

MR: I know, just having a little fun. Thank you, Spencer, for your time and all that.

SS: Thank you, thanks for having me.

Transcribed by Theo Shier