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The Offcuts
 "You should see me right now," laughs The Offcutts' vocalist/bass player Tommy Spender, "I'm standing in the hallway at home with rubber gloves on, doing the dishes." In fact, he is apparently multitasking. "Um, I'm actually playing The Pixies' songs at the same time on my iTunes. I do a lot of solo acoustic gigs and I just love doing versions of songs that people would've never expected me to play. I've got the tracks on repeat, I've probably played them around ten times but that's the best way to get it in your head - just leave it on until you can't deal with it any longer!"
While there are no definite dates set for Spender's solo shows as yet, his band The Offcutts, on the other hand, are currently getting ready to launch their long-awaited (and two years in the making) debut album 'What Happened Don't Lie'.
"It just took ages. Some of the songs on it were really old so we had to cull stuff down but we'd also written a lot of new material," Spender reflects on the recording process. "We wanted this to be a rock'n'roll party record. I mean, we had a lot of other songs which were ballads or weird electronic stuff, but we decided - from what we've learned in the past - that it's better to go with a pretty consistent sound instead of just chucking everything in. Because we do write a lot of very varied stuff by nature. I guess we figured we should make it easier on the audience."
While the audience has really taken to The Offcutts' first single, Stand Back, it is the band's upcoming second single that Spender is really looking forward to being played on Triple J.
"It's called Morning Happiness, it's a funny song, I've got a lot of love for that song. It's the oldest song on the record, it was written a lot longer before everything else. When Triple J came along and said 'That's the one, let's play that' it was great because nobody had really picked up on it."
Spender is the first to admit that The Offcutts have a lot to thank Triple J for, "With the first single, they just went crazy! They've given us a lot of support, for sure. They played it 13 times last week which is like the highest song on rotation all week. It's real flattering because there's a release by The Bloc Party out at the same time."
Some may be surprised upon hearing that 'What Happened Don't Lie' is the band's debut album, I mean, what was 'Thriftshop Boutique' then?
"Well, that was made as a European release," Spender explains, "It wasn't really a compilation but what we did was put three of our EPs together on one disc and so people thought that was our debut album. It was meant to be for Europe only but it never ended up getting released over there and when it came out here it confused a lot of people.
"So while we don't how the European distribution deal, we have managed to hook up a US management deal," announces Spender. As part of this the band will be heading over to the States for a massive 35-show tour around the country over the American college break.
"It'll be for all their celebrations and stuff, so it'll be like kegs and everything you've seen in those party films probably," Spender jokes. "Well, that's what I'm imagining anyway, I don't know the reality of it! I just can't help thinking of guys drinking kegs and girls getting their boobs out and that kind of thing but it'll probably be completely different."
Well, let's hope not because upon completing such a successful debut, The Offcutts deserve to really let their hair down, as Spender acknowledges, "I think you've got to reward your creativity. When you've done a record you have to keep feeding it. It's like an animal that needs to be fed, it needs to witness what it has caused, in a sense, your creativity needs to see where it's got you. For example, this album will have brought us to the United States and it's important for your creativity to know that's what you've done, how far you've managed to get...It's like a friend that you have to constantly look after."
The Offcutts launch ''What Happened Don't Lie' at the Jade Monkey on Fri 30 March
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