The DRIVE Issue: Friendly Spectres
WORDS BY JESSE FROLIK, PHOTOS BY ELLIOT NOVAK
Many bands spend their weekends playing shows in basements and at DIY venues around town, making noise into the wee hours of the morning. Other bands embody what it means to be DIY around the clock. One such artist, the synth-heavy solo project of local Madison musician and DIY advocate Cam Scheller-Suitor, is Friendly Spectres.
Friendly Spectres is a lot more than a single musical idea. For Scheller-Suitor, the project has become a way to experiment with every inspiration he finds around him. From jangly acoustic guitar to assorted synths and even screams and shouts, he always finds a way to incorporate new sounds into the next song. “I just sort of started from scratch and went for it. It took me a long time to figure out what I was doing. I still don't really know what I'm doing, but it's a lot of fun to make!” Scheller-Suitor explains.
When he says “from scratch” he really means it too. As a solo performer, Scheller-Suitor has to find inventive ways to fill a room with only three audio outputs: a vocal mic, a guitar and whatever apparatus he finds himself using to play his tracks, often live-mixing the backing with a drum machine and loop effects. These strategies derive heavily from Schellor-Suitor’s urge to create and get in front of an audience, which he started getting traction for in 2018 with his acoustic-solo-project-turned-band, Bob Loblaw. “Friendly Spectres kind of just evolved out of the Bob Loblaw band ending and wanting a way to keep performing songs that I was writing on guitar,” Schellor-Suitor says, “I just made my band exist in my computer.” Besides Friendly Spectres, he also finds time to lay down rhythm as the drummer of Madison emo band, Dear Mr. Watterson. Whether solo or collaborative, Schellor-Suitor pulls inspiration from each project to innovate sound and put on a great show.
Promised Land, the most recent release of Friendly Spectres, demonstrates some of the reality of Schellor-Suitor’s attempt to experiment and challenge himself. While still clearly full of the twinkly, distorted guitar and punk vocals identifiable in his first album, Make Some Good Memories and The Forget, the EP finds clear deviation in the artificial drumbeats and synthesizer that drives each verse into a cacophonous chorus. He isn’t done experimenting either. When I asked what his new music was going to look like, he explained “I think the only thing to expect is that every release will probably be a little bit different from the one before it. I’m just going to try to keep the drive engaged.”
In the area of experimental music, the live aspect of DIY music seems to be just as important to Scheller-Suitor as all the time spent recording. In DIY spaces, artists are given the opportunity to express themselves like nowhere else, especially with how willing the audiences are to hear something different. Scheller-Suitor describes the perfect DIY show attendee as “down for anything,” which could not be more true. In the spaces where he finds himself performing, whether in Madison or across the East Coast during his Spring 2024 tour, he saw audiences willing to experience the unexpected.
The community is what makes it possible for Friendly Spectres, and similar smaller artists, to travel state lines and play to packed crowds and friends all across the country. When I asked who makes this possible, Scheller-Suitor recounted the many artists that he has made friends with on their own tours coming through the Midwest. “People in the DIY community all across the country are generally down to help friends out,” Scheller-Suitor says, “same goes to them if they ever want to come back to Madison, the doors open as far as me trying to help them out.” And when no friends are around to hop on a bill together, he’s ready to take a recommendation and run with it. “In my opinion, you really have to enjoy the work of doing it,” he continues, after sending cold call after cold call to venues to get even a response back.
No stranger to the work himself, I would be remiss to not mention Scheller-Suitor’s time hosting at beloved Madison venue, Truckers Atlas. The venue space, while at most hours a practice space for Friendly Spectres, Dear Mr. Watterson and local shoegazers Interlay, the hot and sweaty room moonlighted as a DIY haven for traveling artists to perform, “we made it work at Truckers Atlas, we did what we could” Scheller-Suitor says.
His own flare for the experimental and diverse would often find its way into the types of shows he booked, whether that be a hip-hop/hyperpop bill, an electronic synth punk bill or all the local homies playing together regardless of genre. With the help of fellow bandmates and local volunteers, Schellor-Suitor helped to foster a venue for people who enjoy the live music experience as much as him, “we were all able to have a space where people could come and enjoy music and enjoy hanging out with each other,” he explains. And while Truckers Atlas the venue is no more, the spirit continues to follow Schellor-Suitor into new avenues where people can engage with live music absent of barriers.
When I explained the title of this edition of EMMIE, the Drive Issue, I asked Scheller-Suitor what drive means to him in continuing with the DIY ethos. “I think drive, to me, means staying motivated on your own terms,” he explains, “Out of the sense of purpose. Oh yeah, I guess I have a sense of purpose.” This revelation may be more obvious to people surrounding Friendly Spectres than themself, but this intrinsic drive is apparent to any listener or first-time experiencer of Friendly Spectres. Everyone has that drive in them to create something exciting and new, and Cam Schellor-Suitor both personifies and seeks out that drive in every given opportunity.