Photo by Jill Boyatsis
Written by Madison Boyce
After recently gaining traction Tiktok, we had the opportunity to ask Jon Thomas and Michael Simon of New York based alternative-rock band, Spitphyre, some questions about their previous release of “Papaya” and their most recent release, “Melodía.”
Madison Boyce: First off, each of you please introduce yourself and what you do in the band!
Jon Thomas: My name is Jon Thomas! I am the lead singer and guitarist for Spitphyre.
Michael Simon: I am Michael Simon! I play bass and do backing vocals for Spitphyre.
MB: Describe your sound in three words off the top of your head!
JT: Super, greasy, fun!
MS: Garage, classic, rock!
MB: You guys have been all over my for you page on Tiktok! How have you been using the algorithm to help promote the band? What seems to help you guys reach a larger audience?
JT: Oooh yeah, Tiktok is like our money maker right now, with no actual money. Mike had the idea right before our winter break last semester. He said, “when we go home this break and we don’t have any school work to worry about, we should post at least once or twice a day.”
We’ve kind of just been trying to keep that consistent since around like November and it’s been working out. Tiktok is actually where we have our biggest following right now, which is cool.
MS: We’re a Tiktok band!
JT: Yeah, we are a Tiktok band! I’m really trying to get us to 1,000 [followers] on Tiktok so we can go live. That would be a dream come true. Instagram reels has also been helping a lot surprisingly.
MS: Reels is like early Tiktok where no one knows how the algorithm works yet.
MB: Last year you guys released an EP titled “Papaya,” how has the reaction been to that release?
JT: *looks at Michael* Want to talk about “Coy?”
MS: Okay so, “Coy” is my favorite song off of the EP and even our whole discography (including our newest song). There's no reason why I like it, I just think it’s fun to play my bass part. It was kind of performing the worst so I was like, “Okay. I’m gonna make this hit 1,000 streams.”
So, I just started posting about it everyday and we just hit 1,000 streams this weekend. I was home so I didn’t get to post about it. The reaction has been good! We put it out and then a bunch of people that we haven't spoken to in the better part of a year just texted us like, “Hey. I heard the new music, really killer stuff!” It’s a more cohesive sound and it’s definitely helped talking to people online!
JT: I love when people text me over “Coy” because it starts out with that burp and I have gotten so many texts from people, some I haven’t spoken to since High School and they’ll be like, “Who burped on that song?” I’ll just be like, “... Me” and then they’ll be like “It’s disgusting, but it works. I’ll be like, “Thanks… I guess?” *chuckles*
MB: What would each of you guys say your favorite track off “Papaya” is and why?
MS: “Coy” because it’s hard to play and our old guitarist complimented my part on it and it meant a lot at the time.
JT: I’d have to say for our actually least successful song on the EP, probably “Darth Vader.” “Darth Vader” is really fun for me because of the two upbeat songs that I’ve written (“Good Vibrations” being the other one), it’s really nostalgic because me and Jake (our drummer) used to play in a punk band together, both when we were back in High School and that song is a real story that happened. That song is a nice trip down memory lane for me.
MB: You guys just released your newest song “Melodía,” what can you tell us about it? How would you compare it to “Papaya?”
MS: IT ROCKS! I got the final master and I stopped and I was like, “Dude…we made a banger!” It’s kind of like “Papaya, but it's not.”
JT: I can see it in conversation with “By The Bridge.” It's an evolutionary thing. I think it’s a more serious sound for us. Lyrically speaking it is very similar to our single we released before “Papaya”, “Your America.” I genuinely want to take a more serious tonal direction with the lyrics I write.
I’m usually all over the place with songs I write, but “Melodía” is one I keep very special to my heart. I’m very passionate about the words, so I’m very excited for it to come out.
MB: I know you guys were a part of a live-stream event held by Good Noise Podcast! Are there any plans in the future for any more sort of live-stream content?
MS: We kind of have to work on ourselves to do more live-stream shows. It’s kind of hard right now because our semester is kind of hard. Every teacher is giving more work than ever before.
JT: We are so close to the end too. God willing, we’ll be done soon enough. For “Melodía” we are trying to take it more professional and we drafted a 12-week marketing scheme or something like that. We are trying to do at least two to three live-streams where we can play it in the coming weeks.
MS: If anyone would like to have us, we would be more than open to do that.
MB: With that being said, what are some things we can look out for from Spitphyre in the coming year?
JT: So, we definitely want to do more promo for “Melodía” specifically. You can definitely expect a lyric Youtube video at some point in the near future. Possibly something acoustic-produced on our Youtube channel. We are going to start utilizing our Youtube channel a little bit more this year.
We are also in the planning stages of launching our patreon! We still can't play live shows for now, which was a big source of how we stayed afloat, so we are trying to find some ways to make money off of this while still delivering to our fans.
MS: Don’t expect more “Coy” Tiktoks *laughs*, but more Tiktoks in general. Unless I can’t think of a punchline.
JT: Oh! And a video of Michael drinking hot sauce.
MS: Oh god we have to film that. Eh… I have nothing else to do.
MB: If you could say one thing to anyone reading this right now, what would it be?
MS: Please listen! I swear we are good!
JT: Expect a lot more professionalism from us. We are trying to take this to the next level for us. Both of us are vaccinated so we are hoping live shows come back as soon as possible.
We want to give a huge thank you to Jon Thomas and Michael Simon of Spitphyre for taking the time to sit down with us and let us ask them some questions regarding the band!
You can listen to Spitphyre wherever you listen to music! To keep up with the band you can follow them on Twitter @spitphyreband! Let us know who you want to see us interview next by tweeting us @lgndsoftmrw.
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