Harvey, top left, says that there were times within the past few years when he wasn’t positive he’d be posing for a photo like this. Spoon are on tour now.
CREDIT: Tom Hines
Spoon’s latest album, “They Want My Soul,” comes four years after their last album. That’s a long time.
At least that’s how guitarist and keyboard player Eric Harvey sees it.
“The last Spoon record came out in 2010, so that means a kid that was 12 then is now 16,” Harvey calculates out loud. “Somebody who was 25 is now almost 30, and are they still going to shows? And are they still into music at all?”
Harvey’s concern is evidently not warranted, however, as “They Want My Soul” debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard charts when it was released earlier this month.
Harvey says there were times in between albums when he wasn’t sure he’d be playing under the Spoon moniker again.
“There was no question whether or not Spoon was going to make another record,” he says, though singer Britt Daniel’s side-project, Divine Fits, had fans wondering about that. “For me it wasn’t a question of whether I’d be invited back, but a lot can happen within a few years.”
While Daniel was doing Divine Fits, Harvey made a solo album and did some freelance graphic design work.
“The farthest away from Spoon I got wasn’t going to some faraway place, but it was actually having some sort of domestic life in Texas,” he says. “I was living with my girlfriend at the time, and basically for the first time in six years I was home all the time. I ended up getting a day job and doing music on the side, because I certainly didn’t make any money doing my solo record; certainly not enough to make it my full-time job, so it was a bit of a reality check for a while there.”
The festival circuit
Spoon are playing the late summer festival circuit, including a stop at Philly’s Made In America fest, where they perform while Girl Talk is performing on another stage and right before Tiesto plays a headlining slot.
“We pretty much open for DJs now,” says Harvey with a light laugh. “I don’t always look at these festival bills until right before we play, and chances are that I really want to see somebody but it’s the day after we perform so we’re not going to be there. But I did stay to see The Replacements at one festival we played earlier this year.”
Much to Harvey’s delight, The Replacements play right after Spoon’s slot at Boston Calling.
“They were awesome,” he gushes.
Spoon play the Made In America festival in Philly on Aug. 31, at the Boston Calling festival on Sept. 7 and at Central Park SummerStage on Sept. 10.
