Spencer Seim, guitarist for the band Hella, said that going into the studio with a full slate of musicians was a long time coming.
Since 2001 Seim and percussionist Zach Hill have created Hella's music as a duo. In 2005, the duo added Jonathan Hischke on bass and Dan Elkan on guitar, but last year was the first time the band as a whole went into the studio together.
And, strangely enough, the bassist and guitarist were not Hischke and Elkan.
Instead, Josh Hill (Zach's cousin) is on guitar, Carson McWhirter is on bass and Aaron Ross is on guitar.
"It had been so long since Zach and I were in a full band," Seim said by phone from his home in Grass Valley, Calif. "It was interesting how the songwriting went because it wasn't just Zach and me. We had others to contend with. And that got to be fun because we all are very opinionated. But I think the compromises we did were for the best, especially when you hear the album."
Hella's new album "There is no 666 in Outerspace" was released in January, a follow-up to the 2005 double album "Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard." "The main difference, obviously, was the fact that 'Church Gone Wild/Chirpin Hard' was a double album. It's actually two solo albums put together. Zach did all the music on 'Church' and I did all my own music on 'Chirpin"'
Still, said Seim, it was a creative boost to make the new album. And it's true to the Hella sound, which has been described as technical, math rock. "When I first started playing guitar, I tried not to sit down and learn other people's music," Seim said with a laugh. "I figured that if I got a guitar, I was supposed to play my own music. But I did learn to play some Nirvana stuff, and some Primus and Sausage.
"When Zach and I got together, we had no intention of being a duo for so long. But that's the way it happened. We did know that we wanted to be in a band and have a bass, drums, vocalist and guitarist to fill in all the sounds a band is suppose to fill. But it didn't work out that way."
Still, being in a two-piece was an enjoyable experience, said Seim. "It was a lot of fun. And we were lucky that we had kids who liked what we did and let us do what we did."
In addition to Hella, the guys in the group have a side project, The Advantage, named after the Nintendo Advantage video-game controller. In fact, Hella was inspired by Nintendo game music. "We still do The Advantage. It's just something we do. And since Hella is taking our time, The Advantage is getting some rest. But we'll be writing The Advantage songs in a couple of months."
And video games are a bit of distraction for Seim and the guys. "When you're on tour, it's hard to hit the video-game stores," said Seim. "So I stock up. The last games I bought came with the Nintendo Virtual Boy system that I plug into the tour van. It's pretty good once you get used to the screen being all red."
If you go ...
What: Hella, Dirty Projectors, Who's Your Favorite Son
Where: Kilby Court, 741 S. Kilby Court (330 West)
When: Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $8
Phone: 320-9887
Web: 24tix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com