Spoon Artistfacts

1993-
Britt DanielVocals, guitar1993-
Jim EnoDrums1993-
Eric HarveyKeyboard, guitar2004-2017
Rob PopeBass2006-2019
Alex FischelKeyboard, guitar2013-
Gerardo LariosKeyboard, guitar2019-
Ben TrokanBass2019-
The indie-rock band formed in Austin, Texas, and borrowed its name from the '70s German avant-garde band Can, who had a hit song called "Spoon."
A year before forming Spoon, frontman Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno met as members of the short-lived rockabilly band The Alien Beats. When the group disbanded in 1993, Daniel recorded solo material under the pseudonym Drake Tungsten. Some of those tunes were later re-recorded by Spoon, including "I Could Be Underground," "Chicago At Night," "All The Negatives Have Been Destroyed," "Dismember," and "I Want To Be Your Friend."
Eric Harvey, Spoon's keyboardist, is a classically trained pianist and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Texas in 2003, a year before he joined the band. He was already familiar with Daniel because the pair lived in the same apartment complex a few years earlier. But he actually joined the group when they needed an analog synth for a recording session and he happened to have one.
Spoon landed a deal with Elektra Records after the release of their second EP, Soft Effects, but they lost their contract when their sophomore album, A Series Of Sneaks, failed to meet the label's sales expectations. They vented their frustrations against their Elektra A&R contact, Ron Laffitte, on the tracks "The Agony of Laffitte" and "Laffitte Don't Fail Me Now."
After the band released their debut 1996 album, Daniel quickly learned that you can't please everyone - not even your own dad. He said in a 2001 interview: "He's always been supportive, but yeah, when Telephono came out, he flipped out, said that I was an embarrassment to the family because there was the F word on it."
Aside from being a drummer, Jim Eno is also an electrical engineer who earned his degree at North Carolina State University. Before joining Spoon, he was a hardware design engineer at Compaq Computer Corporation and designed microchips for Motorola. He continued working in the field in his off time from the band until the mid-2000s.
After the band's music was featured on a few episodes of the TV series Veronica Mars, Daniel showed up on the season 2 episode "Rashard And Wallace Go To White Castle" and sang a karaoke rendition of Elvis Costello's "Veronica."
Spoon's sound opened up when Daniel realized they could do more than rock songs built on guitar, bass, and drums. He decided to emphasize the piano - an instrument he once found embarrassing - on the 2002 album Kill The Moonlight, with the help of an unknown musician named Eggo Johanson manning the keys (as well as the tambourine). Eggo never made it big because he wasn't real; he was actually a pseudonym for Britt Daniel.
Daniel collaborated with composer Brian Reitzell to compose and arrange the score for the 2006 movie Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Ferrell. The indie-rock soundtrack also features a number of Spoon tunes.
At 7 years old, Daniel fell in love with the Bee Gees, who were riding high from the hit Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. They were the first group he saw in concert.
Both Daniel and Eno have called Spoon's 2007 appearance on Saturday Night Live the highlight of their career. In the Seth Rogen-hosted episode, they performed the Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga tracks "The Underdog" and "You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb."

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