Spring King On Signing To A Major Label "In A Very Indie Way"

When Spring King's original drummer had to leave the band ("he had other commitments to other bands"), Tarek Musa was on guitar and vocals (although he did "play the drums on the recordings anyway"). "We needed a drummer within about eight days or something like that," Musa tells, before admitting, "At first, it was really difficult... I was really worried that I'd never be able to do this in my life; I thought it was impossible". After "a bit of practice", however, Musa got it down and now fancies learning "jazz drumming".

Musa took a year off after finishing high school, worked in a supermarket and saved "as much money as [he] could" to purchase some recording equipment. "By the end of the year I was like, 'I'm just gonna record loads of bands'." Then one of his previous teachers "really pushed" Musa. "He was like, 'You really should apply to university'... he convinced me right." He went on to study sound engineering at "Paul McCartney's university in Liverpool" [Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts] and Musa commends, "A lot of the people that leave that degree go into the industry and they all work; you know, Mike Crossey went to LIPA and he did, like, The Arctic Monkeys and Blood Red Shoes and The 1975... But when I graduated, I just I kind of put that to one side a little bit more and started focusing on writing songs".

After observing that a lot of bands these days write songs about "drinking beers all day and sunshine and stuff like that", Musa felt compelled to address "social pressures... in an accessible way". "I feel like there should be more people - through music and through anything - saying to teenagers, 'It's okay'," he opines. He believes that we can all benefit from the realisation that "everyone's got their shit to deal with... everyone's just as crazy as everyone else, you know; no one's normal kinda thing."

"I feel like there should be more people - through music and through anything - saying to teenagers, 'It's okay'."

Reflecting back on what he describes as "an interesting upbringing", Musa shares, "My family moved around a lot". "It was a strange time, basically. So I had a lot of time to myself just to think and to create music." Back in the day, Spring King guitarists Pete Darlington and Andy Morton hung out with Musa "in the skate park over the summers". "We just used to skate all day and by night we'd just not go home or everyone would come back to my house, because I had a free house,' Musa recalls. "It was great."

Years later, James Green was recruited through a mutual "Manchester promoter" friend's Facebook status that spread the word Spring King was looking for a bass player. Musa remembers that although "loads of people replied", he chose Green "for some reason".  "He was smiling in his profile picture," Musa jokes before exalting, "He smashes it! James is a musical genius".

Courtney Barnett took Spring King out on their "first serious tour" supporting a "big headliner". "We learnt a lot," Musa extols. He "had a chest infection at the Sheffield show" and Musa recalls "having to cut the set short". "Courtney came down and was like, 'Are you alright? 'Cause you've got three more songs left, don't you?' And she was really concerned and, you know, kinda cared about us."

Musa is in awe of Barnett's songwriting (he gives her "ten out of ten") and praises, "I'm definitely nowhere near as good as Courtney Barnett when it comes to writing lyrics. I don't think I can express myself with her ability... I'm always trying to get better at writing lyrics, but I do find it quite hard, actually."

He's obviously doing something right, however, because Spring King's City was chosen by Zane Lowe as the first song to ever be played on Apple Music's Beats 1 radio in June last year. Record labels came knocking, but Musa reveals, "Everyone wanted to hear new music and we just said to every single label, like, 'No, you've heard enough... there's enough out there for you to sign us if you want us'. But a lot of labels are like, 'Oh, we need to hear more stuff, we don't know where the album's gonna go, we dunno what you're gonna do next'. Except for Island [Records]; Island just let us do what we wanted."

Even though they signed with a major label, Musa points out, "We've done it in a very indie way". Island offered Spring King an advance and Musa informs, "Actually we downgraded our offer because we didn't want as much as they were offering in the first place." Spring King ended up going for a "very small" advance "because [they] already kinda had [the album] done". Tell Me If You Like To, the band's debut album, "was produced for free". "We did it ourselves," Musa elaborates, adding that mastering only cost "a couple hundred pounds". They did negotiate "a really good tour budget", Musa stresses: "We just wanna tour - that's all we want to do."

He's "a bit nervous for the flight, because it's 27 hours or something crazy", but Musa is also "really excited to visit Australia". "I'm gonna message the Courtney Barnett crew and see what's going on," he concludes.