'We Want To Be The Biggest Band In The World': Meet Stylish Punks Spiritual Cramp

“It’s weird, for a long time our band played either Oi! or indie-rock shows, but I guess now we play all types,” Spiritual Cramp’s Michael Bingham says, reflecting on his band’s recent (and judging by this video, absolutely killer) set at Punk Rock Bowling’s 2023 festival in Las Vegas. “Going out there, you’re playing to people who listen to Rancid and Pennywise. We’d never done anything fully in that lane before, but we played a 500 cap room and it was sold out.”

Watching the footage, it’s hard to look away from Spiritual Cramp’s energetic, sunglasses-wearing tambourine player. “We have a couple of people who play auxiliary percussion,” Michael explains. “That was Max, he’s been in the band since our inception. He only plays when there’s a stage big enough. We recently played with Iggy Pop and he played at that. We also did a festival in Spain and he was out in this huge sea of people crowd-surfing.”

If it’s not clear already, a growing rumble of momentum is amassing behind Spiritual Cramp. Fusing hardcore energy, ‘77 punk’s directness and garage-rock’s poppier sensibilities, the six-piece are a note-perfect synthesis of some of history’s most iconic rock bands. Paired with their immaculate look (think harrington jackets, thick-rimmed spectacles and Doc Martens) Spiritual Cramp’s whole aesthetic and vibe screams ‘cool’.

“Cool has been a big part of my life, both good and bad,” Michael sighs. “I grew up poor and identified early on that if I was in a cool band people would like me. It’s something I always chased. But as I’ve grown up, I’ve realised that it’s not about your band’s popularity or your clothing, it’s about being cool to the people around you.”

Born in San Francisco, the nerve centre for some of history’s coolest subcultures, Spiritual Cramp’s members are now split between their hometown and Los Angeles. They meet up to practise when required and write songs remotely. “Myself and Mike [Fenton, bass] trade demos, then when it’s time to record we send them to everyone else to learn,” Michael clarifies. 

For a rising, relatively new band, having members scattered across cities hundreds of miles apart could pose a potential challenge. Michael is unfazed. “With our band we’ve always had defined leadership, which is efficient when organisations are fragmented,” he says. “It means I can direct things, everyone knows what to do. None of us want to be living in a squat together and talking about our feelings anymore.”

Michael talks with focus and clarity of vision, the type that only comes from extensive experience. Like the rest of Spiritual Cramp, he’s a veteran of California’s punk scene. He fronted post-punk outfit Creative Adult, who were briefly signed to Run For Cover Records, was a member of experimental punks Self Defense Family, and more recently played bass in Spice, alongside Ceremony’s Ross Farrar and Jake Casarotti. Various Spiritual Cramp bandmates, meanwhile, played in hardcore bands with names like Scalped, Fentanyl and Primal Bite.

The band’s genre-fluidity and air of swaggering confidence is a natural extension of these varied origins. Their stripped–down, electric songs smack of a band crafting art that’s true to their interests in a way that only maturity can inspire. “I did a lot of hardcore between the age of 18 and 23, but I’ve always leaned towards post-punk and jangly music,” Michael says. “Ross always sends me angular post-punk stuff and tells me it’s the ‘most Mike B music’ ever.”

This might be observer bias, but from their musical influences to their mod clothing to their Bez-like tambourine player, there seems to be a distinct Anglophile air about Spiritual Cramp. Michael agrees. “San Francisco has a rich history of skinhead music,” he explains. “I always wore Fred Perrys, because I thought they were cool, but I learned so much when I moved to San Francisco. We have British homies there and they taught us about a ton of great stuff.”

This keen sense of aesthetics is integral to Spiritual Cramp’s mission. Their outfits, in particular, are razor-sharp and, like the mods and punks before them, serve a deeper purpose than just a well-coordinated flex. “You have to be conscious of the decisions you’re making as a band,” Michael observes. “I want people to understand that, when I walk into a room I’m not fucking around, nor are my friends. The way we dress is all a part of this bigger story that we’re trying to tell.”

The next chapter in the Spiritual Cramp story is their forthcoming second album. Nothing has been officially announced as of yet, but Michael reveals that he’s “just thought of a title today” and that it’ll be “out later in the year”. “We have a lot of music recorded,” he continues. “I think we have like 20 songs, so we’ll be releasing lots of stuff over the next few years.” 

In the interim, as a sort of interlude in the band’s growing narrative, Spiritual Cramp’s Phone Lines Down/Nah That Ain’t It seven-inch is out now via Blue Grape Music, a new label founded by ex-Roadrunner Records hierarchy. Both tracks are ridiculously fun and serve as a riotous tease of where the band are headed. Phone Lines Down is a proto punk-leaning banger, while Nah That Ain’t It is catchy indie rock in the vein of The Cribs or Interpol.

The single shows off the different faces of Spiritual Cramp, which are executed with remarkable panache. The band oozes class and has all the ingredients to continue their upwards trajectory. Bingham’s ambitions speak for themselves: “We don’t want to be a small band, we want to be the biggest band in the world,” he says.

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