On The Road With Small Talks

Myrtle Beach band Small Talks will be one of the many awesome acts performing at Charlotte's Vans Warped stop on July 30th. To get you ready for the show, singer Cayley Spivey spoke with us about touring.

Describe your music for our readers who may not be familiar with you.
Our music is very much written to spark emotional release. It has an overall calm tone to it as well as a playful atmosphere while carrying a layer of seriousness inside the lyrics. We genre bend often.

What's the first concert you attended?
The first concert I ever attended was The Cheetah Girls as a birthday present! I ended up enjoying the opening rock band a lot more. Haha.

What's the strangest gig you've played?
We played a house show in Charleston on tour when we were just starting as a band. We had never toured before and the show was booked by me through Facebook messages with strangers in different scenes. We showed up to the house and there was an obscene amount of drugs and alcohol. We played and went to leave immediately only for the cops to shut down the gig entirely during the last band's set anyway. As we were walking back in from loading the amps, someone left $5, cocaine powder, and a library card on our drumset. We kept the $5 and had to wipe the powder off our drumset outside. After rewatching videos of our set from that night, I noticed a few people actually took their clothes off. I didn't even notice because I used to sing with my eyes closed. It was pretty uncomfortable. I don't think I've ever been more shocked.

What's the craziest thing a fan has done at one of your shows?
The craziest thing a fan has done at one of our shows is a wall of death during our saddest and slowest song. In Atlanta, we jokingly said "wall of death" before our song "This Is Not A Love Song." The crowd was so hype they split down the middle and did it almost in slow motion to match the energy of the song. It was hilarious! They've continued that tradition every time we've played Atlanta since.

What's the first thing you look for when you hit a new town?
We love thrifting. My entire band is extremely into it. So if we have extra time, we always check out some thrift stores and pick up clothes from a new city. It's a cool thing to know my closet is just full of tour memories and all the places I've been.

How do you spend your days on the road?
When on the road, we do a lot of talking about the world and social commentary. I think the relationships you develop on tour are incredible because you really get a lot of time while driving to just sit and think. I use alone time to read and write music on my computer or do anything to better myself as a human being. I am very focused on self growth so having this time before shows to teach myself new things is wonderful.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
I am an introvert and so is my bassist, so oftentimes before shows our rituals are to isolate and try and enter the right head space. Right before we go on we all group up, hype each other a little bit, and then get on stage and give it all we can.

What's some advice you'd give to a band embarking on its first tour?
It's important to have fun and remember how lucky you are to be doing what you're doing. Touring isn't easy, but it's an experience few people get to have. Take it easy on yourself, enjoy the ride. Do not beat yourself up too hard when the road bumps come. You can handle it, love the members of your band and remember to look out for each other. They are your family and all you have on the road.

Final question: You're the opening act of a music festival. You can get any five artists, living or dead, to perform on the bill with you. Which five acts do you choose and what song do you all perform together for the final jam?
Small Talks, The Smiths, Pvris, The 1975, New Order, The Cure. Final song would be "Just Like Heaven" by The Cure.

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