Early October, I was able to jump on a Zoom call with K. Nkanza more commonly known as “Spring Silver” to talk about their album “I Could Get Used To This” and their newly updated music video for the track “Little Prince.” Since then Spring Silver has been hitting the road with Bartees Strange, doing local gigs, and has even put out an Animated Music Video for their track “Little Prince.”
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So, let's just get into it, the updated version of the “Little Prince '' video. What’s the difference between the two?
"There’s sort of a new narrative. It's still just the two person cast and crew, which is just my friend Zig and I. But we added in a narrative where now they’re also watching the original video, which you see interspersed throughout on a bunch of different screens. They’re also wearing a bunch of crazy drag, which is a lot of fun. I also added animation touches where I was taking stills from the video and warping them through a scanner. Like, I printed out the stills and did stuff with that.”
And you do this all by yourself? Like the videos, animations, production, Is that all DIY?
“Yea! The video was just me and Zig. I record most of the parts then I do some additional recording and mixing with my friend. Then there are some guest folks who are playing drums or adding in vocals. On this last album my friend Daniel did some string arrangements, which was really neat. But yea, It’s a DIY thing whenever I’m free.”
That’s so sick! You’re really talented in everything pretty much. Everything you do you really excel at.
“Oh, Thanks!”
What was the inspiration for the album?
“It was kinda coming out of the Quarantine, It was a quarantine album for the most part. Like, not all of the music and lyrics were written during the quarantine but a good portion of them are and are reflective of that in some way. Like the album art is a quarantine selfie a little bit. I feel like it's also a pretty relatable scene.”
What was your favorite song to work on?
“Hm. I don’t know. I like working on Fetch because there’s a lot of different fun production tricks I was putting into that and I had to really work to create a very specific sample. A good portion of it is that you accept the sound that you have based on the amp that you have or pedal that you have, but going in and adjusting the high hats or artificial high hats in the coding to get that specific trap sound. I feel like there's a lot more tweaking and fine tuning that I allowed myself to do on that track.”
I think Fetch is probably my favorite song from the album as well.
“Thanks! I like that one alot. I never played it live before because– I mean, for pretty obvious reasons. Like I said it’s a very specific product, the production has a very specific sounds and re-creating that would be a whole fucking thing… Eventually tho!”
I hope so, I’d love to hear it live. I would love to hear you live just in general. Speaking of which, you’re going on tour with Bartees Strange. How stoked are you?
“Stoked? Quite! Yea, I’m excited! It's going to be so sick. Bartees is the homie, and it's gonna be cool to hangout with everyone again. We did like two shows with Bartees for the Live Forever Tour and that was such a fun experience and the idea of being able to extend that further into a weeklong thing is just really fun.”
Are you working on any new music?
“I’m always working on new music. There’s a lot of ideas that are very much half fleshed out but I’m trying to conceptualize what this next album could be before making it. These first two albums there are some stylistic through-lines that I wouldn’t mind pulling on. I would love to make a concept album, but for the next record I would like an idea of a very specific sound and parameters that I would use in order to fine tune the album.. If that makes sense.”
I understand what you’re saying
“Yeah, I’d like it to be more focused because I always end up all over the place when It comes to influences and stuff like that.”
Do you feel like this last album was everywhere?
“A little bit. There are some songs that are more emo and post-hardcore, and then there are some songs that are very electronic. And that stuff’s all very fun, but I’d like to take all the influences I have and just make it more cohesive.”
But that's the charm to some albums, you get a little slice of everything.
“Right, right.”
How has the reception been for this last record?
“It’s very big in D.C which is fun! It’s a lot more of the D.C sound that I anticipated. Like the D.C post hardcore stuff that was happening in the 90s. I thought it was very subtle but less so than I thought because people have told me its like the ‘Big Local Album’ of 2022 and I’m like “That’s neat!”
It must be a proximity thing because I caught on immediately, and I have to tell other people that they’re sleeping on you. I’m surprised this album hasn’t gone farther.
“It’s crazy. There are a lot of bands. There are alot of great bands. There are alot of Okay bands, but there are just like A LOT bands right now. So I always wonder what sort of things are at play when it comes to that stuff. But that can drive you crazy.. I dont know, I’m still trying.”
Oh you’re doing great, and I hope whatever else you release gets you even farther. What are your dream collaborations?
“I don’t know.. Hm. I love doing production. I’d love to produce a Speedy Ortiz album. I’m too bashful to say that directly to Sadie– or maybe I have? [laughs] But, I think working in production is something I’m very much interested in and would like to do in the future. There are a lot of artists that I really like but I don’t even really know if I wanna collaborate with them because I don’t know what I would do.”
So did you start out with being interested in production and then get into music or were you always into music but then fell in love with the production aspect?
“Early on I was really afraid of producing rock music, but when it came to producing electronic music, I really liked that. When it comes to electronic music that really is a DIY thing where it’s just you. With engineering it's like you make your own songs but you might want to go somewhere else, like a legit studio and stuff like that. Early on I didn't want to cut any corners sonically, I wanted the music I was making to be very pristine and Hi-fi. I didn’t want it to have that DIY sound, but as time went on the more I wanted to do things on my own and self record.”
Yea, that why I asked because this album feels very crisp and clean.
“Yea I’m very much a stickler for that sort of stuff. I wanted it to sound like it was recorded in a studio but a good portion of it was just at my house.
I know I asked earlier about possible collaborations, and that mostly eluded to like musicians but do you have any favorite producers?
“It depends, like my favorite producers rock wise is very different from my favorite producers in electronic music. In rock music I really like Butch Vig, Sylvia Massy, and a probably a bunch of other people I'm missing. When it comes to electronic music I really like JPEGMafia’s production, I think it’s amazing. I like Parker Corey from Injury Reserve, I like Daft Punk and Justice.”
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Be sure to Check out Spring Silver’s updated “Little Prince Video” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcJnAwhrIOI
And the Animated Version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etl95CbzQhA
