Spiritbox Vocalist Courtney LaPlante Aims to be First Woman to Win ‘Best Metal Performance’ Grammy
In a recent interview with music journalist Igor Miranda, Spiritbox leader Courtney La Plante spoke about the band’s upcoming album, and how she feels about being nominated for a Grammy a second time.
When asked about how excited she is for their new album Tsunami Sea to be released, Courtney said this, as transcribed by Blabbermouth:
“I wish that it was coming out next week. I wanna play these songs so badly. I want to play these songs live for our fans. I want them to hear these songs. And it feels very far away, but it’s for the best, because now it’s my job to make sure that as many people as possible hear the songs, and it’s my job now to be the ambassador for these songs. So it is good that it’s gonna come out like pretty far in the future for me. March 7th feels very far away.”
Spiritbox has also scored their second Grammy nomination for “Best Metal Performance” for their track “Cellar Door.” It’s the second song from their EP The Fear of Fear to garner that level of attention, with their first nomination being for the single “Jaded.” About the nom, LaPlante expressed a bit of disbelief.
“I can’t believe it. I’m so excited. And I was so surpris first ed last year when we were nominated. To be nominated again off the same body of work is such an honor. But I will say the thing that makes this one different to me is that usually, historically, it’s all legacy bands [that get nominated], the biggest bands in the world, and then maybe one small band — maybe. But this time, instead of just us as the small band, us and Knocked Loose and Poppy, where both of us, two of the five bands are younger bands. And we have Gojira, who had the greatest metal performance of all time at the Olympics as well in there, which is so cool.
“But I’m so inspired that both of us — us and Knocked Loose and Poppy — are nominated because I’ve never seen that before where two newer bands both got in there. So I think we’re both really excited for each other. And if we don’t win, I would love for them to win, because since this award has ever existed — this award, the first year was when I was born, in 1989. There was one year where Lzzy Hale and Halestorm won, when it was the hard rock and metal Grammy [‘Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance’], but no woman has ever won the “Best Metal Performance” Grammy since it came out in 1989. And I think about that every year. I’m almost 36 years old. 36 years, a woman’s never won. And now there’s more chances than ever for a woman to win. So I’m really excited. I hope that we win. I hope that Knocked Loose and Poppy win. Or if Gojira wins, there’s a woman who’s an opera singer on that song. So there’s three out of five chances for that ceiling, that glass ceiling to finally shatter.”
I fuckin hope you shatter that ceiling, Courtney. It’s about time. Tsunami Sea is set to drop on March 7 next year, via Pale Chord/Rise Records. It was produced by Mike Stringer and Dan Braunstein, mixed by Zakk Cervini and mastered by Ted Jensen.
