Pop Culturalist Chats with Spencer Day

Growing up in Utah, Spencer Day never thought he’d be a musician, but luckily for us, he became one. He has a classic voice that is easy on the ears. The music and lyrics he writes are infectious and entertaining. He’s incredibly personable and really cares about the world around him. All of those things together are a winning combination.

We were able to chat about his newest album, Angel City, and what he likes about performing (you can see him perform in New York City at The Green Room 42!).

PC: When did you know that you wanted to be a professional musician?
Spencer: It wasn’t until I was a full-time musician that I realized, “This is going to be your life, for better or worse.” As a kid, I grew up Mormon and we all kind of played some church hymns and things like that, but I didn’t really have any formal training. I think I never grew up feeling deserving of saying that you wanted to move to New York City, or you wanted to be a performer. That really wasn’t an option for people from my corner of the world. If it was a dream—which obviously it was somewhere inside—it wasn’t one I allowed myself to recognize or admit pursuing. It was a happy accident. I started going to dive bars and piano bars, singing and playing; people never asked me to stop. I kind of made the switch when I spilled a whole plate of Pasta Pomodoro on a woman in a white Chanel suit as a waiter. That was my last day of waiting tables! [laughs]

PC: What inspired you to create your current album, Angel City?
Spencer: Well, I wrote it about my time living in Los Angeles. I wanted it to be little slices of life written from different characters in Los Angeles, but the record [actually turned out to be] about me leaving Los Angeles in order to write music about it…so I could return to it and reconnect with my love of it.

I was living in New York, and my record label at the time wanted me back in Los Angeles. I moved out, and they discontinued my contract. I had lived in L.A. when I was 19, and I’d always really liked it, but I never lived in the belly of the beast. This time I did, and I was miserable. I found myself going to all these Hollywood parties, talking to people I didn’t want to talk to, and being around people I didn’t want to be around in pursuit of some dream that was really somebody else’s dream that I was pursuing in a very subtle, unconscious way. I think all of us can turn around in life and suddenly realize that we’re not really pursuing our life goal.

So, I really wrote [the record] about how I was going to quit music entirely a couple years ago because I was going to these parties, I was miserable and bitter, and I wasn’t getting any more work out of it. If you’re going to sell your soul, you better make sure you get paid! [laughs]

As a kid, I used to draw pictures of the Hollywood sign. New York and Los Angeles represented this world of—it wasn’t about wealth or fame—glamour. It was dazzling. In a way, the record is about me reconnecting with that fantasy. I think New York and Los Angeles are similar in that they’re places that represent something more than being a physical place. Each person who comes in search of them brings their own projections that they place on them of what they can do. I’m definitely fascinated by any place that represents something that people go to and believe. No city can live up the expectations of people. They’re a state of mind and way of living. Now, I’m working on one about New York City.

PC: In your writing process, do you come up with lyrics first or the music?
Spencer: Usually the melodies come to me first, but it depends. Usually, I’ll have a massive spreadsheet with random bits of lyrics that come to me in the middle of the night that I write down. The melody comes to me first, and then I go through my massive spreadsheet to see what works.

PC: Do you have a favorite song from Angel City that you’ve written and performed?
Spencer: “Ghost of the Chateau Marmont” which is kind of based on what I was talking about as far as fame. My mom asked me if it was about Marilyn Monroe—it’s about someone haunting the Chateau Marmont. The whole point of it was this could be anyone because the story is so common of someone who gets chewed up and swallowed up by this town.

I have a few friends who are recording it which for me is a huge compliment—when it goes beyond my voice.I’ve been really thrilled about it when other people cover it is I get to hear the music through another voice which is really freeing for me. I have a very specific voice that everyone’s grandmother wants to hear sing their favorite song, for better or worse! [laughs]

PC: Is there a song on the album that was the most challenging for you to write?
Spencer: “72 and sunny.” I’m bipolar so I wrote that about being really clinically depressed in sunshine. 72 and sunny so often can be the ambient temperature in California and is considered perfect by most people. If it’s a really crappy day, you know, it’s easier to justify feeling blue.

I would go to some red carpet thing and the flashes were going off, but I was so awkward. It was supposed to be a glamorous thing, but it’s really some parking lot. I remember so many times in my experience during that period thinking, “I should be so happy right now. This is what everybody wants.” But, I couldn’t enjoy any of it. The thing with clinical depression is that you can see you have a life worthy of gratitude and appreciation, but you can’t touch it. That’s the most personal one on there.

PC: Since this is your seventh album, what is something you’ve learned from all of your experiences so far?
Spencer: I think a lot of lessons you have to keep learning. There are some profound truths about life we get, but, then, some we have to keep reminding ourselves of every morning. I would say the main lesson that I keep remembering is, “Keep moving forward.” I think Martha Graham said [something like]: Your job is to create and put it out there. It’s not your job to judge how good it is. You just need to keep creating because you have to and [because] the world needs it. If you don’t then it will be lost.

There’s many things out there that are brilliant that were not successful when they came out—The Great Gatsby, pieces by Mozart…there’s so many! Trying to figure out how many likes it will get and how much success it will have is not just toxic to your creativity, but to you as a person. The nature of fame and success is how fickle it is, which makes it all the more important to do something because you must. Put something out there and completely move on from it because you can always feel like you could have done better.

PC: Even if you want to “put it out there and move on,” you still have to revisit your work because you have live shows. So, how do you like performing? What’s the best part?
Spencer: I think the best part for me—and this might sound cheesy—is being able to bring people together and create unity in a world that is so driven by division.Performing is my dharma-way of trying to heal that divide. I’m gay, and when I was younger I was always wishing I could have had a more Thom Yorke-voice or Rufus Wainwright-fanbase because that aligns more with my view of the world. But, the songs that I  have on the radio, for whatever reason, have a very large conservative, Christian, Republican fanbase in the middle of the country. For a long time, I did struggle with that. When I did come out I got a decent amount of hate mail that I wasn’t really expecting, and it really did affect my career. At this point, though, I really do believe it’s my calling. If you can be funny and self-effacing, in this environment where I think a lot of people would say they are very opposed to me and what I represent, you’re able to touch people with humor and music and show them you’re a sincere, authentic person. That’s when those divides start to break down.

Honestly, that is the best part for me: by living my life in a transparent, authentic, sincere way I can be, in some small way, a part of a change for good. So much of our world has muted us from feeling anything, good or bad. Everything online is everyone existing in a bubble where you can dark out what you don’t believe to be true. When you have a common denominator like music that everyone is enjoying in the room, it’s about celebrating your shared humanity instead of your differences. Music and musicians have been bringing people together, regardless of their walk of life, to celebrate something bigger than them. I feel honored to be a part of any calling that the world that so desperately needs it.

PC: Who would you say is your biggest musical influence?
Spencer: It kind of changes from time to time. If you went through my music library on shuffle it would be Debussy and then Arcade Fire. I don’t ever think in terms of genre. I hear clever songwriting and interesting melodies. Vocally the people that influenced me would really be Chet Baker, Chris Isaak, Ella Fitzgerald, or KD Lang.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

Last Show That You’ve Binge-Watched
The Handmaid’s Tale

Favorite Movie
Some Like It Hot and The Grand Budapest Hotel

Favorite Book
The Great Gatsby

Band/Artist/Musician You Could Listen to on Repeat
Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys

Favorite Place You Have Been
Mexico

Place You Most Would Like to Go to
The South Pacific

Person You Most Would Like to Meet Someday
Dolly Parton

Keep up with Spencer Day by following him on Twitter and Instagram.
Catch him at his monthly residency in New York City at The Green Room 42.