Spindrift

Spindrift emerged as a Los Angeles-based rock outfit steeped in cinematic atmosphere, though its members trace their origins to Newark, Delaware. Singer, songwriter, and actor Kirpatrick Thomas established the group, whose initial recordings—Diablo in 1994 and No Way to Anthill Heaven in 1996—drew heavily from the Doors, My Bloody Valentine, Hawkwind, Bruce Haack, and Chrome.

Thomas joined Joe Baluta and Zachary Hansen in relocating to Los Angeles in 1998. While Thomas pursued acting opportunities, the roster grew to encompass Bobby Bones of Psychic TV, Dave Koenig, Frankie “Teardrop” Emerson, Rob Campanella from the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Jason “Plucky” Anchondo of the Warlocks. Frequent personnel shifts accompanied a broadening sonic palette shaped by Thomas’s fixation on the mythic Old West portrayed in spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone, Sergio Corbucci, Sergio Sollima, Ferdinando Baldi, Tonino Valeri, and Enzo G. Castellari. The band performed extensively yet waited until 2002 to commit The Legend of God’s Gun to tape.

Thomas and filmmaker Mike Bruce launched production of an independent feature film bearing the same title in 2005, drawing on the visual style of those Westerns and the scores of Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Stelvio Cipriani, and Nico Fidenco. The ensemble at that stage featured Thomas on guitar and vocals, Koenig handling rhythm guitar and harmonica, Julie Patterson contributing vocals, lap steel, and organ, Henry Evans on double-neck bass and baritone guitar, and Anchondo on drums. Once the movie wrapped, the soundtrack received fresh overdubs and appeared again in 2007, now augmented by tracks from Gram Rabbit and Bruce’s own Low-Flying Owls. Spindrift supplied the music for the Quentin Tarantino production Hell Ride in 2008 while simultaneously issuing their own album West.

Tee Pee reissued the Legend of God’s Gun soundtrack in 2009. A subsequent tour left only Thomas and Evans in the lineup. Personnel continued to rotate, yet the group stayed busy, placing music in Vice’s documentary series, HBO’s Eastbound and Down, and providing the score for director J.X. Williams’s restored Tecumseh’s Curse. Xemu Records released the compilation Classic Soundtracks, Vol. 1 in 2011, by which point James Acton had joined on drums and Michelle Vidal had come aboard for vocals, keyboards, and percussion.

In 2012 the band embarked on its five-week Ghost Town Tour, performing both original material and selections from the classic cowboy repertoire across twenty abandoned American sites. Director Burke Roberts and his crew documented the journey on film. Studio renditions of that material surfaced as the album Ghost of the West in fall 2013.