‘Halfway through 2006, a guy came over from the UK for a wedding. It was at the Hawksbury River and his driver said ‘Ninety minutes’. We made this demo and somehow it ended up in this guy’s car. His name was Jamie and he runs Ark Recordings. He contacted us, saying he loves it and wants to sign us. We thought it was a joke and didn’t reply. Two weeks later he was like, “I’m serious. I wanna hear some more songs!” ’
If Sparkadia weren’t busy in the lead up to *Jamie Davis*’s private listening party, things certainly hit full tilt after it. Alex Burnett (lead vocals and guitar), Dave Hall (drums), Rabone Hogan (bass and vocals) and Josephine Ayling (guitar, keys and vocals) had barely enough time to throw some socks and jocks in a bag and head off to Mother England to lay down some tracks.
‘It’s been a crazy twelve months!’ agrees Alex, incredulously.‘We went to London to record our album with Ben Hillier, who worked with U2, Blur, Depeche Mode, Doves, Suede —lots of other great artists. It was incredible. We had to record really quickly which contributed to the freshness and rawness of the sound. We were pretty excited—when you’re working with people that love and understand great music it’s a no-brainer really.
When Alex says ‘people’ he’s also referring to Ark Recordings co-founder Russell Warby, who represents The White Stripes, The Strokes, The Foo Fighters, Elliot Smith and—previously— Nirvana. As well, explains Alex, ‘Jamie had worked with Grant Coxon and You Am I so he definitely had musical pedigree.’
Don’t assume that pedigree in Sparkadia’s lineup was lacking. They had been on a slow burn years before Jamie Davis was invited to the riverside wedding. ‘Dave and I [started buying] amazing second-hand records like The Beatles, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders , *The Police*—artists that we didn’t know about ‘cause we were only kids. We really built up an understanding about what we wanted to do musically.’
‘For me, with music and art it should always be beautiful to start with. Everything we do musically, we want to try and make organic. We try to push things and do things a bit differently.’
2006 saw Sparkadia morph into a four-piece, inviting Josephine to contribute to their collective. ‘The three-piece, from a live point of view, was quite limiting. It’s sort of hard to play elaborate things on the guitar while singing,’ Alex confesses. ‘Jo was a friend [and] I sent her some songs. She kind of fell in love with the demos and joined the band. We’ve never looked back.’
As the singer and lyricist Alex feels that ‘a lot of that songwriting does come down to me. I’ve got to sing what I believe.’ But it can often take different paths and processes, with a more concerted group effort.
‘ Our Own Way happened in five minutes. We just hit record—it worked and was beautiful. Others take a while to craft. _Animals_—we had the rough idea, added a weird middle eight and worked through it so it was a really interesting song to listen to—it had lots of twists and turns.
New single Animals is going great guns in the airplay stakes, ahead of it’s December 10 launch and Sparkadia are planning a second single release ( Too Much To Do) in March as a precede to their debut LP Postcards.
Alex ventures an explanation of their expectations for the album, ‘The best records, I think, grab you at first but then become that record you always pull out. That’s what we were hoping to do with Postcards. Not blow your head off straight away… you can get it at the first listen, but if you listen to it a few more times, you can hear and see other things in there and appreciate it on a different level.’
Get in early for Sparkadia’s December shows:
Dec 14 @ Candy’s Apartment, Sydney NSW
w/- Expatriate & Cloud Control
Dec 21 @ Newcastle City Hall – The Loft, Newcastle NSW
Dec 29 @ The Espy – Melbourne VIC
Dec 30 @ Pyramid Rock Festival (Pharaohs Annex Stage), Phillip Island VIC
Dec 31 @ Sydney Uni Manning Bar (FBI Stage), Sydney NSW
