Interview with Claude

Endings and Terminus

Claude: In January you said Part Two would probably be the last Colossal Spin release. Now that it's out, why end it here, and what comes next?

Wil Arndt: At the time, I said it was probably the last release because I thought the project had run its course. I just wanted to get these out of the way, so I could start over with a fresh slate and move on. It felt like unfinished business.

There's a lighter, more indie sound I want to explore. Not punk, aesthetically, but that same ethos. And maybe more personal, relatable lyrics: less obscure, less abstract.

But while I was working on the album, I unearthed some other material from the Vancouver era, post–Dueling Suzis, where I got back to a really heavy sound. I think it's quite good and might have some potential. So never say never. If I do come back to that as Colossal Spin, I think the album might be called Terminus, the true end of this era.

So Terminus would be the last Colossal Spin album. What did you actually find in those Vancouver-era files? Tell me about one song.

Wil: Some really raw, stripped-back arrangements. Simpler, but really heavy songs, with some really good ideas sitting in there. They definitely have a Colossal Spin sound, getting back to the older, heavier sound from the middle era. There's one song where I have the TV running in the background, and it's an old Sherlock Holmes show. It's quite interesting texturally, and it creates an interesting juxtaposition. It's very cool.

Was the TV on by accident while you were tracking, or did you put it there on purpose?

Wil: My wife was watching some shows in the background. We were in our cramped little apartment, and I was just doing some demos and playing around with song ideas. It was there, it was captured, and it was a happy accident. I never meant for those to be the final sounds. Of course I'd layer other sounds and performances over it in any final mix. But it actually became quite core to the sound of that song, for me. There are other songs that were written that same afternoon, really, and they have that bit of texture to them too.

Buried History

Claude: Twister still has old beat cuts buried under the live drums. What else from the old recordings is hiding on Part Two that a listener wouldn't spot?

Wil: Rapidfire is actually built on the spine of the old eight-track demo. I pulled off old tracks from the original 8-track cassette recording, the very first demo of the song from when I first wrote it, brought them into Logic, and cut them up and pushed them around to figure out the arrangement. That was the foundation of the song, and then I layered all the new performances onto it.

So the spine is your first home demo, not the Sonic Studios sessions. Why go back to the rougher version?

Wil: A few years after I moved to Vancouver, Sonic shut down, and sadly the original tapes were destroyed, as well as the ADAT tapes. We'd actually recorded on both media there. We recorded guitars and drums onto two-inch to get that nice, rich saturation, then ported that over to ADATs to start the main mix, layering and adding more. During the v2.1.7 recording sessions a few years earlier, we'd discovered my voice actually sounds much better recorded digitally than on analogue, so we wanted to keep that but get the best of the analogue richness for some of the other parts.

In any case, all of that was lost. The only things I had left were a couple of takes pulled from the two-inch onto CD-Rs. A couple of drum takes from Bobbie Rae Mayhem, or as he's known today, Bobbie Rae. Which were fantastic. Just fantastic. Just one of the best drummers ever, and someone I really emulated my own drumming after. I also had a cassette mixdown from the Sonic era, a really rough mix I made before I left, for posterity.

But it turned out Bobbie's drum takes, the ones on the CD-R, weren't right for this. It would have been too hard to align them tempo-wise and lock them in to the new arrangement, and I'd given myself a deadline to get these songs out. I wasn't going to sit there hand-aligning whole tracks. So I recorded the entire drum tracks myself.

So you ended up playing Bobbie's parts yourself. When you sat down to track Rapidfire, what did you take from his playing?

Wil: One of the things that was great about Bobbie is that he's rock-solid on tempo, but he also plays around the beat in a very fluid kind of way. He'll let the tempo go, flow through it, and really lock in on that groove. Trying to get the feel of his performance was something I aspired to.

Decades ago, I worked with his tracks a lot when I was writing other songs, as samples and stems. I actually used those original drums in some of the early demos for Everything, and a few other songs. So I really started to internalize how he played, and that's influenced my playing throughout the years.

Everything

Claude: Everything is on its third life now: the compilation version, the electronica remix on Dueling Suzis, and this big, slow one. Which one is the real song?

Wil: The compilation version is the one that had Bobbie's drums on it, and it was really the prototype for this Interregnum version. But I'm going to say the Interregnum version is the real song. Some of the lyrics changed. Back then they weren't finished. They weren't ready yet. They were a little too on the nose, a little too earnest, and they reflected a time of my life. I was a different person then; I'm a different person now. The lyrics evolved a little for the Dueling Suzis remix, but this final version is the way the lyrics are meant to be, and the one to listen to.

Give me a specific. What's one line you cut for being too earnest, and what replaced it?

