The Gateway Interview October 2008

Globe-trotting Spoon revels in Canadiana

Paul Blinov, Arts & Entertainment Staff

2008 marks both a return and a departure for country-upstart Rae Spoon.
The return is a geographic one. It’s been about a year since Spoon’s haunting country wail echoed over the Canadian prairies. Though the transgendered (FtM) singer-songwriter grew up here, and is currently based out of Calgary, he spent last winter in Weimar, Germany, performing for European audiences while his partner was attending school.

But that distance from home didn’t stop Spoon from developing an album that toys with aspects of his home and native land.

“I wrote it all over Canada, and parts of it in Europe,” he explains. “It’s also about things that are uniquely Canadian, and then exaggerated, like life on the highway or wildlife. That sort of thing.”

Back in Canada, Spoon’s prepping for a homeland tour to promote his fourth album superioryouareinferior, the first in two years. The soon-to-be self-released album marks the aforementioned departure, a step into different musical territory for Spoon.

Though his more familiar, stripped-down instrumentation is still present, superioryouareinferior has a fresh coating of experimentation, incorporating more electronic-clicks and electric guitars than any of Spoon’s previous three albums. The new musical exploration started while Spoon was across the Atlantic.

“I’d just been playing it for five years, and I didn’t feel like playing it anymore,” he explains. “I guess you have to change. When I was in Germany, I was hanging out with people who played really different music, more like electronic or experimental stuff. I ended up learning to use different programs on my computer. I guess I just wanted to try different things and different sounds.

“Using a computer to write songs does change [songwriting], because you can hear things back. If you’re sitting around with a guitar, you can’t sit there and listen to your song without playing it, unless you record it,” he continues with a laugh. “I’m not sure how I ended up changing the songs, but definitely the way they’re written.”

The overseas reception to his new musical stylings wasn’t bad, either.

“For half of [my time in Germany], I was playing country music, and then I switched to the newer style. Both went fairly well.”

Of course, Spoon’s position as a transgendered singer known best for musical country leanings is an unusual one to be in. On his website, Spoon alludes to the “apparent dangers and contradictions of this role,” which, apparently caught up to him, conjuring up disturbing mental images of attempted acts of violence and narrow escapes.

But then again, maybe it’s just the writing of someone who’s comfortable enough in his own skin to tease us about it.

“That’s kind of a joke,” Spoon admits. “But also, I don’t think the industry of country music, even alternative country, is very receptive to anybody who’s from any different minority group. I think that would be a given—that that there [isn’t] really a place in Nashville for trans-people, especially in the mainstream country.”