Deseree Spinks, along with her band, Des and the Swagmatics represents the past, present and future of Asbury Park music.
Des started her journey in the City that Bruce Built as a fan — going to see bands like Status Green and The Obvious performing around the city well before condos and high rises took over the boardwalk. Presently (and for nearly a decade plus) she has been the frontwoman of one of cornerstone bands in the Asbury Park music scene who act as the standard bearers of how a band puts on a show, and leaves it all on the floor. And as for the future, well we’re on the precipice of a brand new album from the band which could lead them to sojourn from the city by the sea out around the country.
Recently, we caught up with Deseree Spinks to discuss the new music from Des and the Swagmatics, performing with Gloria Gaynor’s horn section, the wonder year that was 2025 for the band, and performing at Telegraph Hill Records‘ What a Wonderful Year concert at the Wonder Bar on Sunday December 28.
“My Place” is your new song — tell us about the song and how you got Gloria Gaynor’s horn section to be a part of it, because that’s not an insignificant thing.
We’ve had a very large series of fortunate events pop up for us. I feel like a lot of the new material that we’re starting to release now, we started writing during COVID. We were still playing and we were one of the few bands that kept playing throughout that whole thing, but less than we do now. We were in each other’s quarantine bubbles, so we’d get together at Craig’s [Lawlor] house, and we’d sit and write these tunes. I’d come up with them on my piano at home, and then I’d bring them to the guys. Normally, prior to this record, a lot of our songs were written by me, and [then the guys] put their parts on it. This time around was much more of a collaborative effort. We all helped with the lyrics.
We had just come off of doing a Donna Summer show at The Stone Pony. We were doing Convention Hell, which had moved to The Pony at that point. So we were in this disco mode, and we were really feeling that era. And the song came out of it. Gloria Gaynor’s horn section was a phenomenal stroke of luck for us. Well, for Ray [Saada], mainly. Ray actually tours with Gloria whenever she goes out on this side of the globe. So he plays the U.S. and South America, and I think she has other guys that she uses in Europe, but she needed a keyboard player.
Our good friend John got him the gig, so he had been playing with Gloria for months and months by the time we were wrapping up recording on this. And initially, we were like, ‘Okay, we need horns, we’ll hire The Ocean Avenue Stompers.’ But, those guys are, although they’re such dear friends of mine — no shade, literally no shade — they are so busy that it’s impossible to get a hold of them on their schedule. They play more than we do, if that’s even possible.
So, we’re like, “Well, damn it, we need horns. What are we gonna do?” And Ray’s like, ‘I bet if I asked these guys in Gloria’s band that they would come and do this for us.’ It was such a crazy, crazy thing that they yes, and that they came, and that they put down what they did. It’s how I dreamed this band would one day sound, and it’s really, really cool to see it kind of come to life.
Is that dream coming true because of the collaborative writing and creative process, or is it just years of doing it?
I think it’s a combination of the two. The guys have been with me for now … I think the eldest members, which are Craig and Ray …have been around for over 10 years now. Kevin [Stryker], Randy [Preston] even maybe going on six? Time isn’t real.
But they’ve been with me for so long that they know my sound and my sensibilities. So it’s really easy for them to step in the role of co-writer, and me being as big of a control freak as I am, I don’t trust nobody, so the fact that they are able to come in and find the thing that works for us is really very, very cool and very fulfilling. It feels like it’s all of our years of putting into this and working together on this that has made this so easy to slide into this process for us.
What’s your mindset with the new record? Are you dropping this all at once, or doing this a slow drip of songs?
So, the music industry of today is super lame in that it’s a singles game. Very few people are listening to full-length albums anymore. And as largely as I wanted this to be a full-length release, I think we’re going to release several singles before we get to that point. We have “Practice What We Preach” coming out, we have already released “My Place” over Spring. We’ll probably release at least one more brand new tune, and then I’m gonna try and keep everything else close to my chest until the record comes out. I’m gonna try my best.
