Deep Dive: Adam Spry – Rotten Mausoleum

The off-kilter rock of Adam Spry’s Rotten Mausoleum will appeal to fans of Of Montreal, Flaming Lips, and Dinosaur Jr., such is its complex yet fluid nature. Adam has graciously given us an insight into the making of the track as part of our ongoing Deep Dive series. The song will feature on his upcoming and appropriately titled Slightly Off Kilter LP.

Slightly Off Kilter by Adam Spry

The genesis of Rotten Mausoleum

My wife and I went to Italy for our honeymoon. Walking through the streets of Rome, I often found myself transported in time, daydreaming of what life might have been like 2000 years ago. It was no doubt brutal unless you were of nobility… but that isn’t a very fun subject matter for daydreaming.

I kept picturing an emperor who “went into the family business” so to speak. He just wanted to play the lute and study philosophy with his friends. Sick and tired of the class disparity around him, he decided to have the old statues torn down. He was of course killed and replaced with someone who would rule with an iron fist and was subsequently erased from history. This is where Rotten Mausoleum was born.

Instrumentation

The track features myself on vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, bass, synths, organ, and glockenspiel. Trevor Brooks plays electric guitar, synths and Scott Wright is on drums.

Recording the song

I had the verses, chorus and main riff written, but Rotten Mausoleum really came alive when I brought it into the studio to record with my friend/producer Trevor Brooks (Ezra Furman, Art Moore).

He has an impeccable ear and working with him has always been effortless. He added guitar lines on the verses and choruses that fit perfectly, and I can’t imagine the song without it now. He’ll always throw a bunch of ideas out that might seem unusual at first but eventually end up being my favorite parts of the song.

We did all the tracking in 2 days at his studio, Coyote Hearing, in Oakland, CA. My drummer Scott Wright came in and laid down his signature powerful playing.

Where does the song fit within your overall sound?

It’s more straightforward, in-your-face indie rock than my last releases. Most of my other work has more dreamy-soundscape sections going on and I wanted to strip it back a little with this song. Pretty sure I was listening to Mirror Traffic by Steve Malkmus & The Jicks around the time of recording Rotten Mausoleum and wanted that kind of vibe.

The songwriting and production on my previous EP Bonanza definitely highlighted more of my Americana background. While that will always be a big part of who I am as an artist, Rotten Mausoleum is a bit of a step away from that direction. I really wanted to rock out a bit more on this track.

Bonanza by Adam Spry

You can pre-order the digital and vinyl version of Slightly Off Kilter LP on Spry’s Bandcamp page. You can also stream Rotten Mausoleum and more music from Adam Spry on Apple Music and Spotify. For news of the album, which comes out on the 24^th of March, head over to the artist’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram socials.