By Dustin Lothspeich
San Diego has a reputation for spawning songwriters: Tom Waits, Gregory Page, Greg Laswell, Rob Crow, John Reis — the list could go on and on. The occasional dubious musical contribution aside (we won’t get into that), America’s Finest City seems to have a knack for churning out some of America’s finest tunes.
But after drowning in coffeehouse purgatory for years following Jewel and Jason Mraz’s ascent to worldwide stardom, San Diego’s current music scene is currently enjoying a “second wave,” if you will, of inspired musicians taking the craft of songwriting to another level entirely. Bands like Ed Ghost Tucker, Barbarian and Hideout — all previously featured in these very pages — have put an emphasis back on writing complex, multi-dimensional music. Another entry on that list? Oh, Spirit.
It’s not an easy task, songwriting. It’s tough to piece something together in a way that resonates meaningfully with someone else. And that’s just the beginning. After the writing is done, artists too often get usurped in the ever-lasting struggle between image vs. content — and let’s face it, image only lasts so long. But content? Content has no expiration date.
“Music is and always will be number one to me,” Oh, Spirit’s co-lead singer/guitarist Ian Owen told me. “The image always takes a back seat to the songwriting, in my opinion. I understand the importance of looking like you belong on stage, but if what you have to say once you get up there isn’t worth a damn — then I’m out.”
“We’ve been exploring the possibility of wearing hats,” deadpanned the band’s other singer/guitarist Ryan Ward Combs.
Their debut self-titled EP, however, is no joke. Set to be released on April 18 at The Irenic on an all-ages bill that includes hometown folk-rockers The Silent Comedy (celebrating the re-release of their first album on vinyl) and the aforementioned Barbarian — Oh, Spirit’s first batch of studio-released material is, in one word, incredible.
Indie pop/rock can be a crowded genre, and it only grows more tired and mediocre by the second, but the band’s five lads (which, besides Owen and Ward Combs, include bassist Jesse Bowen, drummer Tyler Ward and keyboardist Simon Griffith) have risen remarkably above the din with songs that cook up equal parts Wilco (dueling guitar work), Neko Case (offbeat song structures) and Big Star (instantly memorable melodies) into a thick, hearty gumbo of good, old fashioned rock. If you were to ask the band though, you’d be hard-pressed to find common ground where influences are concerned.
“There are zero bands that all of us love,” drummer Tyler Ward said. “The sound of this group is what happens when all five of us come together.”
Even though they’ve been playing shows around town for the better part of two years, the forthcoming EP is the first entry in their (hopefully long) discography. The album’s six tracks have certainly benefited from the extended gestation period. Each one sounds like the best individual parts of four or five other songs, all painstakingly assembled over months — like the band ran through tape after tape of ideas, cherry picked the catchiest sections and stitched them together like surgeons — songwriting surgeons, if you will. And it seems that communal effort has paid off.
“I think having everyone’s input on the songs and how they are arranged changed them drastically,” Owen explained. “I was able to write and know that the other parts would be written by everyone in the band rather than trying to write everything myself.”
Recorded entirely “in living rooms,” according to Owen, the album was mixed, mastered and engineered by their bass player, Bowen (who also plays in local alt-country powerhouse Blackout Party). Despite (or because of) their DIY approach, the record has a gloriously warm tone — the kind you find when placing an old, beloved LP on a trusty turntable: Electric guitars bloom over fleet-fingered chord progressions while the frontmen trade off on precision-cut solos; Griffith switches between piano and organ, lending a swirling backdrop for Bowen’s rollicking bass and Ward’s imaginative drumming on songs that stray far from routine pop music formula.
Ward Combs and Owen also split vocal duties on the songs, with the former’s tender (yet sure-footed) delivery countering the latter’s lighter, airier tone (always joking, when asked who has the better voice, the singers rang out in unison: “Tyler”). It’s one of the more alluring qualities of the group’s sound and even they understand that boasting multiple writers and vocalists is one of their strengths.
“From a listener’s stand point, you don’t get tired of hearing the same band,” Ward Combs said. “There’s more of a shift between styles and perspectives.”
According to Owen, it’s also nice from a personal angle: “It takes away some of the pressure too. If I don’t have a new song to work on one week, then usually Ryan does and vice versa. I also find it really inspiring working on Ryan’s songs as a guitarist.”
Maybe having so many active hands in the pot has also contributed to their debut’s delay. And playing shows for years before having an actual product to give audiences? Some might call that a waste of time and energy. Or shrewd marketing. Regardless, the songwriting surgeons of Oh, Spirit have also pieced together that tried-and-true fact: Quality always trumps rushed quantity.
“After a couple of years of writing and evolving these songs, and growing together as a band, there is a lot of excitement in putting our music in people’s ear holes,” Griffith said about the prospect of finally releasing their EP. “It doesn’t quite feel real.”
“I just hope people like it,” Owen added.
Oh, they will.
—Dustin Lothspeich is a music writer in San Diego. Contact him at [email protected].
