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guitarist, Colm O’Reilly, decided to step away fr
om the band. In need of a replacement for their upcoming dates, the band enlisted Zac Stephenson, a Dublin musician, producer, and DJ, who was best known for his solo act lil cis, whom the members knew from seeing around the local scene. “I kind of came in four or five months after Letter to Self,” states Zac. “So, we had just finished the first string of the debut album tours,” Karla clarifies. “So, the album came out in January, and we did the US, UK, Europe, and Irish tour, and the last date was the fifth of May in Dublin. “Colm had decided to leave in April, and we had just booked another three tours for the rest of the year, and that’s when we were like, ‘Not only do we have to do a whole other album run again – they wanted us to do the whole thing again, because it went so well – but we have to do thirty festivals that summer.’ So, that was the immediate concern.” “Initially, I was just filling in for the summer,” Zac continues. “And it just became very natural very quickly. It was really fun, hanging out with the four of us, and it just became inevitable that, after a few weeks, you guys were like, ‘We might just get you for the winter tour, as well!’” “So, I didn’t really have time to think about any of it, because I had just started a fulltime job, where I was at the office five days a week, and spending all of my holidays – before I had even gotten any holidays – going to play festivals all summer. So, I honestly didn’t really have time to process any of it, other than it was an adventure.” Unfortunately, the band were unable to secure a visa for Zac before embarking on the North American leg of their tour. While in the States, Karla began crafting some new music, inspired by what she was listening to on the road. “I definitely leaned into some more modern references, like Mannequin Pussy and Viagra Boys,” Karla says of her inspiration. “I read a lot on tour, so, by nature, I listen to a lot more ambient music, because I can’t listen to lyrics while I read. So, I was listening to a lot of Aphex Twin, Portishead, Massive Attack, so that started to creep in.” Karla would send these demos to Zac, who was back in Dublin. She felt that he got what she was going for, and the idea for a new album began to emerge naturally. “The most important part for us was the familial,” Karla says. “Because it is like a family, essentially, on the road. I mean, you’re living with this person! “The chemistry that we built for years as a four-piece, we had instantly with Zac, and I’ve never experienced anything like that before, so we knew this was just too serendipitous. And I think it gave all of us a new lease on life, and that’s why we always say that this feels like a second chance at a debut album, because we feel like a new band. We feel really impassioned and invigorated again.” This new iteration of Sprints was introduced to the world with the release of their second studio album, All That Is Over, on September 26th. Produced by their longtime engineer and collaborator Daniel Fox, the album is infused with a foreboding at16 “ The chemistry that we built for years as a four-piece, we had instantly with Zac, and I’ve never experienced anything like that before, so we knew this was just too serendipitous.”