With Tsunami Sea, Spiritbox founders Courtney LaPlante and Mike Stringer say they have hit their stride.
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Spiritbox: The Tsunami Sea Tour
When: May 6, 6:30 p.m.
Where: PNE Forum
Spiritbox released Tsunami Sea on March 7. The followup to the band’s 2021 full-length debut Eternal Blue is an 11-song, high volume homage to its B.C. origins.
On the phone from their Victoria home, lead singer Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer discussed how global hits such as Cellar Door, nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Metal Performance category, paved the way for the new album.
“We are still trying to outdo ourselves on the songs and finally realized our artistic vision on Tsunami Sea,” said Stringer. “The theme of the record is about Vancouver Island and … this is the first time that everything coming out to do with the album is the way we wanted it and on-brand.”
LaPlante says that the difference between the creative process of putting out tracks for Eternal Blue during COVID-19 and having the time to be completely focused on making the new songs brings a cohesiveness to Tsunami Sea that presents the band at its best.
“We were picked up by a label while we were already releasing tracks for the first album which wasn’t fully written yet and that meant that what we were doing was reactive,” she said. “There were limits on time, money and so on with the pandemic and it worked out really, really well having to pivot. But this time, the only obstacles were ourselves with nothing else in the way.”
While many may see the band as newly minted, LaPlante, Stringer, former As I Lay Dying bassist Josh Gilbert and drummer Zev Rose are hardly beginners.
LaPlante and Stringer spent half a decade as members of Louisiana metalcore crew iwrestledabearonce. Since forming in 2015, Spiritbox had two earlier EPs to its credit before Eternal Blue debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 13 in 2021. Two more EPs, 2022’s Rotoscope and 2023’s The Fear of Fear plus a collaboration with Megan Thee Stallion came before Tsunami Sea, which is released on the band’s Pale Chord label and Beaverton, Ore., alt-rock label Rise Records.
All of this explains the veteran riffage in tunes such as Tsunami Sea’s raging opener Fata Morgana and new single No Loss, No Love. One of his favourite songs on the record, Stringer says the intention of the track was to be a mission statement for the entire album. LaPlante sounds almost unhinged growling along to the molten noize that the band blasts behind her.
“We love groove and backbeat and bands like Meshuggah,” she said. “Sometimes, things can be so heavy that they no longer are abrasive. They become hypnotic and are more like a brain massage.”
Along with the cranial deep tissue releases, Tsunami Sea also boasts a wealth of synth-heavy pop leaning tunes that would sound right at home on any mid-’90s playlist. There is a lot of singalong potential in the new material.
“Nineties alternative pop was a really kooky time for music and any time pop and alternative music combines, it’s a really interesting result,” said Stringer. “I don’t listen to a lot of metal, because if you listen to the same genres and same bands you can wind up getting stale. Plus, those early listening experiences do create a kind of nostalgia that you keep coming back to.”
Another facet of the new album is the clear arena rock arrangements of songs such as Crystal Roses. This dance beat-driven number has the potential to break Spiritbox out of the metal genre entirely. Along with Perfect Soul, it showcases LaPlante’s ability to move from the dirtiest growler to soaring diva.
“I’m happy that I can be two vocalists in one, because it’s such a good way of expressing myself,” she said. “It also means that I can do justice to whatever Michael makes and having that duality in your voice is great for the emotional part. Going back and forth like that, on a mechanical level, is truly not good for your voice and I feel that translates subconsciously into both my live performance and on the recordings.”
With its eyes set clearly on headlining stadiums and its ever-expanding fan base, Spiritbox has gone deep into crafting the sort of sonic textures that are key to captivating audiences from the front rows to the back of the arena. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the title track to the new album, which Stringer didn’t think was going to actually even make the final track listing.
LaPlante is completely caught off-guard by this comment as Stringer explains his reasons.
“I originally thought of Tsunami Sea as more of a riffier, Deftones-like tune that I wasn’t sure we even needed on the record,” he said. “But when Courtney developed the whole concept and lyrical content of the album bringing in wave sounds and elements of nature on Vancouver Island into it, it all clicked. I was really happy that it came out the way it did, but when Courtney comes into what you have got instrumentally it becomes something completely distinct.”
“The two of us shared an equal amount of love, even obsession, for Nickelback,” said Stringer. “A lot of the new songs are really heavy and rocky and, when I was trying to decide what song to go with for the first single, I picked Perfect Soul. I was sure that would be the one that Bill would have wanted.”
Tsunami Sea has no liner notes. The album just features a dedication to Crook.