New Wave Pioneers Spoons Just Did Something They’ve Never Done in 46 Years

Spoons, referred to by most Gen Xers as The Spoons, have announced ‘Nightlife,’ their eighth studio album, out now on CD, digital download and 180-gram red vinyl, and have released its lead single, “Take the World,” as the first taste of the band’s first fully independent release. For the first time in their four-decade career, every creative decision rests entirely in the band’s own hands.

As most GTA Boomer and Gen X music aficionados know, their story starts in 1980 in Burlington, Ontario, where an intrepid young band would soon turn its own name into a household word (in the kitchen at least, arr arr). Gord Deppe and Sandy Horne, together with original members Derrick Ross and Rob Preuss, helped define the sound of pop and New Wave in 1980s Toronto with massive hits including “Nova Heart,” “Romantic Traffic,” “Old Emotions” and “Tell No Lies,” and a street cred-defining set at the 1982 Police Picnic at Exhibition Stadium. Not bad for a group of kids from Burlington.

Memory Lane

Their debut studio album, ‘Stick Figure Neighborhood,’ was recorded in 1981 at Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton with then-unknown engineer Daniel Lanois, earning rave reviews and the number-one slot on college radio. But it was the release of “Nova Heart,” produced by John Punter of Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry fame, that turned Spoons into a household name.

Then came their crowning glory, ‘Arias & Symphonies,‘ recorded at George Martin’s famed AIR Studios in London, and solidifying the band’s place on the New Wave front leading to the group opening for the Police, Culture Club and Simple Minds. The album would later be named one of the 20 Most Influential Albums of the 80s by Canada’s The Chart Magazine, and “Nova Heart” was included in Bob Mersereau’s book The Top 100 Canadian Singles of All Time.

In 1983, Ready Records brought in Nile Rodgers, of Chic, David Bowie, Madonna and later Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky,” to produce the follow-up album ‘Talkback.’ More radio and video smash hits followed in “Romantic Traffic,” “Old Emotions” and “Tell No Lies,” with the “Romantic Traffic” video, shot in the TTC subway, standing today as one of the most iconic Canadian music videos ever made.

A soundtrack contribution to Ron Mann’s film Listen to the City followed, along with two more studio albums. By the time MuchMusic signed on for its very first broadcast in 1984, Spoons were already big enough to get top billing beside the Brits: “Coming up we have brand new videos by Duran Duran, Howard Jones and the Spoons.” That line helped kick off a video-driven era of Canadian music, often with Toronto streets as the backdrop.

Under the guidance of Rush’s manager, Ray Daniels, and with keyboardist Scott MacDonald and drummer Steve Kendry added to the lineup, Spoons recorded ‘Bridges Over Borders‘ and ‘Vertigo Tango‘ for Anthem Records. The singles “Bridges Over Borders,” “Be Alone Tonight,” “Rodeo,” “When Time Turns Around” and “Waterline” kept the band touring through the end of the decade.

Plenty of people assumed that was the end of the 80s story, and they could not have been more wrong. Spoons’ greatest hits collection, ‘Collectible Spoons,’ arrived on MCA/Universal Music in 1994 and drove one of the band’s most successful tours ever, as old fans returned and new ones discovered the music for the first time, right as the Retro 80s movement began to take hold.

In 2010, Gord and Sandy, joined by producer and keyboard player Jeff Carter, released ‘Static In Transmission,‘ the band’s first collection of new songs in over two decades and a modern spin on the classic Spoons sound. The singles “You Light Up” and “Escape With You” proved the band remained genuinely current, and the Toronto Star’s John Sakamoto included the album in his Anti-Hit List the week it came out.

The band played on at umpteen festivals and special appearances in the years that followed bringing a run of milestones befitting a legacy act. In 2012, Sparks Music and Ready Records marked the 30th anniversary of “Nova Heart” with a special EP featuring the original 1982 cut, two remixes including Jeff Carter’s electronic “Singularity Mix,” a rare 1981 demo, and a live recording mixed by John Punter himself at Barrymore’s in Ottawa in 1982. A 30th anniversary edition of ‘Arias & Symphonies’ followed, complete with extensive liner notes and live tracks, and brought the original lineup back together for the first time in 26 years for a sold-out release party in Toronto. In 2013, Spoons won Music Express Magazine’s Back In The Spotlight Award, released a remastered ‘Stick Figure Neighbourhood’ and a 30th anniversary edition of ‘Talkback,’ and Gord published a book on the band’s history, Spoon Fed, through Manor House Publishing.

Spoons kept building from there. ‘New Day New World‘ arrived in 2019, their first studio album in over eight years, again produced by Jeff Carter and supported by four video singles. A new greatest hits set, ‘Repeatable: 1980-2020,’ followed on CD and double vinyl in 2020, and 2021 brought ‘Echoes,’ a covers collection from artists around the world reimagining their favourite Spoons songs, with proceeds supporting the Unison Fund’s work helping musicians and live music technicians recover from the pandemic’s toll on the industry.

The New Album!

That brings us up to date with their new record, ‘Nightlife’ picking up that thread and pushing it somewhere new, slipping into a world where the night lives and the truth sits somewhere between the shadows, all set to infectious drum machine beats and relentless synth melodies. It time travels back to the Nova Heart era, four decades on, seen now with new eyes and a new perspective. Tracks including “Take The World,” “Better Late Than Never Did It” and “Doomed” already became concert favourites before the album even dropped.

“Take The World” leads the album as its first single, a song about dreaming, making those dreams real, and pulling them back into reach, even if only for one more night. The record was produced by Jeff Carter and features Gord Deppe on vocals and guitar, Sandy Horne on bass and vocals, keyboards from Scott MacDonald, Jeff Carter and Matthew Deppe, and drums from both of Spoons’ live drummers, Chris McNeil and Tony Ferraro.

The Retro 80s movement is closing in on a decade old at this point, and it shows no sign of slowing down. As far as Sandy, Gord, the rest of the band and plenty of fans are concerned, that is exactly how it should be, and ‘Nightlife’ stands as proof that four decades in, Spoons remain unquestionably one of Canada’s genuine New Wave legends, right up with Men Without Hats, Strange Advance, The Box, Images in Vogue etc. still writing some of the best material of their career.

Stream ‘Nightlife’ here: https://on.soundcloud.com/4PDUZy8clt591XarET