Episode 236 : Will Sprott (Shannon & The Clams)

Not having the security blanket, an incognito experience, and sleeping on pool tables. Will Sprott (Shannon & The Clams, Will Sprott) "In August 2022, Shannon Shaw’s world was turned inside out. With mere weeks to go until their wedding, the singer’s fiancé, Joe Haener, died in a horrific car accident in front of his family’s vegetable farm in Oregon. It was a devastating loss that hit Shannon & The Clams with cataclysmic force. Shaw’s bandmates, guitarist Cody Blanchard, keyboard player Will Sprott, and drummer Nate Mahan, had also grown close to Haener, a drummer and fixture of the Bay Area music scene. They canceled shows and rallied around Shaw as fans reached out to show their support. Shaw spent her nights with Blanchard and his family or with the Haeners, finding comfort in community. She adopted a fluffy dog named Spanky-Joe. She moved out of the Portland apartment where she and Haener had been living. She fearlessly chronicled the whole experience online. “Losing Joe made me unafraid of so many things,” Shaw says. “I have a lot less fear. It’s given me new perspective. Baring my soul is so much less scary than it would’ve been before.” Amid this overwhelming sense of grief, melodies and lyrics began to flow out of Shaw. Instagram posts about her relationship with Haener became the building blocks of new compositions. Her Clams bandmates were also reeling and writing their own new songs. From the shock and trauma of that tragedy comes Shannon & The Clams’ latest album, The Moon Is In The Wrong Place, a powerful exploration of loss, time, love, and resilience that stands as the beloved garage band’s most ambitious, emotionally searing recording to date. In preparing to record, The Clams passed demos back and forth for months and, uncharacteristically for them, jammed on unfinished riffs to see what would happen. “Shannon and I usually write separately, and we usually bring pretty crafted, finished songs,” says Blanchard, who developed tennis elbow after their marathon rehearsal sessions. When Shaw struggled to find the right chords to go with her melodies, she obtained an Omnichord — an electronic instrument with a built-in set of chords and rhythms — and unlocked a new creative palette. In 2023, they returned to Nashville to record with longtime collaborator Dan Auerbach at Easy Eye Sound Studios — who oversaw 2018’s Onion and 2021’s Year Of The Spider — and captured what they’d been creating. The results show the group ascending to new creative highs, while still weaving in the classic garage-rock and girl-group sounds that have long been a hallmark of their work. This time around, they venture to deeper, farther out musical locations than before and bring a new sophistication and intricacy to their arrangements, plus they get an assist from pro wrestling great Mick Foley on handclaps. Meanwhile, Shaw’s powerful voice veers between sweetness and snarl — sometimes within the space of a single lyric." Excerpt from https://www.shannonandtheclams.com/bio Shannon & The Clams: Bandcamp: https://shannonandtheclams.bandcamp.com/music Instagram: @shanandtheclams Website: https://www.shannonandtheclams.com Records: https://easyeyesound.com/collections Merch: https://shannonandtheclams.merchtable.com Will Sprott: Bandcamp: https://willsprott.bandcamp.com Instagram: @willsprott Website: https://willsprott.com Merch: https://willsprott.bandcamp.com/merch Music Videos: https://www.youtube.com/@hairdorecords The Vineyard: Instagram: @thevineyardpodcast Website: https://www.thevineyardpodcast.com Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thevineyardpodcast