All good things must end, and so must Boston indie combo Squitch. In their time together the group has become something of a leading light in our scene’s ever-expanding universe, the type of band against which you measure the success of others. Big shows, big releases you name it they’ve done it, while also leaving a footprint in the city in other ways whether it union organizing, social justice, or bike safety awareness (among many other topics). Squitch’s final record (and their best by our estimation) is entitled Tumbledown Mountain and it’s out on Friday, June 23rd via the venerable Disposable America. Before that, and before their record release and subsequent final tour, we sat down with Emery Spooner (vocals/guitar), Denzil Leach (drums), and Kit Malmberg (bass) for this extensive exit interview. So hit play on the stream a day early, grab a pre-order of the tape here, a pre-sale ticket to their final show in August here, and then read on below for our tearful goodbye to one of Boston’s very best bands.

ES: I’ll still be here.

KM: We’re all on very different schedules and wavelengths already with our work lives, and that makes it incredibly hard for us to get together to do band things and make decisions as a unit. So when you’re already having that difficulty and then you have all these other factors in the back of your head it just gets to a point where walking away feels like the right decision, especially for the sake of our relationships as friends.

ES: I am really, really sad about it, but this does feel like a very exciting record to go out on, like we recorded it a year ago and I’m still really proud of it which is kind of a first for me. Normally after a year I’m like “What was I doing? That’s shit.” Also, I’m not sure that the songs I’m writing now would even fit into the Squitch mold anyways, not that it’s stayed consistent ever, but I’m excited to experiment and not be so tethered to the idea of a three or four piece rock band. I think we sort of invent pressure to do band things, whether it’s recording a lot or playing shows or going on tour.

KM: I also think some of the pressure is the idea of when you’re not at the same pace as your bandmates are, because it’s a relationship like any other after all, you have to put in as much work as you take out, and when you feel like you cannot put in the same amount of effort as someone else can be hard to reconcile. You don’t wanna let your friends down, that’s a scary and hard thing.

DL: The new material is definitely part of it for me too though, like I’m really excited about the new songs Emery is working on, and while we’ve played together on a few of them I agree that they don’t lend themselves easily to being played by a rock band with live drums.

KM: A lot of them are “No Denzil” songs or “No Kit” songs.

DL: In a way that’s exciting to think about! It’s been freeing for me as well. Freeing in that we can build songs with no expectation of “performing” them some day.

ES: I kind of have a crazy idea for the future in that I wanna put out demos and then just have anyone record anything on them and have it be really informal and collaborative.

DL: Point being, there is a future for us as collaborators it just won’t look like Squitch, it’ll be more amorphous. 

AP: Was there any sort of mission in mind when you started Squitch? What was it that you were trying to do by forming this band?

ES: We were just trying to sound like Palehound. There’s a couple songs if you look back, like I loved that band so much when I was younger, well both of us did, Denzil was the one who showed them to me. There’s a couple songs where I directly rip them off.

DL: Well Emery always wrote music through high school and we always had that outlet be a part of our friendship, but I remember getting a particular set of demos that became some of the stuff that ended up on Caterpillar Killer and being like “these are so good!” I can remember just being really excited to try and turn them into full rock arrangements. That felt like a turning point.

ES: It speaks to our dynamic a lot. It’s been really fulfilling to have my bandmates be able to contribute and flesh out my songwriting in such impactful ways. The mission was always to be collaborative as a unit.

DL: The thing I’m most proud of is that we’ve never been the type of band to shut down someone’s idea or discourage something in any way.

KM: I just wanted to rock.

AP: Do you have any memorable Squitch bonding moments?

DL: It’s the most happy moment in Squitch history, but one time I filled in on drums for Emery’s other project Night Moth which also featured Kit. So this was the first time the three of us were playing together, and we were a weekender tour. On the drive up to Burlington, Vermont there was horrible traffic and we just rear-ended someone…

ES: While screaming along to “La La Love You” by Pixies super loud.

KM: None of us could listen to Doolittle for a while afterwards.