Wil: Well, it's kind of embarrassing. One line was "I've been down that road before / Sex and drugs are what you're looking for." Gross. That sounds so cliché now, and more than a little lame. The new line is "I've been down that road before / Always more is what you're looking for." That just feels more real to me.

"Always more" sits right next to a song called Everything. Who's the one always looking for more, and is it you?

Wil: A lot of my songs, I've realized, are written from the point of view of a person speaking to two people. There are three people in the room. There's the author, the lyricist. Then there's someone holding one side, and another person holding another side. Or it might be a friend of the author, speaking to someone who's hurting that friend, trying to protect them. So there are all these layered nuances.

With Everything, I made it intentionally ambiguous. Depending on how you look at it, it could be spoken to a higher power, a selfless being, Jesus or God. The end of the chorus is "I give you everything / Nothing is enough." In that context, it's me as a frail human wanting to give the God of the universe everything, and nothing I can give is enough. On the other hand, the lyrics could be taken from the perspective of a lover who's hurt and drained, who feels like no matter what they give, it's not enough. It works both ways, and it's meant to be ambiguous like that. Honestly, I don’t like explaining my lyrics for that reason. People see what they need to see at the time. And that’s more important than my own intention.

My World and Many Worlds

Claude: You wrote My World at 17. Was that three-person structure already there in the teenage version?

Wil: My World is actually more like two people. And it's really written as a warning, not as something to aspire to. A lot of my songs are amalgams of people I might have known or grown up with. It's from the perspective of someone who knows they're living a fantasy life, and they want to suck you into it, to join them in this parasitic way. It's easy to slip into that with this person, and both people know it. Both people moving into this world know it's not real, that it's dangerous and not healthy, and yet they both do it. That's the kernel of the song.

The fact that I was 17 when I wrote that, I don't really get it. It's kind of weird to me now to think I had that sort of perspective on life. But at that point in your life, you don't know anything. You're just a kid. You see movies, you see television, and you might have some overly dramatized experiences with people in your life. I think a lot of it came from a vibe, an atmosphere. Second hand feelings and experiences. A lot of the songs were very atmospheric.

Was there one real person at the centre of My World, someone you actually watched slip into that fantasy?

Wil: Could be, but I'm not going to say.

Many Worlds Interpretation closes the record, built from My World's feedback guitars and buried vocals. What does that title mean to you?

Wil: I love science, physics, space, and the concepts in quantum theory. The many-worlds interpretation holds that every possible outcome of a quantum event actually occurs, each in its own branch of reality. It's a well-known interpretation of quantum mechanics, though it remains unproven and debated. It's often confused with other multiverse ideas, like the Marvel version.

What I wanted to do was take My World, which is about a specific person's point of view in a warped world, and turn it into something more positive. Perhaps the world people create is something they can inhabit in a positive way. Worlds and realities living side by side, or inside each other. So remixing those lyrics and reinterpreting that song is the reinterpretation, acknowledging that many interpretations exist, and many worlds exist.

So the closer flips My World from a trap into something you could actually live in, built from the same feedback guitars. What did you do to those sounds to make them feel hopeful instead of dangerous?

Wil: A lot of it has to do with this meditative drone that puts you into the space and slows time down. Time starts to mean nothing in this song. There's no tempo, really. Nothing marks time. It expands your mind. The song could be five minutes, ten minutes, twenty; you just don't know. Then, halfway through, the lyrics start to show up again, and there's a driving beat beneath the surface that starts to create time again. But that's after an extended period of just wandering.

It almost feels godlike, hovering over the waters of the deep before day and night were created. You're just there in space, timeless. And then time is created. The beat shows up, and then the world comes. This idea that one song could become many songs, many worlds, many interpretations was pretty interesting to me.

Faith and Twister

Claude: That's the second time God has come into this conversation, first with Everything and now creation itself in the closer. Is faith running under this whole record?

Wil: Faith runs through everything, doesn't it? Whether it's the lack of it or the abundance of it, it's something everyone wrestles with, whether through a ritualized, traditional spiritual experience or something else. It runs through everything. It's something I've carried with me my whole life, and something I'm wrestling with even today.

Where on Part Two is that wrestling loudest?

Wil: I wouldn't say it's a moment in any particular song. I think it comes through everywhere, in the whole juxtaposition of songs. Every song has its own perspective. Twister, for example, is earnestly upbeat. Jadedly upbeat, even. That's a very different feeling from something like Rapidfire, which is about loss of innocence, and trying to maintain that innocence through times of pressure, change, and struggles.

Twister's hook is "Come on baby, don't give up." Who's saying that, and do they believe it?

