Spindrift is a psychedelic rock band with a well deserved cult following from American coast to coast.
Lesser known this side of the pond and with little or no press coverage anywhere Sprindrift is somehow an enigma,  shrouded in mystery. 
However the band has been active since the early 90s which is no mean feat in this day and age.

Relocating from Delaware to Los Angeles to escape the ever darkening cultural void of his home town, Newark, group founder and leader, Kirpatrick Thomas, better know as KP, formed another version of his band and decided to change Spindrift’s soundscape to their current elaborate Ennio Morricone inspired musical compositions.

Current line-up includes Dave Koenig, Julie Patterson, Jason Anchondo, Henry Evans, Dan Allaire, Frankie Emerson, Marcos Diablero...

Embracing his forthcoming artistic path from an early age, KP’s strength is undoubtedly his ability to dare dream and then work hard at turning his fantasies into realities, whatever it takes.
Gentle, articulate and possessing just the right amount of timidity I am instantly enthralled by much more than the music....
A man after my own heart!

I have just flown in from London to see Spindrift play the Union Pool in Brooklyn, as you do, and neither the cold nor the rain will spoil my short time with the musical genius that is Mr Thomas...

Florence:  Tell me more about the unusual situation surrounding your band ? 
Spindrift East and Spindrift West as it has become known.

KP: Yes, there are two factions of the band.
Tomorrow, November 10th, they are going to meet in Delaware!
It’s quite an historic day in the history of Spindrift, if you want to put it that way. A lot of people ridicule me for talking worldly about it, talking big about it like maybe I have a huge ego but I don’t. I think that having a band for fifteen years is a big deal. With the same name and fairly constant members. We’ve had maybe fifteen members over fifteen years and that’s pretty amazing. We’re all friends, we never fight and we’re all awesome musicians!
I think that we’re all cool and smart people but we really work hard for what we believe in. We want to be unique, artistic, different, get away from the ‘machine’ and how things normally work.
The band has been a very good vehicle to bring us to where we’re at now but it’s always been the same, ever since the beginning. We have lots of people behind us who are very very influential regarding where it’s all gone. It’s not just me.
Tomorrow is our 15th year anniversary. For what it’s worth and I know that a lot of people don’t give a fuck right now, but we’re gonna tape it and record it so we can have a DVD of it. Maybe it will be good and maybe it will be bad but I think that the older stuff has passed the test of time, however this is life and you just don’t know how it’s gonna turn out.  

Florence: The most important fact is that you care and it means a lot to you.

KP: Basically it’s very interesting to see where it’s come from and where it grew to and how it’s become this amazing thing that’s really awesome in my life right now because I have exorcised a lot of demons as far as starting from being a very shy, introverted kind of artist. 

Florence: How did it all start ?

KP: I started singing out of necessity. Living in a world like Delaware, which is where we’re from, [it’s the second smallest state in the United States], there is absolutely nothing going on there but I wanted to start a band and I couldn’t find people to play with, so I had to force myself to sing. I thought that I would be the last person to express myself in that way...first I learnt to play guitar and then I had to sing.
It’s really strange to see myself doing that in 2007/ 08, being on stage still and I feel like: “ Why am I still doing this? “

Florence: Because it’s like a drug!

KP: I love it. Ever since I was born I’ve always been artistic, I’ve always had a talent and my parents knew that, my friends knew that and the teachers in school knew that.

Florence: Did they help you to develop your talent ?
Did you get much support from your family ?

KP: To some extend. Being an artist as you’re growing up and still in school is a) praised or b) shunned like you’re a nerd, weird or you just don’t belong.
Delaware is jocks’ central, it really sucks. It’s not like I grew up in Los Angeles where that kind of thing is cultivated by hippies and that generation. I grew up in a serious punk- rock mentality but I was different and I was gonna stand out and fight everybody. To this day that’s a powerful thing behind me where I really feel that I have to make a statement...especially these days with this normalcy that’s happening, you have to stand out and you have to really believe in what you are doing. 

Florence: What triggered your move to the west coast ?

KP: Delaware is a very depressing place, however I can’t deny that I love it when we play there, it’s hard but it’s home. That place made us what we are however it’s more depressing than ever. It’s becoming worst and worst and feels like a Nazi environment. They’ve got cameras at every intersection. They’ve ripped down the most famous of all music venues, ‘The Stone Balloon’, it’s like if you don’t play football you’re not cool!!
Fuck that man, those people have got to get it together.
I say that out right on tape because I’d want them to realise what’s going on. When I was there there was a serious problem with the arts and music and they need to recognise that. People in general need to recognise how important that is and a lot of places in the United States are screwed up.

