The Spot – An Interview with James Mullen

GLENS FALLS –  If you haven’t heard of The Spot, you’re missing out on one of the most unique and entertaining new bands in the 518 music scene. Comprised of Greg Auffredou on percussion, Aaron Cook on bass guitar, Tim Daley on lead guitar, Tommy Socolof on keys, and Jay Mullen on guitar and vocals, they bring an infectious brand of energy to every performance that will make you feel like you’re having a jam session with friends, just blowing off steam; that’s because the group was born in that exact situation, forming organically from wholesome good vibes and evolving through the COVID pandemic. I caught up with Jay and Greg to talk about how the band got started, what they’re all about and their upcoming performance at GEM Fest 2023 at The Shirt Factory in Glens Falls.

RRX: First of all, thank you guys for taking the time to sit down with me today.

JM: Of course!

GA: Happy to be here.

RRX: So, you guys are relatively new kids on the block in the local jam band scene; tell us about how you got started.

JM: My college roommate Brendo, Brendan Crowley, got me into Twiddle when we moved in together at Castleton, and we started kind of messing around and writing songs here and there. We had this idea to start writing more seriously and start a jammy kind of band. I reached out to Greg because we’d talked about having him play drums if I ever started something up, we stumbled upon our original lead guitarist Mike Basford, and that was our humble beginnings jamming in room North 109 at Castleton University.

That was literally right before the pandemic hit, we practiced a handful of times and then everything shut down. Then with COVID, things changed and you have to adapt; we’ve had different members come in and out, Greg and I have been the constant two.

GA: Cook’s also been around a while. Before we really started playing out, Cook was here.

RRX: How did you guys come up with your name?

JM: Me and Brendo, we used to go on walks and go to this spot; it was on this trail and there was a mile marker 9.5. That was kind of where we would go and hang out just off campus. The first time we walked over there it was me, him and our friend Caton who actually does photography for us whey they’re available. We had never gone to this spot yet and Brendo said “wherever we end up, we’re gonna call it the spot and it’s gonna be iconic”. Ever since then we would hang out at that spot, at the mile 9.5 marker, and when we started the band there was no other name. We’d bring people to that spot and it was always an experience. Honestly it was how we wanted the music to sound: like a good time.

Castleton was a very formative time in my life because of the people that I met, including Brendo; meeting him is the reason this band started. Unfortunately he was living in Connecticut when COVID hit, and it just wasn’t something he could continue to do.

RRX: Good old COVID, making everything easy for all of us.

JM: Yupp, absolutely.

RRX: How would you guys describe your sound, what are some of your biggest influences?

GA: I guess we kinda started as a jam band but as the lineup has shifted, we’ve incorporated this, like, sort of indie rock; I mean I guess I’ll just speak for what I try to do for the band. When Jay was first talking about starting the band, he had also been talking about this Fleet Foxes song he liked where there’s this little piano part and was like “steel drums would sound pretty cool on this”, so that kind of morphed into me being the drummer/steel drum player in the band, so we’re like a jam band with steel drums…an indie jam band with steel drums. It’s the instrument I play the most, but I also think it makes us stand out. You don’t see lots of jam bands with steel drums in upstate New York.

JM: If we were to put a label on it, I would say indie-jam but we definitely jam less now although I would still consider us jammy. To add to the steel drum answer, I agree and I’d like Greg to do it as much as possible because like he said it’s definitely unique.

RRX: Yeah, it’s actually one of my favorite parts of your arrangement.

JM: I know Greg said it started with that Fleet Foxes song, and it may have but I believe it would have become a part of our sound eventually anyway because I want Greg to use all of his percussion stuff so anything he wants to use I’m always all for it.

GA: Also, although we’ve had as many as three guitarists at one point there wasn’t always a clear melodic instrument and the steel drum operates to fill that space. There’s less of a need now that we have a keyboard player, but it still serves that purpose as something you can have a melody over or have a short solo.

JM: Another thing we’ve done at almost every multi-set gig, is bring in another drummer to sit in and let Greg focus a full song on that and that’s always super cool.

RRX: Yeah, one of my favorite things I’ve seen you do live is have Greg pass off the drums mid-song like a baton! That’s a pretty awesome thing to see live, especially without skipping a beat in the rhythm section.

GA: That’s right! So, there’s only so much you can do when you’re trying to play steel drums and drum set at the same time so it’s always nice when there’s someone readily available who’s like “I play drums, cool”.

RRX: That’s where the multi-instrumentalist bandmates come in.

GA: That’s just something we like to do anyways, feature random friends. Why not? If someone’s there and they can play, let’s do it. We’re pretty flexible and I think that has served us well.

JM: I definitely think it’s a more enjoyable experience for the audience as well. It keeps every set fresh.

RRX: You’ve been announced for GEM Fest in Glens Falls coming up this July 21st and 22nd. How does it feel to have that opportunity come your way?

JM:   Getting to do this festival as a band that’s Glens Falls-based, getting to have that home-field feel of this thing, that’s really cool. I was really honored, I really wanted to be able to apply last year but it just didn’t work out for us. I was really happy we were able to make it happen this year.

GA: It’s really cool to be a part of a pretty significant local event like that. Hopefully we continue each year to do it. I can probably cart my drums over in about five minutes. We’re very excited!