Whilst on tour in February last year, his tenth anniversary of touring as a drummer, Tony Hajjar, drummer for American rock group Sparta and former member of the cult hardcore group, At the Drive-In anxiously rang his manager and said, “what is up with this tour, I’m really tired?’.

It was February 1996 that At the Drive-In played their first official show and coincidently it was February 2006 that Tony, for the first time in his life felt that he had had enough of being on the road and touring as a musician.

By the time At the Drive-In had released their groundbreaking album, Relationship of Command the band was having a very difficult time coping with being thrown into the beaming spotlight. Tony spoke openly about the tough time that was the year 2001, it was incredibly difficult when “everyone wants you”, the band was experiencing excruciating “growing pains during a crazy time in all our lives”, he said.

The band split up just months after their disastrous 2001 East coast Big Day Out tour of Australia, which was well documented in the music press for the band’s forceful stance on aggressive crowd behaviour. An incident which Tony described as a culmination of the stress and difficulties of being in band that were thrown into the spotlight without any real warning.

Sparta was born of the remnants of At the Drive-In, with three former members, Paul Hinojos, Jim Ward and Tony Hajjar forming the new band along with the addition of bass player Matt Miller from the El-Paso based rock band Belknap. Tony spoke about the difficulty that Sparta experienced in creating their own identity as a band.

A difficulty born due to the sudden and extensive critical acclaim that At the Drive-In received, along with the musical press making Jim, Paul and Tony feel like nothing more than a “back up band” for the musical ideas of Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, now The Mars Volta.

Sparta finally broke free from the shackles of expectation of At the Drive-In and focused on what Tony describes as “starting something fresh and unique”. Sparta began writing songs straight after At the Drive-In dissolved. Jim became lead vocals, Tony left the bass for an electric guitar and in 2002 the band’s fantastic debut album, Wiretap Scars was created.

“The band is still on the path to becoming better songwriters”, Tony exclaims and this is certainly where the band has and is continuing to grow, with their latest album release, Threes, they forge their own identity and solidify their separation from At the Drive-In. However, as Tony remarked, it is a “slow process”.

After talking with Tony it is apparent that ... Sparta’s quest is the continual effort to become better songwriters. The band hold the attitude, true to their roots and socio-political convictions of never making “a conscious effort to be different”, either from other bands or themselves, they believe in creating music that they want to play when they want to play it.

Although things have not always been so focused within the group, in the middle of 2005 the band was going through some very difficult times that resulted in the departure of guitarist Paul Hinojos. The group had only released two records and it looked as if the group were heading down the same path of destruction that At the Drive-In eventually did.

Tony described the inclusion of new guitarist, Keeley Davis, from Virginian based art-rock band Engine Down, as the saving grace. He has been an “amazing plus…which breathed life into a band that was going through a very very tough time”, he remarked.

Sparta’s new lease of life, initiated by the inclusion of Keeley Davis into the group, has driven the band away from the more experimental and grandiose sound of their second record, Porcelain, back to the type of music they enjoy the most. Tony believes it is this new lease of life which has made the group “decide to go back to playing like a garage band”, and things could not be better.

Tony described 2007 as the happiest he has ever been. The weariness of touring has worn off, Sparta are creating the type of music he and the band love to play, the current U.S tour is going well and when the band arrive down under for three shows in July he promised that he will “play like it’s the last shows” he will ever perform.