Roman Rock Musician the Spikes Finds New Home In Boulder

Iago Haussman's music draws inspiration from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Great Gatsby, and Apocalypse Now.

Solo artist Iago Haussman is the man behind Boulder indie project the Spikes. 

Courtesy the Spikes

Iago Haussman is settling into his new Boulder surroundings.

The Rome-raised musician who plays out as the Spikes has been coming stateside since he was a child, so there wasn’t too much of a culture shock when he decided to make the college town his home nearly three years ago, after recording his 2023 self-titled debut EP here.

“I knew for a while that I wanted to leave Rome,” the 22-year-old says. “Not because of any specific reason, but just because the music scene in Rome is not as strong as it is in Boulder. I feel that Boulder has a bit more of a scene, more of a live music city.

“I’ve traveled to Denver, to Lafayette, Longmont, and I really, really like how each place here has its own subculture, its own scene beneath the scene,” Haussman continues. “You can tell how important music is here inside of the U.S. and Boulder a bit more clearly than Italy. You can see how it changes people, how it can affect the way people think, the way people feel, their style, their emotions. You can really feel that.”

He also feels he can make a similar impact in Boulder, given its breadth and support of independent artists.

“It really does depend on what you’re doing and creating. I feel that there is a lot more opportunities here, smaller venues for up-and-coming artists, the open mics and, I think you guys call it, the jam sessions here,” Haussman says. “I feel like for people who are up and coming, it’s a pretty good scene.”

Embracing an alter ego and finding a new sound

And that’s where he currently is with the Spikes. After breaking up with his high school punk band, he wanted to shift his sound and reflect a more mature version of himself as a musician. “The Spikes” moniker is more of an alter ego of sorts, and allowing him to do that. Honing in on indie alt-pop, Haussman is now showing exactly what this is with his first long-play, First Light, released independently last Halloween.

“I didn’t quite know what I was doing,” he says of the sonic sea change. “I was trying to figure out my voice and what the next sound was for me. I knew that I wanted to try something different, and I knew that I wanted to explore more of my lyrical chops, I would say.

“I just started to write, and the first EP was really just me trying to figure out my voice. I was trying to find my sound, trying to experiment with anything,” he adds. “I feel that First Light is a much more refined and raw version of my first EP.”

While heavily inspired by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, particularly more modern albums Push the Sky Away (2013) and Ghosteen (2019), Haussman, with his baritone voice, pulled a lot of creativity from other mediums. As a poet and painter, he turned to American literature and film while writing First Light.

“Yes, it was not just musical inspiration, but another huge inspiration for one of the songs was The Great Gatsby,” he says of previously released single “Dancing (In the Palm of My Hand).” “I was also inspired by films like Apocalypse Now,” which served at the jumping off point of track “Jungle Boy,” he notes.

“It was a mixture of all forms of media that inspired me to create this album, but I feel that mixture helped me with creating the full picture here,” says Haussman, who prefers wearing simple black suits and unbuttoned white dress shirts.

Typically, he doesn’t try to hinder the music muse, but harness it whenever it does strike — whether he’s consciously working on it or focusing on another artform.

Read the full article: https://www.westword.com/music/iago-haussman-the-spikes-boulder-music-40851717/