It was a murky day in Chicago on June 12

A Little Hard Work, Goes a Long Way

The low clouds kept the top of the city's skyscrapers out of sight and the air was cool. It all seemed fitting after talking with Spitalfield vocalist Mark Rose. Rose, 19 (20 in July) says the key to what Spitalfield has achieved thus far is keeping their feet on the ground and their head in the clouds. "You got to dream big to make it try to happen, but you've got to stay level headed about it," says Rose.

Rose is extremely nervous as we chat in the side ally next to a couple of green garbage cans at the Metro in Chicago. It's Spitalfield's first headlining show at the Metro. The first show Rose attended at the Metro was Snapcase and AFI, so it's something special to him. It's also their record release party for "Remember Right Now," which hit stores June 17. His nerves are obvious, but he seems more excited than scared.

Spitalfield (named after Jack the Ripper's hometown in London) was originally started as a side project while the guys were playing in hardcore bands. "As the hardcore bands slowly became defunct, we all took more and more of an interest in what we were doing on the side," says Rose. He says fans didn't take the band very seriously at first because they knew their hardcore bands, but didn't care about their pop band. "And now things [Spitalfield] started to pick up speed and we realized this is what we want to do and - fingers crossed - it would work out and it's starting to work out," he says.

Rose has been playing music since he was in kindergarten. At first Spitalfield didn't know they could pursue the band as a career until they started rubbing shoulders with major labels. "It's not about the money, but it's about being able to do it instead of other things," says Rose. To Rose, the whole idea of being in a band for as many years as possible is much better than going to school and having a regular job. "We all put our jobs on hold and our schooling on hold and we know we can go back to that if three [or] four years down the line, this doesn't work out," he adds.

Rose has always had a passion for melodic music. He played in hardcore bands because he loved the music, energy and atmosphere, but doesn't believe his change from hardcore to pop was difficult. Pop is what he's used to.

Spitalfield has and array of musical influences within their songs. Hints of hardcore, emo and punk make it difficult categorize. "We try to push our boundaries. We don't want to be considered just an emo band, we don't want just want to be a pop-punk band, we'd like to think to think we're somewhere in the middle of all of it," says Rose.

Early on, Spitalfield didn't venture out of the Midwest when they'd tour. It's obvious they've built a strong local following. As the interview moves along, fans see Rose standing near the sidewalk, wave and say "Hey Mark." He humbly acknowledges each one of them. Within the past year Spitalfield has been from California to Florida, expanding their fan base and experiences. They've toured with bands like The Movielife, Hey Mercedes and Thursday, which draw a good amount of people. They've also played smaller shows where turnouts haven't been so great. "We've hooked up with great local bands and been able to play to decent crowds without a name for ourselves yet, whereas there's been shows where we play to just the sound guy or the other bands and it's been depressing," says Rose.

Overall audiences all over the country have been receptive to Spitalfield. Rose believes all of the touring the band has done over the past two years has really paid off. "We do have kids out there who are excited for us already as this record's coming out", he says. "Kids are like 'Oh, I remember when you guys played here two years ago and I loved you,' and it's, like, so flattering to think like, 'Wow, this kid has been following us or this kid in some way or another remembers us.'" Spitalfield has spent many nights on the floors of their loving fans and through it all are gracious for what they've had to endure.

Rose says that a variety of bands that have influenced him. Specifically, he points out that Rise Against and Braid are probably the two biggest. Rise Against hails from the Chicago area and the boys from Spitalfield have been around them "forever," emphasizes Rose. Hey Mercedes has had the most influence on Spitalfield. "They were all in Braid and we all look up to them as individuals and songwriters," says Rose. "And I look up to Bob Nanna - the singer - as a writer musically and lyrically, he's just awesome."

According to Rose, all of the bigger bands Spitalfield has toured with has taught them something, whether they liked it or not.

In January, Spitalfield was signed to Chicago's own Victory Records. A label that they've grown up with since middle school. "There was other indie labels that talked to us, but none of which really were as personal and as excited about us as Victory was," says Rose with enthusiasm. Because Victory is from Chicago it was convenient for the band to meet with the label. Rose is quick to point out that the people at Victory are hard workers and have been extremely supportive.

Then it came time to record their Victory debut, "Remember Right Now." "We wanted to make sure we sounded how we wanted to sound, because live and on recording are two different ballgames, there's certain things you can pull off on one that you can't pull off on the other," explains Rose. "Live, you have energy, you have intensity, but on recording you have perfection," he adds. Rose believes that Spitalfield achieved what they set out to accomplish. And they're excited to do it again. "You get better recording in the studio every time you're in the studio."

As of early June Spitalfield's single for "I Loved the Way She Said L.A." was hovering at the number four spot on MP3.com. That song was above bands like AFI, Finch and Taking Back Sunday, obviously a huge accomplishment for this young band. "It was more of a shock than anything else," says Rose regarding the band's MP3.com popularity. "The height of excitement was when we hit number two on the Top 40," exclaims Rose. "It's insane; super exciting and it's crazy because it does so much leg work for us," he adds. He goes on to say that kids all over the world are getting a taste of Spitalfield and he's "floored" regarding the band's success.

What makes Spitalfield even more unique is they're just as normal as you and me. Rose speaks for the rest of the band when he tells me that Dan Lawder, the band's guitarist, plays video games and sits at restaurants with a Coke and smokes. Bassist T.J. Minich was at one time an assistant pre-school teacher, while J.D. Romero, Spitalfield's drummer, watches a lot of Motley Crue videos. Rose says he likes to hang out with friends as much as possible. And he likes hot wings.

At the end of the interview Rose humbly thanked me for talking with him. Even though I was one of a few interviews for the evening, Rose remained calm, but seemingly overwhelmed. If Spitalfield keep moving ahead as they've been doing for the past two years, then we'll all hear a lot more out of them. Because as Rose says "It's persistence, it's hard work, but it's also really paying attention to your surroundings."

By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / CEO

June 21, 2003