TD 1
“We’re really looking forward to coming back to D
ublin. I’ve been going through my James Joyce, so I’m ready to hit the spots! ” “You know, like, Todd Rundgren, Giorgio Moroder, Tony Visconti, and Muff Winwood. That kind of level of people, where they were always beneficial. They were judgemental about material, and so, as a songwriter, sometimes your lovely little child is considered a little less lovely by somebody who probably knows more about that than you do. But you kind of accept it from somebody who’s worked on projects like they’ve worked on. “But, now, I think we’ve gotten to the point where, in a technical way, Russell, especially, is able to work in a way that is suitable for what we’re doing in a studio, but also, just as far as prejudging songs, we can kind of put a little bit of distance between ourselves and judge the songs more in the same way – well, not exactly the same way because you wrote it – but you try to put yourself in a position where you can more objectively view what you’ve done and think, ‘Well, maybe that’s not so great. ’ So, we feel really comfortable 26 working the way that we work now, without a producer, but we learnt from so many great producers.” After completing the album, Sparks, who had been label-hopping for most of their career, were looking for somebody to carry it. They found who they were looking for with the independent London-based label Transgressive Records, the current home for acts like Foals, Alvvays, Damon Albarn’s solo material, and Arlo Parks. Mad! was Sparks’ first release with Transgressive. “We’re really fortunate because I believe that they were given a copy of the record, and we didn’t know the people at the label before, but we were so impressed with them when we did meet them and their passion for not only what we were doing, but for good music in general,” Ron says of working with Transgressive. “So, from our perspective, it turned out to be a really good match, so we’re really Sparks’ new album, Mad!, is out now. Sparks will perform at The National Stadium on July 15th and 16th. Tickets and details for those shows can be found at foggynotions.ie. excited to be with them, and they kind of understand what we’re doing and they have a real sense of what’s cool in pop music, and the people themselves have a real sensibility, so we couldn’t be more pleased. You never know what the final results are going to be, but they’re going to do everything they can to get as many people to know about what we’re doing as possible.” Sparks will return to Dublin for two consecutive nights at The National Stadium in July on their upcoming tour in support of the album. This will be the first time that the band have done two shows in Dublin on a single tour, and Ron is looking forward to the opportunities it will give him to explore the city, saying, “We’re really looking forward to coming back to Dublin. I’ve been going through my James Joyce, so I’m ready to hit the spots! The times we’ve spent there more recently have been really memorable, in a personal sense and in a musical way.”