So would you look at album releases now more like a TV series than as a movie? Where people are essentially listening to the album episodically in a way?
I feel like it takes a good amount for people to really buy into your band. I think a good single does that for you, but the beautiful part about that … Well, the one good thing, other than the whole streaming business needing to be reformed in a big way … but the big and beautiful thing about it is that once your audience finds you, they are very, very, very loyal. So, if we can get a couple more people on the Swagmatics train, I think they’ll buy into the album. They’ll be really excited to see, kind of, what we have created here for them.
So the theme of the concert is What a Wonderful Year. While we just said time is an illusion give me your thoughts on the year of the Swagmatics 2025.
Oh my god, it was great!
We’ve been really, really, really fortunate as far as bands go. One, because most bands don’t make it as long as we have, so they break up, and there’s a lot of personality issues there. While we have had a few personnel changes over the many years that we have been in establishment. We have had successful years in the past, but this year, we got to play The Pony twice. One was closing out for P-Funk, which was absolutely surreal. P-Funk and Living Color, I would have been at that concert anyway, so getting to play that concert was nuts. And then, shortly thereafter, headlining our first show at The Pony, which was in my own personal opinion, long overdue. However, the fact that we were able to, you gotta believe in yourself. The fact that we were able to do it, and that we were able to fill the room, and that so many people came, and knew the words to the song … by the end of the show, I was literally a blubbering mess. I could not keep it together.
Sometimes you take for granted a lot of time all of the work that you do, and work that you put in, because a show is a show is a show is a show is a show. I put all of my everything into every show, but that one specifically was really a big moment for us. And then playing PorchFest is always a huge, a huge win for us. We went up to the Catskills this year. Actually, last year part of the song that we’re about to release, we recorded with a full-length choir there. I think I’m running out of things, but we’ve been really blessed. We’ve been very, very, very lucky this year.
You guys play a lot in Jersey and the surrounding areas.Do you have any designs to go on a national tour of shows?
Absolutely! After the gig at the Pony, we were like, wait a minute! We could probably do this. Prior to COVID, we were playing a lot in New York City, because it’s our neighbor, and it’s really easy to just kind of travel there. But this year, we actually have a couple dates in the books down in Delaware, and we’re looking into Philly. We have some very dear friends down in Nashville and Florida. We’re putting the groundwork into at least going and playing long weekends at these places so we can eventually set up the big, long Swagmatics tour. So, this coming year, 2026, is when we’re gonna start kind of laying the foundations of that happening for us. It’s very exciting. It’s pretty scary, but what is there to lose at this point?
What a Wonderful Year is being presented by Telegraph Hill Records can you talk about them as a label and what they’ve done for the band.
The nice part about Telegraph Hill is that, unlike other labels or co-op labels, they really, really let the artist be in charge. And again, as someone who is a tremendous control freak, and really, really feels like the image that I put out is as important as the music — how I am perceived is part of how much you like my music. And I feel like this entity, persona coming through is largely a testament to Telegraph, who allows me to do this completely free reign.The fact that they are so supportive of their artists, they promote us on their social media, they put together festivals like this.
Pom [Joe Pomarico] and Fern [Matt Fernicola], I’ve been working with now for a bunch of years, and I love the crap out of them. I just really love how big cheerleaders they are for us. They’re the main ones that are like – ‘We gotta get this music out, what are you doing? It’s so good!’ I highly implore any young artist that is looking for a start, a community, a place to begin their recording process, who already have an idea of who you are, though, because they’re not gonna give that to you. If you’re ready to make something about it, then you should at least come down to WAWY (What a Wonderful Year), see what Telegraph Hill Records is about, see what the artists on their roster do, see if that’s something that you vibe with. Even if you’re not an artist, and you just want to see that there’s still original music being made in this town, despite all the gentrification and all of the music business making music about making money. This is still pretty authentic. I high-key recommend everyone come get a two-day pass. Treat yourself. We’re on night two, though, so make sure you come to that one specifically.
