and I was at the front with the girls playing acoustic songs, folk
songs, Olivia Newton-John songs, and Gord was at the back
playing Genesis songs, Robert Fripp, and out there stuff. I ended
up at the back of the bus, and Gord said, “Can you just play the
root notes so I can do some lead?” So I said, “I’ll just follow your
hands.” I just played the four lower strings and kept the beat.
The drummer from the high school band and Gord had their
own band going. They came to me on the bus and asked, “Do
you want to join our band? We need a bass player.” I said, “Cool,
I’ll have to ask my dad.” Then I turned to my girlfriend and asked,
“What’s a bass?”
CM: What has your experience been like as a woman in
the music industry?
SH: I got a lot of flack. “She’s too pretty to be able to play.” “She’s
too short to hold the instrument.” Back in the ‘80s, females were
kind of the sex objects in the band. They still are to some de-
gree, but there’s a little more respect. I had to show what I was
capable of. It was always, “She didn’t play tho se parts.” I wrote
those parts, thank you very much. There are so many more fe-
male artists out there playing bass and guitar now, but there’s
still a bit of that stigma. “Can they really play?” There’s no room
for that anymore.
CM: What was your first bass?
CM: What is coming up for Spoons?
SH: A Gibson Grabber. Then my first big Spoons show it got
stolen! Then I ended up with a Kramer metal neck. I ended up
with tendonitis because of the weight. I had so many problems
with that bass. That’s when Nile Rodgers came along and said,
“You need a Spector.” I went to Steve’s Music and they hooked
me up with a Spector with a bolt-on neck and two jazz pickups.
And that’s what I used on “Talk Back,” “Old Emotions,” “Romantic
Traffic,” and “Tell No Lies.”
SH: We are currently working on a new release that will be out
on Ready Records Universal. We’re with The Feldman Agency in
Toronto, so we’re doing a lot of shows. We’re not stopping, by
any means. 2019 will be 40 years of Spoons, so we’re amping up
for a celebration of that!
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