Florence: As you moved to LA intending to start a new life for yourself, open a new chapter, was it as easy as you thought it might be ?

KP: It was awesome! 
And it was the West, the frontier of the West where there were no boundaries to do what you could do. It has a thematic feel about it, you look out and see endless planes and it’s inspiring.
It was a giant influence and like erasing years of compromises, going from being constricted to being totally free. Recently that freeness is finally settling down. It’s like if something blows up, after the explosion it settles and then it becomes what it is and that’s what this is now. I feel that the band is finally settling.

Florence: This feeling is probably related to the fact that you finally have more permanent band members. You did spend a lot of time sharing members with The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Warlocks. 

KP: I don’t think that we’ve ever ridden on The BJM’s coat tail because there is too much of a difference happening but Anton and myself get along really well. I think that he’s a great guy and a genius and I have ultimate respect for him. I totally understand where he’s coming from, I know that he’s under a lot of pressure right now but at the same time I know that I am gearing up for the same kind of shit. He’s doing exactly what he should do, he’s a rock’n’roll rebel and that’s what rock’n’roll is all about. I believe in that, I believe in anarchy and shaking up the system a little bit. Here and there some people can do that, like The Sex Pistols did, even way back to Gene Vincent, the original rock’n’roll rebel!

Florence: I absolutely love your latest LP, ‘The Legend Of God’s Gun’ . Part of it was released as far back as 2004 and it was always meant as a soundtrack. It seems to have come together in the last couple of years with the release of the album and the making of a movie, “The Legend Of God’s Gun”...was there a point at any time when you thought that it might never happen ?

KP: When we initially started doing this sort of Western’s soundtrack music I had no idea that it would ever really turn into a film. I thought that maybe ten years from now something weird would happen but I’d be dead or not playing music anymore but......yeah it happened pretty quick but I thought that it would never happen at all. I went through five directors searching for this or that..... and eventually found one guy, Mike Bruce, who was really into it and so dedicated that he kept on wanting to do more and more and more....and I loved this, we really loved this.
Somehow we’re this bunch of guys some people are really into and want us to keep going and it keeps building and building and it’s not like we’re gonna quit. If we were gonna quit we would have done so after year one but I love what I’m doing and I don’t care how much I am getting paid or getting paid nothing. I don’t care, this is life and I could die tomorrow so fuck it!

Florence: Did you decide to write ‘western music’ because you were a western movies’ fan as a little boy or was there no other musical genre that you could identify with at the time ?

KP: Something happened around the time I decided to leave Delaware after a visit to LA.
I went to Japan for a couple of months, just hanging out, and I got to learn about the culture there and I got into Samurai movies that were influenced by Sergio Leone and movies like ‘A Fistful Of Dollars’ and then I went back home. At that same time I watched ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ and that had a profound effect on me.

Florence: Did you feel struck down ?

KP: Yeah!
The music is so spacious and the movie so grand and that is the defining moment of me driving out West, listening to all of Ennio Moriconne’s soundtracks....driving through the bad lands and Monument Valley...I wore out that cassette!
I just wanted to get to LA and start writing music and forget everything.
I never wrote so much music in a period of three months and a lot of that we still use now.

Florence: Was it just pouring out of you ?

KP: Absolutely. I did a lot of research and went to libraries, picked up books and incessantly just read and made a little studio in a room the size of this van, I sat there and played for two months straight.
The start of things was recording on a four track cassette. However at the same time I was going on tour with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, as their merchandise guy, and met those great guys who were interested in what was going on with me.

Florence: You did more than write the score for the movie, teaming up with Mike Bruce you also worked on the screenplay.

KP: As I was reading all these books I was working out western’s plots!
I came up with the initial idea of ‘ The Legend Of God’s Gun’.
I came up with a sort of diagram of what was gonna happen in the movie but the problem was I didn’t have the characters sketched out in depth and Mike came along and as we had to film it and give people their parts, he really helped out with that as he’s a very good story teller.
Me and him started throwing ideas in and out and we came up with the craziest ideas we could think of and then we built characters around that.
Ultimately we filmed all this stuff and we built the story out of this diagram I had and I think that it wins through its editing. Mike did very good at making the movie make sense, visually.