Wil: I guess it's me saying it, and I absolutely believe it. The world can suck, but that doesn't mean there's no hope. Sometimes someone telling you "Don't give up, you're doing this, you've got this" is what you need. It's what I'd like to say to folks who are down and feeling bleak and overwhelmed, and sometimes I'm speaking to myself. It’s actually to me, really. Those lyrics are for me as much as anyone else. It’s not trying to make things sound better than they are, or deny how a person might be feeling. This is the world as it is. And yet… just keep going. Don't give up.

Twister started from DJ Shadow's "The Number Song." What did you take from that track, and what did you leave behind?

Wil: I had that song on repeat for many, many months. This was 1998, I think. I'd grab a guitar and start playing over it, making up different songs and different lyrics, and this just emerged from that. The DJ Shadow song is a lot slower and more breakbeat-y, of course, and the version of Twister I wrote at the time actually used a lot of breakbeats as its foundation. It was more breakbeat-driven. Still some guitars, as it has today, but a lot more hip-hop-ish, I suppose. The new one is built on that foundation, but pushed into more of a straight-ahead rock, indie rock type of song.

Craft

Claude: One for the home recordists reading this. What's a piece of gear or a recording trick on Part Two you'd want them to steal?

Wil: Well, I don’t have tricks, really. More of a mindset. My attitude is, never let the quality or pedigree of your gear limit you. I get pro musicians coming into my space, they see the cheap guitars and amps and they’re like, this guy’s not that serious. But then they listen to the work and they’re like, okay, damn. And it’s always been that way for me. Heck, the very first demo tape I put out back in like ‘93 or ‘94 was recorded with a Casio keyboard, a thrift store guitar, and a thirty dollar bass amp. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got mad respect for talented musicians that dedicate their lives to mastering their craft on the very best instruments. I just don’t have time for that.

On a more practical note, it’s not really a trick, but if you're a home recordist, I'd 100% always recommend recording dry and wet signals for all your guitar and bass takes. By wet I mean the amp sound, the effects, everything, miked up. Then also go dry, straight from the guitar into the system, so you have both tracks. The wet sound gives you the feel when you're performing, and there's no latency; it's just immediate. The dry take can save your butt. There were a couple of times where the mic on the wet guitar crapped out or was at the wrong angle or something like that, and I had to go back to the dry signal and use amp emulation to either reinforce it or replace it. It’s not like a big secret, or anything, all the pros do this.

Nine months to the day after Part One, with paired covers. Was that symmetry planned from the start?

Wil: The symmetry of the covers, absolutely. The dates, I didn't plan. I'd actually wrapped the Part Two EP in the summer and was trying to figure out the best time to release it. I always like dates that are fun and interesting. Look at the Dueling Suzis 26th Anniversary Remaster this year: the date was 2026-02-26. I like to play on dates like that, so I wanted some symmetry and alignment between Part One and Part Two. If you look those dates up, you'll see it.

Who Is Part Two For?

Claude: You said Part One was an entry point for new listeners. Who is Part Two for?

Wil: Part Two definitely starts out super heavy with Rapidfire. It's back in your face. This is the old, classic, heavy, guitar-forward Colossal Spin feel, and it's good to get that in there. But if you listen to the EP, there's an evolution that happens. It's almost a microcosm of the Colossal Spin journey.

It starts out heavy, then goes into My World, which also has some really heavy, crunchy guitars that shake the room. Then Everything: you might not realize this, but the guitars are gone until the end of the first chorus. It sounds massive, with giant drums and a giant synth, but it's very sparse. Now we're experimenting more with sounds and instrumentation. By the time you get to Twister, it's a different, more poppy sound. And by Many Worlds Interpretation, we're completely divorced from the live band setup. It's a whirlwind through the evolution of Colossal Spin.

That's the shape of the record. But if you could put it in one person's headphones, who's listening?

Wil: Obviously you want younger listeners to enjoy and appreciate it. But really, this is for the people I grew up with: people my age and older who still appreciate the '90s scene but also love some of the new music coming out. Who still remember what goth and industrial rock is but can admit they love hard rock now. This brings both together. New production values and some new sounds, but the feel of the late '90s.

The Hook

Claude: Part One's tagline was "The world is finally ready for this." What's the line for Part Two?

Wil: We're back.

"We're back," from the man who opened this interview by calling it the last release. How do those two things fit together?

Wil: You can come back and leave at the same time. Look at the Beatles' "Now and Then," back in 2023. It was a return, and also billed as the last Beatles song. I'm not putting myself on the same level as the Beatles by any means, but it's definitely an example. You asked for one, there you go. It was finished decades later from an old home demo, and it even had some TV noise on it. Funny. We’re back. And now that we're here, it's time to close this chapter and look forward to what’s next. Coming and going. I think it's possible to be both things at once. One of the things Colossal Spin is about is contradiction. That is the core of Colossal Spin. Contradiction.