All images courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons


By Andrew Daly
andrew@vinylwriter.com

With origins in Dallas, TX, drummer Aaron Comess has made NYC his musical home for over 30 years, with scene staples, Spin Doctors.

As an up-and-coming act, Spin Doctors took the world by storm with an unrelenting blend of jazz, funk, and rock. The foursome of Aaron Comess (drums), Chris Barron (vocals), Eric Schenkman (guitar), and Mark White (bass) fused genres in eclectic and inventive ways, taking their message to the masses via energetic shows, careening into a major label deal with Epic Records.

With label support, Spin Doctors crafted and unleashed one of the ’90s finest efforts, 1991’s Pocket Full of Kryptonite. But it wasn’t until 1992 that the band was catapulted to worldwide acclaim in the wake of two hit singles, “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” and “Two Princes.”

The remainder of the ’90s would be a rollercoaster for Comess and Spin Doctors, culminating in a brief hiatus before a 2001 reformation found the group more vital than ever. And while original bassist Mark White has recently departed Spin Doctors, the group has found an able and accomplished replacement.

“Jack Daley is playing bass with us now,” Comess revealed. “We actually recorded our new record at his studio, Dug Deep Productions, in Asbury Park, NJ. We had a great time writing and recording it and have been playing many of the new songs in our live show now. Jack is a great fit. I’ve known him for a long time and had played a lot of gigs and recording sessions with him before, so it was an easy fit. He’s a fantastic musician and a great guy to hang with.”

Seemingly prepared to take on the world with a renewed head of steam, Comess strayed for a moment, taking some time with me to recount the history of Spin Doctors, where things stand today, and where things are headed for 2023.

Andrew:
What were some of your earliest gigs?

Aaron:
My first band was called Alien, and we played 80% Ramones songs. I was 11 or so, and my older brother taught us most of them. I grew up in Dallas and played various gigs, from original rock bands to blues and jazz bands. There was a great scene in Dallas, and I went to a performing arts high school loaded with talent. We had many late-night jam sessions that paved the way for all of us from that scene. I was lucky to have a regular weekend gig in a wedding band with a bunch of older guys that played in Woody Herman’s band. It was a great way to make some extra cash in high school, but then I realized from that gig I needed to move to NYC or L.A. to really make a go at it.

Andrew:
With you hailing from Dallas, how big of an adjustment was NYC for you?

Aaron:
Dallas was a great place to grow up as a musician. I had amazing music teachers and went to the Arts Magnet High School, where I got to play music half the day. And I had a great group of friends who also made lots of creative music outside school. I did a year at Berklee after High School, then moved back to Dallas for a year and just played gigs, practiced, and took private lessons. I decided to move up to NYC that year, and my friend Roy Hargrove told me about the New School jazz program up in NYC. I went up and auditioned and checked it out and loved it. So, obviously, moving to NYC was a big change, but really, it was just more of the same, which is lots of music and being around lots of incredible musicians.

Andrew:
Walk me through the formation of Spin Doctors.

Aaron:
Eric [Schenkman] and Chris [Barron] had met through John Popper and had a band called Trucking Company, but they didn’t get along, so they broke up, plus John was focusing on forming Blues Traveler. Then Eric and Chris ran into each other a year later at the New School in NYC, where we were all going. Eric asked him to form a band, and he said, “OK, sure.” And then, a few weeks later, Eric heard me practicing through a closed door and asked me to join. We went through a bunch of bass players the first 6 months, and eventually, when Mark White joined, we found our sound. Mark and I were in another band called Spade, which was a hard-core funk band.

Andrew:
What sort of scene was the band subject to coming up and gigging around NYC?

Aaron:
It was a great time for the NYC music scene; Blues Traveler was happening, Joan Osborne was playing around town, and The Authority also came out of the New School, were around too. Bands like The Worms, the Mighty Sweet Tones, and The Dogs, just all kinds of great bands, were all over, man. And some musicians a bit older than us, like Jono Manson, took us under their wing, which meant a lot to us at the time. It was really an amazing time in NYC.

All images courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
Spin Doctors provided a fresh and different sound compared to the music of the time. What was the label interest like?

Aaron:
We really built a buzz from playing live shows. We would play 5 nights a week in NYC. It became an undeniable scene, and we started to get a lot of interest from managers and labels. Ultimately we signed a management deal with David Sonnenberg on the basis that he would deliver a major label record deal within 3 months. He came through, and we landed one with Epic Records.

Andrew:
What was the courtship leading up to signing with Epic Records like?

