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SOUND MARATHON BAND Post-punk band discuss the tr
ibulations of keeping the show on the road and what beckons for their future. Karla Chubb is sitting on the carpeted floor in an empty office corridor as she speaks to me ahead of the continuation of what’s already been a hectic summer touring schedule. “I’ve had to sneak away from work for a few minutes, I don’t think there’s anyone on this floor so we’re good.” Karla is the singer in Dublin garage rock band Sprints, one of the newest names to join the likes of Fontaines DC, Gilla Band and The Murder Capital in Dublin’s thriving post-punk pantheon. Joined by Sam McCann (bass), Colm O’Reilly (guitar) and Jack Callan (drums); Sprints have been, as their name suggests, racing through milestones many bands spend years striving for. Since their debut single Kissing Practice in 2020, the band have released two EPs in 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s roaring A Modern Job, one of the most riveting projects released by any Irish act in the last twelve months. As well as their long-form projects, they’ve shared a string of singles, played last year’s SXSW festival, signed to Berlin’s City Slang Records and played headline and festival slots across the EU. “It’s been a busy summer,” Chubb admits, “We’re in the middle of a very packed festival season, it’s been non-stop while at the same time we’re balancing full-time jobs, the band and 42 side-businesses, as a lot of Irish bands are, so it’s been hectic but brilliant.” This is, by Chubb’s own admission, the busiest the band have ever been. Born at a Savages gig in 2019, the band’s life can be divided equally between pre and post lockdown. “Last year we had our first taste of festivals but this is our first summer full-tilt with no restrictions,” she explains. “It’s been strange going from a pandemic to post-pandemic band but the enthusiasm and love for live music is amazing to see.” The life of a touring musician, however, is predictably less glamourous than it seems from the outside, and Chubb and the rest of the band find themselves constantly juggling between life on the road and their fulltime jobs. “It’s definitely very mentally and financially challenging, the cost of living crisis has hit everyone,” she explains. “People are working two or three jobs to support themselves and pay rent, and we’re not entitled to the dole or jobseekers allowance as we’re technically employed; but there’s so little funding for the arts that what we do get barely covers rent for one member of the band, never mind four.” This conversation of funding, and what support artists and musicians are deserving of is one that has raged for as long as such funding has existed, with bands decamping from Ireland to seek better support and opportunities abroad. It’s reached the point where, for as long as the band can remember, Sprints have considered a move to London inevitable and have been talking of it in interviews ever since the band began. What, it must be asked, has made them stick it out in Dublin for so long? “Our lives are here. Our families, partners, our friends, everything is still here,” Chubb explains. “That’s something that isn’t always covered or thought about when it comes to artists moving to London or wherever; there are girlfriends, boyfriends, brothers, sisters, mums and dads at home and around us that can’t all move. You have to balance the wants and needs in their lives too, you can’t just suddenly up and disappear. We also want to make sure that with any move we make, we make it at the right time. At the moment we haven’t felt that 100% need to leave, and because we love it so much, but we do have to see that thread sort of waning and it’s coming down to the time now where touring is taking up a lot of our time and the costs of flying from an island to Europe or the UK consistently is not affordable or feasible for a band that’s at the lower level and, like us, are barely breaking even never mind making a profit”.