Article by: Clay Adamczyk

The band Harvey Milk, (the sludge metal face melters,) not the late politician, has been off hiatus for almost four years now. Since then, they’ve successfully toured and have released, arguably their best album yet, Life…the Greatest Game in Town (Hydra Head, 2008). Drummer Kyle Spence took some time out to talk to the Journal about the upcoming nine show run with Coalesce, their new-album A Small Turn in Human Kindness (Hydra Head Records, 2010), and what the future has in store for Harvey Milk.

Suffolk Journal: How’s the band preparing for the tour?

Kiyle Spence: [laughs,] We haven’t really been, yet. Steve, the bass player, comes down to Athens tomorrow and we’re going to start rehearsing.

SJ: How do you anticipating the tour going?

KS: I’m not really sure what to expect. We never played with Coalesce before and don’t really know those guys. I imagine we’ll have a lot of fun. As far as what we’re going to play, that’s sort of up in the air. We have the idea of playing our new record (A Small Turn in Human Kindness), that won’t be out till April, start to finish, but we might only play a couple things off of it. We’re still trying to figure out how that’s going to bill.

SJ: Do feel that you guys were able to successfully get back into things again after being on a hiatus for some time?

KS: I don’t know. Everyone’s got to be wary of any sort of reunions. You see people do it, and it can be good. In some cases it can be a lot better. The one’s I’m thinking of are: Mission of Burma, those guys, when they started playing again they were great and put out good records; Dinosaur Jr. play much better now than they ever did. Their last record is really really good. To think that somebody would think of us in that way, we got back better and were as good or better that when we were when we stopped playing is cool to hear. I don’t know why it happens that way.

SJ: Did it come together naturally or was it shaky at first?

KS: No, it was fine. It was easy. You kind of hear that a lot like it’s just like riding a bike. You just start playing again and it’s pretty much the same. That’s what happened to us, I think we can all play better now that we could back then maybe, a little bit. I know I can. Sometimes you get tired though. You’re not 21 anymore and you have to play all this crazy stuff sometimes you just kind of wish you were again.

SJ: Aside from the new album, what else going on in the Harvey Milk world?

KS: For us that’s a lot. We’ve pretty much finished the record at the end of the year, and we’ve basically just been waiting to do these ten shows coming up in March. We’ve got some new stuff kicking around; we’re thinking of recording again already and playing some more shows this summer. Maybe going out west or to Europe. All just kicking around ideas for now. We all have other stuff going on so, we kind of have Harvey Milk time and the time when we do our own things.

SJ: What are some of the side projects you’ve been keeping busy with?

KS: I record bands down here in Athens and I got to play four shows with Dinosaur in Canada last month, which was pretty awesome. They didn’t let Murph into the country so I got to up there and jam with those guys which was a pretty awesome thing to do.

SJ: I’ve heard Jay Mascis can be a demanding person to work with musically, any truth to that?

KS: No, no. I’ve played with him on and off in the Fog over the years. I get the impression that he might have been that way at one point, but he’s not like that so much that I can’t personally really imagine him being like that. He’s the coolest guy, just really mellow. He couldn’t have been too demanding. I had to fly out with a day’s notice just to make it to those shows so I was probably more demanding on myself then any of those guys could have been.

SJ: Final thoughts?

KS: Just that we’re really looking forward to coming to Boston again. It’s often kind of our second home. Boston shows are always special for us, and we like to try and pull out some stops when we hit the old bean town there.

Harvey Milk will perform at the Middle East Downstairs on Tuesday, March 9.