DL: So we figure all that out and decide if we haul ass we’ll still make it in time to play the show so we solider on. As we get farther North there starts to be more and more snow on the ground. At this point we’re about twenty minutes away and the gig is supposed to start in twenty when Kit says “I have to pee so bad.”

KM: So we reached an agreement that if we passed a rest stop we would pull over and I would run in. We saw a sign for rest stop, but it ended up being a rest area, so we pulled in and it’s slushy and super dark. The run in was shorter than we thought so Denzil slams the breaks and we end up fish tailing and hitting the curb really hard.

DL: So my car is completely messed up, cannot drive it another inch. I mean, we tried. The car looked ok at first and thankfully none of us were hurt, but it wouldn’t move.

ES: Two accidents in one day, didn’t make the show, it was bad.

DL: We’re still buddies afterwards, so I guess it was pretty formative.

KM: We were lucky enough to be on tour with another band, so when we called the tow and they dropped us and Denzil’s car off at a gas station in Burlington our friends on the tour came to pick us up.

ES: I really don’t like thinking about that day.

DL: As for a positive, the tour we did in November with Salt around New England was so fun. Having Grace and Kit with us and being on the road with EJ since they play in Salt and Johnny meant we could play our song “Having Fun” with like six people on stage, which was a blast.

KM: The energy was infectious, everyone was having fun.

ES: Honestly that cured me, I was having really bad anxiety vibes while living at home with my folks and I was really worried about going on tour while feeling that way, but those vibes cured me. I was so happy by the end of it. So that was big for us, for sure.

AP: How did you arrive at Squitch’s sound as a group?

ES: I think I just got better at expressing my true feelings over time and at writing emotionally. Like most people I sort of started by trying to emulate certain artists I liked, but where I’m at now feels more true to me, and I think that’s true of all of us, and it comes out in the songs, and in how we play live, too.

KM: I think we’re at the point where, at least when it comes to accompaniment, you can sort of tell who wrote what in a way. Obviously we’re feeding off each other, but you can also sorta hear everyone’s voices within the band in their choices and I think that played a huge role in how the record changed so much over time, and also how much the band changed across lineup iterations.

DL: I also think as your tastes as a listener and player evolve you get more excited by different things.

AP: What were your formative influences at the start?

ES: The Breeders for sure, and Frankie Cosmos and Palehound. Pixies for sure, lifelong, and Angel Olsen too. Nowadays it’s a lot more folk and country music and a lot of Arthur Russell, he’s shaped a lot of what I think about songwriting now and helped expand my idea of son g construction in a big way.

KM: When we were making the record it was a lot of music for me, lots of Silkworm and Karate and Bloc Party. I don’t know how much of any of that influenced what we were writing but that’s definitely what was getting me excited about music in general.

AP: How would you define Boston DIY and Squitch’s place within in?

ES: Home. I feel like Boston gets so much shit, and while I don’t know everybody and I’m not the most active in the scene right now compared to the past, but I think there’s a lot going for us. I mean I haven’t lived anywhere else, but I think everyone is really sweet and supportive here and inspiring for the most part. And earnest.

KM: While I grew up here and am biased I feel like Boston’s music scene has consistently been one of the most important ones for underground or indie rock music and the forward movement of it and it’s largely because there’s, like seven college within walking distance of each other. There will always be young people pushing ideas forward with each other here, so it makes Boston a really cool place to be into this stuff and also to learn how to be creative. Our place within it is harder to define, for me, but there’s just so many bands around here that are or have been important to me so it’s cool to be a part of it.

DL: One thing that has always been inspiring for me is house shows. I didn’t think that was a thing that still happened growing up, and then finding the whole scene out here was very special to me. Something about people opening up their homes to support a community that just wants to make music and art is so important to me. Especially in a city like Boston where there aren’t that many aboveground venues that are accessible to smaller bands. To me that ties Boston’s scene together in ways you wouldn’t find in a bigger city or bigger scene like New York or something.

