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T A change in line up brings fresh energy to the
Dublin indie heroes as they release their spellbinding second album All That Is Over. WORDS Aaron Kavanagh PHOTOS David Willis NTS he socially-conscious Dublin garage rockers Sprints have been persistently tearing through national and international music scenes since 2019. In the past few years, their profile has rapidly increased globally, in part due to their attrition and tunes, and in part due to some coveted support and festival slots. “I think it’s a ton of hard work, but a lot of it comes down to luck,” their frontwoman, Karla Chubb, tells Totally Dublin of their success on one of their rare days off this year. “I think it comes down to who sees you, who comes to your show, who at the right time finds you, and I think that ‘firework’ or ‘big break’ moment, I’m not sure if that really exists; I think it’s a lot of little moments that finally come.” Karla also attributes some of their traction to their sincerity. Finding social media to be a gateway to apathy, she focuses on using it to elevate awareness on the Palestinian genocide and the global rise of the far-right that has been eradicating a lot of the progress made in the twenty-first century, which afforded a band like Sprints to even exist in the first place. But Karla admits to some consternation between the bands’ beliefs and what they are required to do to maintain survival in the contemporary industry. A major point of contention for them is the ubiquity of streaming services like Spotify and its CEO, Daniel Ek, who has been pouring millions of dollars gained from the platform’s music into AI military defence instead of paying those who made it. “I think we would all love to pull our music from Spotify,” she admits. “I don’t agree with any of his views or the platform, but I think in the unfortunate world we live in, the majority of people don’t give a shit. They are not gonna make that extra effort to find a new band, to use platforms like Bandcamp or NTS Radio to seek out music, because not everyone’s a music lover; most people are music fans, and they passively consume music, and it’s part of their world, but it’s not their life. “I think the unfortunate fact is that platforms like Spotify or Apple Music, none of them are great. I’ve looked into the alternatives, and none of them are really doing anything for artists. Even TIDAL, who apparently pay the most, are still not great. That is where 90% of people find their music, and if we can’t get new fans, we’ll never grow, and we did quit our day jobs to invest absolutely everything into this, and if we don’t continue to grow, our career will die out within a year. “I don’t want to devalue protest, because I think it absolutely makes a difference, but if the likes of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young couldn’t fuckin’ make it work, how are we meant to? And it’s very disheartening. I’m not really sure what the answer is, and every part of me disagrees with being on the platform, but there’s vanity in there, isn’t it? I want to keep my job, and I want to be able to do this for a living.” After years of gigging, in January 2024, Sprints released their debut album, Letter to Self, which garnered enthusiastic reviews and charted in Ireland and the UK. As they were capitalising on this success, their longtime 15