Spoon serves up a big portion of ‘creative freedom’ with ‘Hot Thoughts’

Review-aggregate website Metacritic dubbed Austin-based indie-rockers Spoon the most critically acclaimed band of the aughts.

Story after story refers to the group as “one of the most consistent bands out there,” whatever that means.

Given that the group’s latest offering, “Hot Thoughts,” sees the guitars turned way down and the synths way up, it certainly isn’t some misguided testament to album-to-album sonic fidelity.

Keyboardist/guitarist Alex Fischel wouldn’t presume to assume anything, considering he just joined Spoon in 2013, two decades into its existence, but to him, the “most consistent” label is most likely a commentary on the band’s ability to put out a continuously quality product (facepalm, duh!), regardless of what that product may sound like this particular time around.

“I’ve only been a part of two records, so I can’t claim ownership over that title. But looking at Spoon’s catalog, I feel every record is a different statement, there’s a different drive and direction,” Fischel told The Salt Lake Tribune ahead of Wednesday’s show at The Depot in Salt Lake City. “So I think if you can manage to keep things interesting like that, and then remain consistently good, I think that’s a huge compliment.”

What’s enabled Spoon to be consistently good, meanwhile, in his view, is their commitment to doing things their way.

“Just from working with these dudes for the time that I have, it always seems like the record’s being made for ourselves. We’re doing it just for us. And then, once it’s out, it’s like, ‘Oh, are people gonna like this?’ I think that creative freedom has always been there,” Fischel said. “So I think, when we’re working, it’s kind of just like, let’s just do something that we’re gonna be happy with. And no one, at least in the band, is gonna be happy with doing the exact same thing that we just did over again. So it’s always trying to find that next thing, I guess.”

It makes sense — how can they expect other people to like their work if the guys in the band themselves don’t?

“Yeah, exactly,” he added. “I think it helps the quality of our work because we’re all so critical of it. If we end up liking something, there should be something to it.”

Spoon is very much the brainchild of frontman/guitarist/primary songwriter Britt Daniel, but Fischel’s fingerprints, at least, are all over “Hot Thoughts.”

He was playing in various bands around L.A., and one night found himself opening for one of the projects fronted by Canadian singer-songwriter Dan Boeckner. Boeckner, who was about to form a side project with Daniel called Divine Fits, was impressed, and Fischel was soon invited to join that band. Some time later, after Divine Fits opened a New Year’s Eve gig for the Black Keys, Daniel broached the possibility of Fischel joining Spoon.

While Fischel said he didn’t want to disrupt the flow of a band that had been doing its thing — and doing it very well — for 20 years, he also didn’t want to resign himself to simply being a go-along-to-get-along newbie standing quietly off to the side.

“You’re definitely thoughtful of what everyone’s role is. You don’t wanna come in like this new guy trying to call all the shots or anything. You definitely kind of have to be sensitive to the way things work, because they know what they’re doing, and they’ve been doing it,” he said. “But you also have to find a balance, because you have to assume you were asked to come and be a part of it to also give your voice.”

That voice started to grow louder near the end of the band’s recording sessions for 2014’s “They Want My Soul.”

The last song the group worked on then was the track “Inside Out,” which Fischel described as “more keyboard-driven and soundscapey and vibey” — a sound that apparently stuck with Daniel.

When it came time to start crafting the next album, Fischel said Daniel seemed to have “picked up where that had left off, took the next step with it.”

“Me and him got together a lot on it to workshop the songs. He would have the basis kinda down and we’d get together for an afternoon — or one time we met up in Palm Springs for a weekend at an Airbnb — and then we would try different approaches, different rhythms, different feels, to see what would work. And we would come up with a couple and then bring it to the band, or bring it to [producer Dave Fridmann] in the studio, and see what worked.”

They ultimately decided that a synth-heavy dance album is what worked.

And hey, who was gonna disagree?