ES: It was so affirming me early on too to have older bands be so welcoming to us: Banana, Rong, Blue Ray and folks like that. I don’t know what my life would like if I haven’t met people a little older than me that knew more than me and were willing to share that knowledge. I learned how to be respectful, how to be emotionally mature, how to be an artist responsibly, and all those things happened here, I’m very grateful.

AP: How would you value Squitch’s relationship with Disposable America?

ES: Dustin’s great! Haven’t spent a ton of time with him, but he’s been super supportive in putting out our music and believing in us and we are true believers. I’m really happy to have a local label like DA that’s been such a staple for so long around here.

DL: We always really liked a lot of the bands on their roster before we ever even considered asking them to put out some of our music, Beverly Tender and Horse Jumper especially come to mind. It was very validating to have Dustin be so enthused to work with us, and he’s been very sweet.

KM: I remember being in high school and seeing the very couple Horse Jumper records, and Holiday Music and Soft Fangs come out, realizing they were all on the same label, and thinking “wow this is the coolest thing on Earth” and now it’s really cool to be a part of it myself.

AP: When did you start writing Tumbledown Mountain? Did you know at the time that it was gonna be the last Squitch album?

ES: We started in summer of 2020. I actually didn’t even know if it was gonna be a Squitch record, to be honest.

DL: At certain points it felt final, in a way. Or at the very least a departure.

ES: It didn’t feel that way to me until we had that conversation.

DL: Well I’m just thinking that at that moment the future was very uncertain, not unlike when EJ left.

ES: I was definitely really excited about the songs, but I didn’t know how I was going to feel about them until we recorded, or at least until Grace came into the band and added some things that really excited me.

KM: I remember at the time sort of stressing about how we were going to arrange around the demos since Emery had kind of already started writing around two guitars. But then the second we asked Grace to join and they fit in so well it was like “holy shit this rocks.” Like everything was awesome, now.

DL: Working with Brad at Big Nice was epic, too. It was huge and Kit was the one that really pushed us to reach out to him. He’s just so unbelievably talented, he just knows to how to get really exciting and interesting sounds out of you. He also has his own voice as a producer and that helped us take the record to another level, for sure.

KM: Also just the fastest man on the computer.

ES: I wanna go back, like right now.

KM: My high school band recorded with Brad right around he got Big Nice off the ground, so coming back to see where he’s taken it now was so gratifying, it’s like a wonder emporium now. He’s cultivated this incredible sort of space where any idea you have is worth a go, Brad is just down for whatever, but also is down to tell you no when he thinks it’s a bad idea while never fully shutting you down.

AP: Has the finality of all this set in yet?

ES: No.

KM: Yes and no. I have a lot of complicated feelings about it. Like wrapping this up has been really stressful for me so there’s a little part of me that’s relieved to have this almost be over and there’s another part of me that feels really sad and guilty to be relieved.

ES: I had a few days where it felt like I was going through a romantic breakup or a friend breakup. I was mad and sad and upset and then I was fine and then mad and sad again. Maybe I had my little grief moment already, but I’m sure it will hit me again. I also think it will hit me hardest whenever the first of us plays a show in a different project and seeing that person play without each other.

DL: Ultimately though this is the proudest I’ve ever been of anything I’ve ever made.

ES: Yeah I’m proud and happy of every part of Squitch, proud of the friends we’ve made and community we are a part of and the artists we’ve gotten to play alongside.

KM: I never expected to get to do the things we’ve gotten to do as a band, the places we’ve seen and people we’ve met, it feel very significant.

AP: What would like people to take away from Squitch’s legacy as a band?

ES: I feel like I’m gonna cry. Making music is the way I express or process all the other shit going in the world or in my life, so if our music speaks to anyone in a similar way then that’s awesome, but if it inspires you to express yourself in some way too then I’ll feel like we won. It’s a very powerful thing to get to do that with my friends.

DL: Friends rock.

KM: I feel like everything boils down to three words: riffs & having fun.

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Tumbledown Mountain is out Friday, June 23rd via Disposable America, order a copy here.

Squitch plays their final show on Saturday, August 5th at Crystal Ballroom, tickets are still available.