Steve Wright and Spade Hoile tackle tough truths through hard rock album

A Sechelt hard rock duo has released its inaugural album, the culmination of an eight-year collaboration that began with music instruction leading to a full-fledged creative partnership. 

The hard rock album Title the document was written and recorded by Steve Wright and Spade Hoile, and released on digital platforms on June 1.  

Wright is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist operating the Soundspace Studio at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre, where he provides music education and rehearsal space. Hoile, now 17 years old, is a drummer who originally enrolled in ukulele lessons at Wright’s studio at the age of nine. A year later, Hoile started playing the drumkit. 

“It was very simple, nothing like what I do now,” Hoile said. “But once I found the drums, I kind of stuck to that and just went from there.” 

A stylized version of Hoile’s name was chosen as the band’s handle: SPāDE. Wright contributed vocals, guitar and bass tracks to the recording, complemented by Hoile’s work on drums. The two have performed live at a variety of venues, including local Canada Day celebrations. 

“I do work with a lot of youth,” said Wright, “and it’s always been a point of pride for me when people come to see us or they hear us play. Before we start, people go, ‘Oh, you know, good for you for supporting young people.’ And then they hear us play and they go, ‘Oh my God, this is like a real thing.’” 

Both Hoile and Wright share an appetite for what they describe as “darker-sounding” hard rock vibes, citing Alice in Chains and Metallica as influences. Their tracks are complex, featuring frequent time signature changes and rapid-fire exchanges of sinuous riffs. 

“I think we really influence ourselves,” said Hoile, who grins euphorically while performing at the drumkit. “It sounds kind of funny but we’ve worked together for so long that our older songs kind of influence my new ideas. We always sound like us. We start a new song and it’s just like: ‘this sounds like us.’” 

The album includes a dozen tracks whose titles and lyrics reflect a contemporary quest for identity, impact and belonging. In “Game Point,” modern-day family anxiety is set to melody: “Missed opportunities of parents turn into their kids’ insecurities, / It happens all the time and gets overlooked even though their kids are ill at ease.” 

“Sometimes the words just come really fast and easy,” said Wright. “Sometimes I improvise stuff and we go back and look at them and say these ones were good. Let’s lose that. Let’s rewrite this.”  

“I decide, for example, that I want [a song] to be about mental illness and I want it not to rhyme,” added Hoile. “I write the song because I want to understand.” 

During SPāDE’s scheduled performance at the Rogue Arts Festival on August 20, the band will be accompanied by a hard rock choir in order to match the high-intensity instrumentals with sufficient vocal power. 

Title the document is now available for purchase on Apple Music and Spotify. The duo maintains a web presence at spadeband.weebly.com.