Poet, singer-songwriter and cabaret-influenced performer Oli Spleen talks about his band SPLEEN in advance of their gig at The Pig on Friday 25 July.

Jude Montague set him a series of questions to help find out more about this rare band which reveal some secret facts and thoughts.

What is Spleen?

Spleen is a band which I formed with guitarist Adrian Claude in 2017.

How did it begin? Is there an origin mythology of the band?

I met Adrian through my then landlord John Winlove Smith who was a very bohemian Brighton character known in the pubs as “Windbag”. John was bipolar and an artist who has witnessed the suicide of his partner when on holiday in Spain. This traumatised him so much that he spent that summer burning out his retinas by staring into the sun. As a result he permanently damaged his eyesight and it made it harder for him to paint. Though this event had occurred many years before we met, to me it seemed such a tragically passionate gesture, it inspired some of the lyrics to my song “Ghost” off my album “Gaslight Illuminations”.

For years Adrian asked if I needed a guitarist but I was busy then, first with The Flesh Happening and later with Pink Narcissus. Eventually Pink Narcissus had an unproductive patch when I found myself free and I caved in and accepted the offer of a collaboration.

Who is in the band – tell me their spirit animals?

Adrian is lead guitar and his spirit animal is a boxer dog.

Mike is bass and he’s a peregrine falcon.

Steve is synths and theremin and he’s a shark.

Simon is drums and he’s a Himalayan bee.

I’m lead vocals, I was gonna say my spirit animal is a tapeworm but on second thoughts I’ll go with a tapir. Maybe a tapir who is harbouring a tapeworm.

How is SPLEEN different to your other band the Smithmanthers?

My 2013 debut album “Fag Machine” was a largely electro influenced album made with a producer in Paris. Until Spleen formed I had never performed those songs with a live band. Spleen’s starting point as a band was to learn some of the Fag Machine numbers and therefore synths were a crucial component of the sound we developed. Conversely the Smithmanthers was formed to reflect the style and energy of my latest albums, from “Gaslight Illuminations” to “Still Life”, this was more of an acoustic, chanson or Weimar cabaret influenced sound that required piano and strings over electric guitars and synths.

What was your most significant moment as a band?

In 2020 we wrote a couple of songs from scratch under Covid lockdown via Skype, “Beast” and “Alchemy” which we later recorded for our 2024 EP “Manifest Mythology”. When lockdown was finally relaxed we performed a socially distanced gig in Worthing where we got to perform these compositions for the first time. A very elderly man was in the audience who told us he’d seen thousands of bands in his time but three stood out as the best by far; these were Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, The Patti Smith Group in the seventies and our performance that night.

What is the ambition of SPLEEN?

We really have had quite a break lately so we haven’t been very ambitious at all. Steve had major heart surgery last year so we split for a time after our EP launch and I focused my attentions on Hastings and The Smithmanthers. We’re all good friends though so we remained in contact and we’ve come together this summer for a run of three shows; 12th July at Charles Dickens in Worthing, 25th July at The Pig in Hastings and 9th August at the Pipeline in Brighton.

If Spleen could play an unusual venue or location in this world, or in any universe, where would it be and why? What would be the ideal Spleen gig (one for the imagination)?

Since I started in music in 2003 I seem to only be booked as the headline act in smaller venues. We’ve never had a big break supporting a larger, more established band. In 2007 my then band The Flesh Happening were booked to support The New York Dolls at Lost Vagueness festival but for some reason the event got cancelled, this broke my heart. Now many of my influences are dead, David Johansen, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Jaques Brel, Nina Simone; all dead. If anything were possible I would say Spleen would support one of those, otherwise Patti and Iggy are still alive. I think sonically we’d be a good match for a gig with Peaches or Le Tigre. Maybe we could play Brighton Pavilion or perhaps Uranus. Perhaps we could be shrunk down to play a gig in an actual Spleen. If we could be injected into the body of Donald Trump and play loud enough to cause him internal bleeding that would result in his death it would be a worthy sacrifice.

SPLEEN is playing a rare gig at The Pig on Friday 25 July. Montague Armstrong Rippengal support.

Suggested donation on the door – 5 pounds

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