Spencer Seim

Spencer playing in Hella at the High Five in Columbus, Ohio

Spencer Seim (Born January 28th 1981) is best known as the guitarist in the band Hella. He is also the drummer in the Nintendo music cover band called The Advantage. His composition style is mode heavy. He has been practicing on and off with Zach Hill (Hella drummer) since they both started playing music and both have been influencing each other throughout their musicianship. Playing for The Advantage, Spencer drums employing methods such as repetitive doubles on a single bass drum and quick cymbal muting. Spencer's style also often incorporates complex time signatures, well evidenced on Chirpin' Hard and recordings by the Advantage.

Spencer recently started a solo project named sBACH. The sticker on the cover of the self-titled release says "a thousand times better than Hella or The Advantage.

Equipment

Spencer's guitars, SF3 and SF0SS, are designed by Scott French. They feature a nut pickup, a built-in amplified egg shaker, and individual outputs for each string pickup. His own beard clippings are used in the finish of the SF0SS. In February 2006 Spencer bought another Scott French guitar, made of eucalyptus and grafted walnut measuring ½ inch thick around the outside edge of the guitar's entire body. This is the only guitar Spencer used on Hella's 2007 release There's No 666 in Outer Space.

When Hella was a two piece, Spencer only used a Boss LS-2 Line Selector to switch between distortion and clean tones. He played on either a Fender Stratocaster or Telecaster and used a classic Marshall amp head as late as 2003. On the tour following the release of Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard, Spencer was seen with an expanded setup using a pedal board.

Discography

With sBACH

• "sBACH" August 19, 2008, Suicide Squeeze

With The Advantage

• The Advantage (April 6, 2004, 5RC)
• 2004 West Coast Tour CD (February 2004, self-released)
• 2004 US Tour CD (October 2004, self-released)
• Elf Titled (January 24, 2006, 5RC)
• "Underwear: So Big!" 2006 Tour CD-R (August 2006, self-released)

With Hella

Albums

• Hold Your Horse Is CD/LP (2002, 5RC)
• The Devil Isn't Red CD (2004, 5RC)
• Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard 2xCD (2005, Suicide Squeeze)
• There's No 666 in Outer Space CD (2007, Ipecac Recordings)
• Tripper CD (2011, Sargent House)

EPs

• Leather Diamond CD-R EP (2001)
• Falam Dynasty 7" (2002, 5RC)
• Bitches Ain't Shit But Good People EP (2003, Suicide Squeeze)
• Total Bugs Bunny On Wild Bass EP (2003, Narnack Records)
• Acoustics EP (2004 & 2005, Toad Records (Japan); 2006, 5RC (US), with additional songs)
• Concentration Face/Homeboy DVD/CD EP (2005, 5RC)

Split releases

• Live 2xCD (Sick Room, October 10, 2003) (with Dilute)
• Hella/Four Tet Split 7" (Ache, March 12, 2004) (with Four Tet)

External links

• Biography at Modern Drummer magazine