Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Call Me Spinster. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Call Me Spinster, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

We are sisters that come from very different emotional relationships with music. Amelia has always been an avid music listener, and led the charge of our collective taste as the oldest sibling, but shied away from performance for most of her childhood/early adulthood. Rosie and Rachel stuck with choir and voice lessons to pursue (mostly classical) music in college but never kept up with instrumental study beyond the bare minimum piano playing to plunk out vocal lines or accompany middle school choir warm-ups. When we all found ourselves in teaching professions spread out across the northern hemisphere, an opportunity emerged to get together over our summer breaks. At that time our cousin was getting married and asked us to play her ceremony and welcome music. We spent a month together in the Pacific Northwest learning pop covers on our hodgepodge of collected instruments none of us really knew how to play. We had so much fun being together with a common purpose, getting intimate with songs we thought we knew, and performing for the people we love, we were hooked. The following summer we rendezvoused at Amelia’s in Chattanooga, unknowingly auditioning the town to be our future home-base. After another wedding gig, and Amelia’s baby on the way, we decided the “Sister Band Dream” was now or never. Rosie and Rachel moved from Portland, OR and Costa Rica, respectively, to Chattanooga , TN the month their first nephew was born, and the band took off in earnest. If you had asked any of us if we saw it coming even 7 years ago, we would’ve laughed hysterically.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We are the daughters of a choir teacher and a singer/songwriter so we grew up with rich exposure of folk, jazz, choral, opera and dad rock. We grew up singing together at home, church, around the campfire, and on long car rides, but were never very committed to learning instruments beyond piano lessons and middle school band. In college Rachel rediscovered her love of drumming and procrastinated her opera lessons by joining the Ghanaian and Brazilian Percussion Ensembles which led to her role as trash-percussionist in a folk band in Wisconsin. Rosie got a rent-to-own bass for her birthday, and Amelia unearthed our grandfather’s accordion in a closet and was determined to teach herself how to play.

Our music began as porchy “holler pop” –as one early fan dubbed it — due to the timbre of these instruments and the vocal harmony-forwardness of our arrangements, no matter if we were playing Drake covers or old folk tunes. As we have continued as a band, we have expanded into the realm of plugged-in instruments, lusher soundscapes, and more diverse genres. In 2020, we put out an EP on a small, Athens GA -based label called Strolling Bones. Since, we have expanded to a five piece band, adding Luis Alfredo Fortin on guitar and John Hooker on drums. We are in process of recording our first full-length album together at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA with producer Drew Vandenberg (Faye Webster, Of Montreal, Toro y Moi.) This album will range from synthy Robyn-esque pop songs to psychedelic rock to pared down acoustic banjo and guitar folk tunes.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

One of the unique challenges we’ve encountered as performing artists has been learning to switch between what we’ve dubbed our different “modes.” Touring and performing, writing and recording, and “band business” (booking, responding to emails, promoting shows, social media, etc.) are completely different jobs, and all equally important to DIY musicians like us. We have very precious practice time between side jobs, kids, partners, and if we aren’t very intentional about what mode we’re currently in our time can easily get eaten by the others (emails and booking in particular!)

These hidden labor is another reason why artists’ time is so much more valuable than their hourly “gig rate.” There is, of course, also the rehearsal time, equipment upkeep, and travel associated with most gigs, but also the other countless unpaid hours of boring, behind the scenes labor of coordinating five people’s schedules or creative decision making, sifting through DM’s, writing and uploading contracts, etc.

Eventually this could be the work of a manager, but most small bands like us aren’t able to earn enough from gigs to warrant a team beyond ourselves, especially with touring still looking a little sparser post-pandemic.

Another unexpected challenge of mode switching is going from studio to stage. The recording process can extend over several months of demo-ing songs at home, re-writing lyrics, changing keys, adding or subtracting instruments and vocal parts, and by the time we emerge from a week of 12-hour days in the actual studio, we have what can sometimes feel like a whole new song. We have learned this the hard way, setting up gigs the weekend we returned from the studio, and realizing half our setlist is in recording purgatory and we haven’t had a chance to learn the new bridge or in the new key. So though we desperately need to refill our coffers between recording sessions, we have learned to be cautious with gigging too close to our recording sessions because it can be quite a brain-you-know-what.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s impossible to name just one, but a shortlist would definitely include getting to collaborate with other artists, from working on songs with other local musicians like Summer Dregs, Luke Simmons, Ben Van Winkle, and Emma DuBose, to working with visual artists like Alecia Vera and Steve Preisman on merch designs, to making music videos with dancers from the Pop Up Project, and filmmakers from Humanaut and Sunflower Films. We feel very lucky that an important part of our work is going out to shows and getting to support other people making cool stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.spinsterband.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/callmespinster
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/callmespinster
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv1TBKyZJIyHVWU14paWoGA

Image Credits
Our Ampersand Photography DH Jacobs Erin Walters-Bugbee Jered Scott Martin Wm. Johnson Photography