Aaron:
We had multiple offers, and it just seemed Epic was the best choice at the time. We did a session at the power station where 3 songs made the cut; “Two Princes” and “Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist.” The rest of Pocket Full of Kryptonite was recorded 6 months later at RPM Studio on 12th Street in NYC. But after that, Epic really did not do much for us at first, and we had to hit the road hard and make a buzz around the county on our own. About a year into the release of Pocket Full of Kryptonite, Epic finally got on board and put out a single for radio, “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong.” It went up the rock radio charts leading to MTV playing the video and top-40 radio following, and then “Two Princes” put it over the top.

Andrew:
“Two Princes” and “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” remain iconic. Break down their inception.

Aaron:
Chris had written “Two Princes” when he was 19 years old before the band existed. We did not put it together as a band song until a year or so in, and then it went through some changes, and it ultimately developed to the point where we recorded it. I think we can all agree that we’re very happy with that recording and how the song has reached so many people. 

As for “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong,” I remember one morning Chris called me up and said, “I just wrote this new song. Can I come over and play it for you?” Me and Eric were living on Elizabeth Street in NYC at the time, and Chris came over and played it for us. I remember that it was the first time I thought one of our songs could be a hit song. So, Chris, Eric, and I jammed around with me on the Wurlitzer piano we had at the apartment, and we added that bridge section. Afterward, we showed it to Mark on stage during a gig at the Nightengale Bar and played it for the first time live. Eric did not come up with that Chuck Berry hook until we recorded it in the studio. That was the song that finally broke the Kryptonite record open on the radio and then on MTV.

Andrew:
Did the interband dynamics shift
in the wake of Pocket Full of Kryptonite?

Aaron:
We had already been touring for over a year when the album started to break, so things were just getting going as far as touring. Band members were tired, and things did get stressful at times between us, but all in all, I remember it as an incredible time.

All images courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew:
Turn it Upside Down, and You’ve Got to Believe in Something were stout follow-ups but didn’t hit as hard. Do you feel a shifting music scene affected those records negatively?

Aaron:
Well, it’s sort of typical, really. We had such a massive record with Pocket Full of Kryptonite, so none of us expected to be able to continue that sort of success sales-wise. You just try and make the best records you can. Ultimately the tensions were running high during the Turn it Upside Down tour and Eric left the band. But the label went all in on the second record but picked the wrong single with “Cleopatra’s Cat.” So, it was considered a failure when the second record sold only 2 million copies compared to 10 million with the first one.

Andrew:
What led to the band’s hiatus after Here Comes the Bride?

Aaron:
Making Here Comes the Bride was a really fun and creative period, but we did not intend it to be a Spin Doctors record. It was a down time with the band, we were not sure what was next, and we didn’t even have a guitar player at the time. I had a studio in my place in NYC, so Chris and I decided, “Let’s just write a bunch of songs and not worry about what we are going to do with them.” So, we ended up with a ton of really cool songs and got a strong response from our manager, David Sonnenberg, who then encouraged us to try putting them out. We got a deal on Universal Records, but Mark was unhappy with the music and left the band for a while. So, Chris and I put a new group of guys together to tour, but Chris lost his voice with vocal paralysis, so we had to shut it down. At that point, Chris and I decided just to give the band a break.

Andrew:
After the reformation, Nice Talking to Me and If the River Was Whiskey were great, but it’s been 9 years since the band’s last studio effort. Is there anything in the works?

Aaron:
I love those 2 records, and we play a lot of those songs in our set to this day. I think they really hold up well. So, we just made a new record, and we are really happy with it. We are just looking for the right label to put it out, but we plan on putting it out in 2023.

Andrew:
Where do things stand with your solo work? How does that allow your creativity to flow?

Aaron:
I’ve put out 4 solo records of my instrumental songs, and we play around NYC usually every month or so. It’s a place for me to put everything I love about music into one place. I can stretch out in our live shows in a way that feels organic, truthful, and musical. I like it because it’s not self-indulgent.

Andrew:
What’s next, Aaron?

Aaron:
Next is lots of Spin Doctors shows, and like I said, the new Spin Doctors record is coming out in 2023. I also have more recording sessions and gigs with all the different and fantastic artists I work with. I’ll keep up with my solo band gigs, and probably another solo record will be recorded sometime in 2023. Stay tuned, and thanks for the support.

All images courtesy of Getty Images/Wiki Commons

Andrew Daly (@vwmusicrocks) is the Editor-in-Chief for www.vwmusicrocks.com and may be reached at andrew@vinylwriter.com

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