Florence: It’s both stunning and quirky.

KP: You can think of or read a story but when you watch a story it’s a lot different than what you would ever perceive it being because it’s a whole different art form. Watching a movie is different from reading a book. You need to have an edge as a movie editor.
When we started we did some test screenings and they were just terrible. We are trying to act yet we’re not actors and we’re trying to shoot this ‘Blair Witch’ kind of project with cowboys and nobody is saying anything but Mike sat down for a whole year, went through each scene, rearranged them, threw in crazy colours and made it as far out as possible.
Now it’s done and we’re receiving really good reviews. We can’t believe that it’s really blowing people away and it’s done a lot to really help the band overall, with confidence and this tour...
We were very sceptical while we were making the movie and Mike and I spent a shit load of money, which hopefully I will see back one day, and everyone else spent hell of a lot of time making it.
We just knew that we loved doing it!

Florence: By writing the soundtrack to a movie that did not yet exist you effectively put the cart before the horse, however I would have thought that as you went through the music the movie would have just written itself, kind of effortlessly.

KP: The very same process was used with ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ where Morricone wrote the music first and Leone took the themes of the music and added them to the movie. I think that Morricone and Leone were perfect together at that time, musician - composer - director and I think that music and film shouldn’t be separated as an art form. Sometimes it’s pure genius....look at ‘A Clockwork Orange’, the movie plus the music are just amazing, you just can’t deny it. 

Florence: That probably explains the birth of music videos and how they became more and more elaborate and fancy and justify the kind of money some labels would spend on a four minutes movie.

KP: Like Pink Floyd’s The Wall!

Florence: Reflecting on the last few years, writing the music, looking for a director, shooting a movie etc etc....with hindsight would you do it again ? And in the same way ?

KP: I would do it again depending on the success of this film.
To do a sequel or a totally different story ....I would do it in exactly the same way, music first, low budget, crazy looking film as I just love the way this one looks.
At the same time I am hoping that my life shapes up and I don’t have to worry about where I am gonna sleep next!
I am content with just playing music and touring, working and making sure that I make my rent but I would also like to be alive and able to enjoy it. A movie is a very expensive endeavour and I can’t believe that we were able to make this one. I am a musician and I live in LA but I am not ‘known’, however if this works out and I get to that point then fuck yeah!

Florence: Maybe to start with struggling is a good form of motivation but it does wear out eventually....

KP: Yes I have been struggling for a long time and I am tired now.
Our band has really been struggling, together for fifteen years....it’s a lot of suffering!
This is the reason for my angst towards the United States as far as the arts are concerned. This is a capitalist society and you make of it what you can. If I lived in Australia I would get grants to come to America and tour but you don’t get that here. You’re either lucky and good or at the right place at the right time otherwise being an artist doesn’t mean shit, it means you’re gonna starve. In America they do not embrace you unless you happen to be the right person at the right time.

Florence: Tell us a little about your next album which I believe is almost finished.

KP: We’ve finished our next record and it’s called ‘The West’ and it has a couple of songs that were used in ‘The Legend Of God’s Gun’.

Florence: Is it a follow up to your current LP ?

KP: It is but it’s also a step beyond!
I feel very confident about it and the most satisfied I have ever been about any record we’ve done. I think that it’s pretty amazing.
As usual we used a very organic approach to it but it’s sounding better quality wise. It’s got some good sounds and unique things happening maybe because the band is growing very well as far as music is concerned and I am looking forward to what we can do next.

Florence: Clearly Spindrift has reached a comfortable level of stability that is affecting your song writing for the best.

KP: Absolutely, big time and it feels amazing.

We have enough of core members to always make it happen.

Florence: When do you think ‘The West’ is coming out ?

KP: We would like to have a record label to help us release it and distribute it but then again we might self- release and sell it ‘as is’ because I believe that these days you can do anything you want on your own. 

Florence: I know why people should go and see your movie but why do you think they should go ?

KP: People should go and see for themselves. It’s really hard for me to judge but I do the things I do because I love it.
The most important is for me to like a song I’ve just finished for instance and I can’t really care about what other people think.
The truth is in what you believe in.

Florence: One last question for you Kirpatrick.
What would be your message to the world ?

KP: Fuck as much as you can!

Words: Florence ACHERYPhotos: Emma Salerno

www.myspace.com/thewest
www.spindrift.com