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Tim DeLaughter Reflects on 15 Years Leading The Polyphonic Spree

The Dallas band is celebrating its 15th anniversary.
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The Polyphonic Spree played its first show on July 15, 2000, at the now-defunct Gypsy Tea Room. It was the opening act for a sellout show by indie-rock band Grandaddy, but the crowd was eager, too, to see the debut of the new project from Tim DeLaughter, the former frontman for Tripping Daisy, Deep Ellum heroes throughout much of the ’90s. The group was smaller then than it would be going forward—only 13 members took the stage, as opposed to as many as 25 later on—but the hallmarks were already in place: joyful songs played with ecstatic, almost maniacal glee by a symphonic-leaning band in choir robes. The band’s stage presentation has gotten bigger and more elaborate, somewhere between an off-Broadway musical and a tent revival, but the essential nature of the group remains unchanged from that first show. The Spree is on tour to celebrate its 15th anniversary. We caught up with DeLaughter just before he took the circus out on the road again.

Did you expect to still be talking about The Polyphonic Spree in 2015? It’s a freaking shock. I can’t believe we’ve been going for so long for something that’s such a nightmare in my life. [laughs] It’s been a rough road, but it’s been a good road. It’s fun. I’ve had a lot of awesome experiences with it, and it’s taken us all over the world. I’ve done so many things I never thought I’d ever do. I’ve had some of the most surreal moments in my life with this band.

Well, I figured out really quick that I needed a lot of money. Because we had to house everybody. That’s what I figured out.



It really took off for you guys at South by Southwest in 2002. Back then, bands didn’t play many shows—maybe an official showcase and a day party. But you guys were everywhere, including opening for Robbie Robertson’s keynote speech. That was a gig that we got at the last minute. We had to get there at 8 in the morning. It was crazy, because it was an awesome show in such a weird, awkward environment—a banquet room with fluorescent lights. Not accommodating for a band at all. But we just knocked it out. There was a standing ovation. I come off the stage, and Jon Pareles from the New York Times comes over and he goes, “Do you realize what you just did? You have every journalist in the country in this room on their feet.” The next day, we were in every newspaper across the country and people were talking about it, and so—boom—we were able to start getting gigs.

How long did it take you to figure out how to travel with so many people? Well, I figured out really quick that I needed a lot of money. Because we had to house everybody. That’s what I figured out. Holy s—, this is an expensive band to tour. It was like five bands touring at once, as one band.

A few years ago, you used Kickstarter to raise money to record a new album and tour. I’d been watching it from afar—crowd funding—and I wasn’t really keen on it. It was hard for me to get my head around asking people for money for the band. I’d never done anything like that. It felt uncomfortable for me, but I came to grips with it. I realized that, well, I’m not asking them for free money. We give them things for their donation. That’s how I justified it. You’re basically buying something. Then it made sense to me.

The Polyphonic Spree has played a few Tripping Daisy songs live over the years. You’ve talked about putting out a Tripping Daisy boxed set. Is that still happening? There’s just so much. Julie [his wife] documented basically everything with Tripping Daisy. She filmed the making of every record, then downtime, tours, shows. So we kind of get going into it, and we wanna elaborate on it. Like, this needs to be a documentary. How are we going to package this all together? We’re trying to put it all in this one box. We’re definitely doing something, but I’m not sure how it’s going to come out yet.

One last thing: is it true when you shoot off confetti you have to pay a fee to the venue? Oh my God, yeah. Anytime you see a band that’s doing that, they’re paying usually between $300 and $500 for a cleanup fee. I mean, think about it. They don’t want to have to deal with that s— after a show. That’s like a nightmare for them. There are some places that have banned it.

Are balloons okay? Yeah, balloons seem to be fine everywhere.

A version of this Q&A appears in the October issue of D Magazine.

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