The Self Proclaimed Rockstars Final Interview

You may remember a couple of weeks ago of the announcement here on the blog that The Self Proclaimed Rockstars would be no more after their final show at Radio in Somerville this coming Saturday on April 13th. As they move forward with their new band called The Interrobang, guitarist Mick Greenwood sat down and we thought it would be a good idea to take a trip down memory lane and look back at SPR as a whole, plus why the band came to the decision to discontinue the SPR name and what his favorite memories are from being in the band. And here it is, SPR's last interview ever:

What was behind the decision of discontinuing The Self Proclaimed Rockstars name permanently, was it all a collective decision?

It has been discussed since Rjan, Steve and James joined the band in 2009. I was probably the biggest opponent of it. But I recently took over managing us again and realized (after about a year away from the helm) that I couldn't explain why a band with songs like we were getting ready to roll out had a name like SPR. I re-opened the discussion and, despite the fact that I had to make four separate phone calls, I had unanimous consent in less than 15 minutes. We don't agree on anything that easily, so that made me feel pretty good that we had made the right decision.

Just to be clear, you guys aren't breaking up but are forming a new band with all the same members called The Interrobang, can you talk a little about that?

It's hard to explain. We're ending the SPR project and we are cutting ties with all of the material we released ("This is rock." and "Postcards from Purgatory"). We may mine those riffs/lyrics for future songs for The Interrobang, but for now, it's all eyes on the future. We don't want The Interrobang to be known as SPR's new name. SPR was a band that released two albums and they're out there for the world to hear. The five us were in SPR for a portion of its run, that's about it. The Interrobang is a new band, new look, new sound. We're starting from scratch and I couldn't be more excited or energized about that.

Was the ever changing sound of your music a factor in starting a new band, or had you thought about this for awhile?

Absolutely - with SPR, the five of us were really kind of bound to OLD SPR - a bar band from the suburbs that Johnny and I started as kids that wrote songs about drinking and the suburban doldrums. When you look at our recorded material, 80% of it was written before 3/5 of the current lineup joined. Now, I can say with all the certainty in the world that those guys made every single one of those songs better, but (given a blank page) those are not the songs the five of us would have written. Not even close. Once we got that blank page, we realized we had something completely different. It was its own thing - separate and apart from anything we had done before. It was aggressive, alternative and new - and it couldn't be married to what had come before. I think that's why we're so sure about this move. SPR is over and, if we're being honest, it's been over since the moment we wrote our first song collaboratively.

As a member of SPR, what are some of your favorite moments together as a group?

There's a lot - being BC football's tailgate band during the Matt Ryan era, John Popper asking to sit in with us in NYC, hearing ourselves on the radio for the first time (in Delaware). But if you're asking me, personally - I'll remember all of what SPR was for  my 2010 bday show.  We closed with Whisky, like we always did, and during his final solo, Rjan led the band into "Happy Birthday" and the whole bar sang along. It was packed  that night, but the sound was so shitty that I literally bled out of my ears later that night. The crowd wouldn't let us leave and asked for and got FOUR encores. We literally played every song we knew at that time; each shittier/sloppier/drunker than the last.  I think that moment captures what SPR was, at least to me - it was fun, it was entertaining, it was misbehavior...it wasn't always pretty, but it always felt like simple stupid freedom. That's what I'll remember.

Lastly, what kind of hijinks and shenanigans can we expect at your show this Saturday @ Radio? 

We'll play a couple of the retired tunes, I'm sure. Not sure there'll be any hijinks, but there will be a lot of appreciation. I think we all just want to play the shit out of this show, take a bow and mingle with our friends/family/fans. Our eyes are already on the future and our heads are already in The Interrobang. This show is a thank you...and my 30th birthday party. Frankly, for me...I can't think of a more appropriate box to bury SPR in than my 20's.

Thanks again to Mick for taking time out of his hectic schedule to do this interview! And also, a special thanks to all the other guys in the band: Rjan Savary, John Malone, James Hogg, and Steve DeBenedictis for being such awesome people and great musicians, and also for giving me the opportunity to feature them prominently on the blog over the last couple of years. Like I said, the band have been featured numerous times on the blog, the very first being an Artist Spotlight feature in February 2011, and I'll continue to support the guys with their new musical venture The Interrobang moving forward. If you're looking for something to do over the long weekend, come on down to Radio in Somerville, MA tomorrow night at 8pm for SPR's final show, which also features performances from The Southern Lust Club and The Steve Walther Orchestra. Don't miss this performance as SPR closes out their illustrious career with a bang!