About a year ago you may have noticed a new boy on the block, sporting a short pair of rather see-through white tennis shorts, pink converse, a fitted pink polo shirt and a white scarf (sounding familiar yet?)

He soon became the phenomenon that is Spod, he’s been described as ‘Queens Of The Stone Age meets Missy Elliott’ and ‘the bastard child of Jack Black and David Bowie’ amongst other things. His shows are filled with pink, bubbles, little glitter hearts, flowers; leaving only a beer-covered floor, beaming smiles plastered across the faces of audience members, sweat, sometimes even chipped teeth and tears from hearts broken by the Lord Redfive in the aftermath.

Vocal Assault managed to catch up with the man behind Spod to talk about his humble beginnings all those years ago, ex-members, uniforms, the success of Triple J hit ‘Letz Dance!’, embarrassing moments and his future plans of world domination.

In all seriousness, how did the inspiration to start Spod come about after playing in bands such as Gentlenemy?

Spod was my first band, it will be my last band. I started doing Spod as an exercise in learning the guitar, a love for drum machines and how to make a 4-track sound as mental as possible. So I guess that question should be inversed, and the answer is I was born to luv but I’m ready to fight.

Who was Spod started with, what was their role?

Twas myself and Peejay when I was the Lord Redfive. We used to hang out in my rumpus room and instead of playing pool, we thought we’d stand on it and play guitars, and record it onto old cassette tapes. We didn’t have roles as such, but I always ended up doing the programming of my Yamaha Keytar and drum machine, and Peejay rocked the guitar because he could solo mad hot. We shared all vocal duties and basically made every song up on the spot. We were too lazy, drunk and excited to ever go back and learn how we played the tracks because making a new one was so much radder. Over time, land mass separated Peejay and I, and I merged into Spod and have continued the fight with both the spirits of Peejay and Lord Redfive in my hizzeart.

How did it evolve from its humble beginnings to the introduction of Dannyvan Halen?

Dannyvan was the little brother of Peejays girlfriend and he just got with wanting to play drums. So he came over, we played and recorded “Live @ the House of Deth” and we luved him and he luved us. Then when Peejay moved away, Dannyvan hung around and we played as a two piece live like twice a year, still rocking the Spod solo set in the middle, and we also shared a house near the beach where we co-wrote some shizzle like “Country of Sweden”. He got up for an impromptu version of “Country of Sweden” @ the single launch in July at the Hopetoun which was rad. We haven’t played that together with him on guitar for 3 years or so.

When did you start wearing the SPOD uniform?

Spod always had uniforms of some sort, the current pink thing has hung around for ages. We started wearing it early 2001 I think maybe? Me and Peejay used to wear pink jumpers with knitted designs of our faces on them and white shorts in our initial shows, so we’ve luved to rock out in Pink from the start, but it takes a bit of courage to unleash such radness. Now pink is like black, so I’ve gotta move on I think. Too many dudes in pink makes the luvship sink, yo.

How did you come across the Scorpion Dance Team?

I was at the Ashfield youth centre freestyling over Nelly beats and they were teaching teenage dance classes. They forgot their dance tape one day and asked if they could dance to my orsumbeatz. I dropped in an early version of 2131, and they cold blacked out. When they came to, they were part of the S.P.O.D. Crew 4 loife.

Who designs the uniforms we see on stage today?

The Scorpion Dance Team design and construct all their uniforms, mine are from Kmart, Lowes & Converse (open to shoe sponsorship yo). Reprahzehnt! But we’re stepping it up a level. There are some other acts in Australia now realising that dancers are rad and are trying to get with, so we’ve gotta step up and stay ahead of the gizame yo.

Did it come as a shock being added to high rotation on JJJ recently?

Yeah, it did. It’s mind-blowing but it’s taken 10 years or so, but Spod is definitely something that I imagined would just dissappizear into the night, inside my adoring heart n shiznit. So now anything that happens is a bonus, I’m just very happy with Spizod’s positioning right now with people digging it n stuff. Once the album gets released, then bizzam! I’ve achieved more than I ever dreamt and can retire happy, but fizuck that, I’m gonna soldier on into world domination and start my own supermarket.

Have you noticed new fans at your shows since the rotation?

Kind of. Every show I’ve played, someone who’s seen the show comes back and brings a friend to get with the radness. It seems about 75% luv the Spod, 20% don’t get it, and 5% are haters. The single launch felt more like a party with friends coz it was mainly people who have been coming to my shows for ages, but yeah, there were a lot of new faces, it sold out pretty quick.

Your debut record Taste The Radness is out soon? When can we expect that in stores?

I’m hoping mid September, but there’s always something else to push it back… But yeah, it’s coined for mid September 2003, which is exactly 10 years since Spod first wrote their first song. Beautiful shiznit!

What should fans that haven’t yet witnessed the Spod live experience expect from a Spod show?

Luv, power, flowerz, glitter, bubblez, freedom, dancing, hotness, radness and beatz that’ll snizap yo nizeck!

Tell us about your embarrassing stage experience while supporting Warped in Melbourne recently… (does that have anything to do with the demise of the white shorts?)

Ahh, that was with the Night Terrors, Solaris & Season @ the Rob Roy. Basically, they were an old pair of shorts that have done more than their fair share of duty, and I hit the floor a bit hard, felt them tear, looked down and saw that my shorts had turned into a miniskirt. I just ignored it and solidered on to the delight/dismay of the crowd, especially the two girls sitting @ the front of the stage. They know me quite well now in a physical sense. I now wear black shorts in mourning for the white shorts.

What are your plans for the future?

Well, there’s a Decoder Ring remix I’ve done coming out early August, but is only a radio release for now. It’s of “Alsace Lorraine” which is now called “Born 2 Luv”. It’s like that Jason Nevins v Run DMC thing, y’know all like Decoder Ring v Spod, but instead of just ruining a great song like Nevins, I reinvented the song, then ruined it. I ripped the track apart and Spodified it, lyricised it and layered on some radness for good measure. It’s one of my fav D-Ring traxxx and I’m honoured they chose me to work with them. It’s got this massive U-Boat/foghorn bassline in the intro of the track & these string bursts, so I shaped my song around that and drove it down Justin Timberlake avenue via Marilyn Manson’s hottub in which Tatu were pashing off. They gave me full freedom and we’re all super-happy with the result. It’s got Krylon (Scorpion) & Lottie (rad decoder kid) backing me up on the massive glory chorus n stuff, it’s the freedom that the heart yearns for!

Asides from that, I’m releasing “Taste the Radness” in September, playing some more shows and then working on the live show, new songs and doing the album launch in October, playing as nationally as we can muster. There may even be some festival action…

Where can we catch you live?

I was meant to be doing the Gold Chains national tour as a co-headline, but that’s fallen through, which is heartbreaking. So I’m not sure. I’m playing the Metro (Sydney) with Brassy in August, and maybe doing some parties for a free magazine which isn’t totally confirmed. I’m trying to lay low till the album comes out so people don’t get Spodded out and I can recharge the batteries and update the live show and learn how to rock the organobot like it’s 3078. Robot’s are soooo nineteen hundreds. Check www.spod.com.au for any show updates.

The ‘Letz Dance!’ single is out now, featuring the rare b-side from way back ‘Squidgeman’ -exclusive to this release. The single in super-limited quantity on Architecture/Spod Recordings which is only available from Spod shows or his website: www.spod.com.au for a bargain at $5!