We were lucky to catch up with SCHPILT recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi SCHPILT, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Our album has easily been the most meaningful project we’ve worked on so far. We released an EP in June of 2022, and over the course of 2-3 months we had several new songs we were already excited about, and wanting to record. We were back in the studio in November 2022, but this time with a very talented and patient sound engineer, Josh Medina. Our EP was recorded for free, in a studio between 11pm and 3am. At the time is was just awesome to be in a studio, recording our music, and it was a good introduction to recording, but nothing near the quality we got with our album. To be honest, we weren’t totally prepared, but we did it in the most SCHPILT way possible with a lot of support from Josh.

When we all recall some of the best memories from the studio, it reflects the personality and quirks of SCHPILT relatively well. Almost everyone took a nap on the couch at some point, we had more than our fair share of spicy McChickens, a few of us read and cried over the book “Siddhartha”, and few new solos were improvised throughout the chaos. When we came back in February to record the second half of the album, we all watched the Superbowl together in between finishing up Spin It and My Angel.

All of these memories are all intertwined with the unforgettable experience of recording our first album, which extended through an album release show at Rebel Lounge coincidentally on Jordan’s birthday, and then a local tour on Memorial Day weekend to Hotel Monte Vista, House of Bards, The Copper Queen Hotel and Gracie’s Tax Bar. The band agrees that one of the best moments was after many hours in the studio, the feeling of when a song finally clicks. Like the final puzzle piece, after listening to rough mixes for so long, few things are more satisfying than hearing everything come together and knowing “that’s it”. Then to see that happen 9 times in a row and present it as our album for everyone to listen – it might be the greatest thrill of a musician.

SCHPILT, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We’ve all had various levels of involvement in the music scene. Most of us started learning instruments around 10 and Jonas and Ian actually started a band together in high school. Those bands all ran their course, and at a certain point all of us started playing music together and it felt good, so we decided to call it a band. We like to say, “at a certain point, you’ve gotta stop jamming.” Most of the band lives together in one house, so in some ways it can be a continuous jam, but when you like what’s happening and want to be able to share it with others, you have to get productive and start making the jams into songs.

A unique aspect of our band is that we all appreciate different styles of music, so even when we have our little side projects, we’re able to contribute a unique perspective to the overall sound of SCHPILT. We also believe that SCHPILT is special because we love and respect each other regardless of whether we’re on our off the stage. We’re all homies, not just coworkers. We’re proud of all the times we’ve worked hard to make decisions together, which isn’t easy in a band of six members.

If there’s one thing about SCHPILT people should know, it’s that we’ll keep on keeping on. We have a saying that we use in the best times as much as the tough times “das ist SCHPILT, SCHPILT ist gut”.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

1. Build up the Phoenix music scene with artistic integrity, this has a lot to do with how and who you book. We’ve been very lucky with a lot of great relationships with venues and other artists, and this has been invaluable to our success.

2. Inspire and be inspired; we love to see those with the power to create and support the local scene also be actively engaged and inspired. Venues that are more than just running a business, but are actually as inspired by music as we are — this inspires bands, which ultimately creates the best shows for the venues and the scene.

3. Encourage creativity versus and algorithm

4. Buy merch – traveling, recording, instruments; we have a lot of bills, so buying merch is a great way for anyone to support their favorite artists.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Engagement with our material and relationships we make are the most rewarding for us. When we see that people actually enjoy what we’re putting out, it keeps us going. There was a show at Valley Bar recently where Gabbie put her mic out to one of our bigger fans and friends, Rachel, and Rachel sang along with Gabbie to our song Tabula Rasa. Experiences like these show us that other people feel our songs like we do, and that’s something special.

Contact Info:

• Website: schpilt.com
• Instagram: @schpilt

Image Credits
Several photographer credits depending on photo: Jarrett Bennett, Jacob Santoro, Max Smith, Ashley Dietrich