For people of a certain age, saying that “Alternative radio saved my life” isn’t a statement to be taken lightly. (“What’s radio?” some kiddies might ask. “What’s alternative?” others might implore.) But for generations X and Y, hearing Thom Yorke’s swooning voice or the fingerpicked fraternity of Tom DeLonge is like sunshine. Now there’s a song that perfectly embodies the alternative spirit and epoch.


And it comes from a rapper.

“Alternative Radio” is a standout track on Why Am I So Happy?, the latest album by Spose. It’s a roll call of rock giants: Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Tool, Sublime, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, the Offspring, the Verve, the Pixies… even Lit. He incorporates unmistakable riffs into his chill cadences: the ice-cream truck ditty of “Today,” the ghostly backing vocals from “Where Is My Mind…”

“I’m always fighting against stereotypes of rap music,” he says in a phone chat a few days before July 4. “Ever since I first came out, my first album had some guitar solos and this and that. I grew up playing guitar.”

 

Rock and Rap Rolled into One

His stoner inflections and self-eviscerating rhymes first charmed the masses in the late 2000s. In 2010, “I’m Awesome” flipped the bird at typical hip-hop machismo and earned the man also known as Ryan Michael Peters a piece of the mainstream pie. He briefly signed to Universal, but even a condensed window of time was enough to put his stamp on music.

Growing up in Maine, Spose fostered a fascination with the gruesome world of gangsta rap, alongside his love of grunge and alt rock.

“I always equate it to like reading books: John Steinbeck is my favorite author, right? So I read John Steinbeck and he will describe—“ A wail is heard the background as he muffles the phone. “I just had twins and they’re screaming, sorry.”

He continues: “And so John Steinbeck will describe Salinas Valley, California, so perfectly, you feel like you’re there. I had never been there till this past year, but my whole life I felt like I had been there because I read the books and I felt like I get it, you know? His writing would take me there. That’s the same way I feel like about Notorious B.I.G. or Jay Z. Their description of a Brooklyn or something takes me there.”

The bands named in “Alternative Radio” took young Peters away from the cyclone of his parents’ divorce, middle-school crushes and underage drinking binges. He fell so hard in love with music that he started working (illegally, he admits) at a local newspaper, reviewing albums and absorbing the gritty gusto of the era. To this day, he works part time at a radio station “play[ing] all the Reel Big Fish I want.”

 

Mellon Collie Man

Like the fans that will drive hours to see his concerts, Spose is an unapologetic music junkie. He used to run a prominent Smashing Pumpkins website and has six tattoos inspired by Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. He has formulated songs around Blink-182’s “Dammit (Growing Up),” and Nine Inch Nails’ “The Perfect Drug”. His guitarist told him that the Happy track “Little Different” reminds him of the Bloodhound Gang. He’s collaborated with Letters to Cleo singer Kay Hanley. And he’s opened for Weezer and Stone Temple Pilots.

When he recalls that experience, he sounds as though he still can’t believe he shared a stage with his heroes.

“I love, love, love, love Weezer,” he gushes. “Well, like all of us, I love the first two albums. …. I actually really like Maladroit, too. What was I going to say? When ‘I’m Awesome’ became really popular a few years ago, I had the opportunity to play so many of these festivals with all these alternative musicians that I grew up loving just because they were all out touring at the time. So I played like five shows with Weezer and was able to just like… talk to Pat Wilson from Weezer backstage. Or we played with Stone Temple Pilots out in Iowa, or right around the border from Nebraska. And it was just incredible. It was really the coolest thing in the world to me because we’re on two acts before these people I grew up listening to my whole life. And it was like 12, 16,000 people. Huge shows! It was a really awesome opportunity for me. I was super thankful for it.”

 

The Future's So Bright...

Maybe someday we’ll hear of a rap or indie rock superstar who got his or her start opening for Spose. As for Peters? He, too, keeps his eyes on tomorrow.

“I know a lot of other people who love the ’90s have a sadness about today and can’t let go of the past or whatever,” he says. “It’s like, you gotta appreciate the past for what it was but realize the greatest thing we’ve got is the future.”