Spain’s Josh Haden: “The entire band was smoking weed every day!”

Though Spain are known for their lethargic pace, this wasn’t always Josh Haden’s style. He’d previously been singer and bassist for Treacherous Jaywalkers, a punk act signed in the late ’80s to SST that he now describes as “boundlessly energetic, in a negative way.” Nonetheless, a constant staple of his teenage years was John Lee Hooker’s 1966 LP, It Serves You Right To Suffer, which provided the inspiration for his next band. “It was completely opposite to all the other music I was listening to, but, as I got older, I felt like I could, or should, be open to writing differently.”

Fuelled by his newfound independence and habits – “I’m out of my parents’ house,” he laughs, “and I can finally wake up and smoke a bongload before breakfast” – he began writing new songs and, six years later, released The Blue Moods Of Spain to universal acclaim – a 30th Anniversary 2xLP reissue is released on October 3. “Looking back,” he grins, “I can’t believe the reaction. We were selling out shows and every major label wanted to steal us. Rick Rubin was picking me up in his Rolls Royce, Madonna wanted to sign us, and there were limos in front of our show!”

SPAIN

THE BLUE MOODS OF SPAIN

9/10

Deliciously drowsy debut from LA quartet, remastered for vinyl

Like his father, jazz legend Charlie, Josh Haden pursued his own unique path for his band’s 1995 unveiling. Though following in the languid footsteps of Cowboy Junkies’ Trinity Sessions, Red House Painters’ Down Colorful Hill and Spiritualized’s Lazer Guided Melodies, The Blue Moods… presented, as its cover implied, a sophisticated, heartbroken, after-dark universe, defined by “World Of Blue,” a creeping, increasingly unsettling 14 minutes shrouded in speakeasy smoke. If this distinctively unhurried epic warned “Blue is such a cold shelter”, it chimed with the minimalist strums of album opener “It’s So True” (“They say life is never fair”) and the velveteen closer, “Spiritual” (“Jesus, I don’t want to die alone”), later covered by Johnny Cash and then, with Haden’s father, Pat Metheny. Unfolding in a hushed voice over a sparse yet artfully lavish hour, Haden’s immersive melancholy provided a bittersweet refuge that remains a pinnacle of the so-called ‘slowcore’ genre.

Spain tour Europe in November – click here for their tour dates

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