March 12
- How did your band members originally meet?
"We all met for the first time while playing a festival in 2006. Then Dan and Chris were playing in the same band and York and Jon were in another. Even then we pretty much hit things off discussing various books and bands we enjoyed; we even went on to do more shows together with those projects. In 2007, John moved up from Orlando, FL to Clinton, NC to play bass with Chris and
Dan. Shortly thereafter talking with both Jon and York online we found we had the same musical vision and overall goals as individuals and a whole. We spent about a month exchanging ’Garageband’ demos via email and held our first rehearsal in August. It was more of an impromptu jam session but we really loved the chemistry and the rest is history."
- How did you come up with the name of your band?
"The process of coming up with our name was actually more difficult than writing and learning to work with one another. We initially had between 5 and 10 names that we ’leaked’ to help create a buzz; truthfully our heart wasn’t set upon any specific one. We finally settled upon the name ’Sparks In Stereo’ because we felt it conveyed or added a ’visual’ description to our music. Most people think of a stereo-system when reading the ’stereo’ portion of our name but we’d like to make it known that we mean audibly hearing ’in stereo’ from both the left and right side of the spectrum. There you have it."
- Who were the bands that inspired you to become musicians?
"We’ll have to answer this individually:
York: The Police, Pearl Jam, The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana inspired me to pick up a guitar. My High School band instructor inspired me to grow in my ability and technique. Denison Marrs was a huge transition band for me near between 2000 and 2001. I’m thankful for bands like Anathallo, The Myriad and Chris Thile of Nickelcreek.
John: The first concert I went to was PFR and Jars Of Clay when I was 7 years old. I got into the entire ’grunge’ thing like Nirvana, Silverchair and Sonic Youth. Current bands I’m really into are Damiera, The Receiving End Of Sirens and The Reign Of Kindo. The band that really brought me into the ’scene’ would be At The Drive-In.
Dan: Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, The Foo Fighters and Nirvana. I’m not that old, haha. Oh yeah, I really liked Michael Jackson growing up. I like The Receiving End, As Cities Burn my taste is really diverse; as long as a band is doing something ’new’ chances are I’ll give ’em props.
Jon: I seriously can’t think of any individual bands; techno as a genre itself was something that inspired me. Movie sound-tracks or film scores were inspiring. I’m really loving Damiera, The Fall Of Troy, TREOs, The Dear Hunter, Telefon Tel Aviv. I agree with John because At The Drive-In really brought me over the ’thresh-hold’.
Chris: Naturally the grunge era hit me hard but it wasn’t until the late 90’s rock scene that I found a passion for music. I was inspired by bands like Third Eye Blind, The Wallflowers, Radiohead, and so on. I remember listening to The Beatles growing up; my parents always had their music playing. As far as the ’indie’ genre goes I give huge props to bands like Mineral, Elliott and The Appleseed Cast for showing me something more. I love Anathallo, The Reign Of Kindo and This Day And Age.
We all can probably say This Day And Age has been a huge influence upon what we’re doing in Sparks In Stereo."
- How long have you been together as a band?
"As a band we’ve been together since August of 2007. We actually held our first rehearsal earlier in the month. The next week Dan, John and Chris came apartment hunting in High Point, NC and by the end of August we were all living in High Point, NC. It’s really convenient because Jon lives in the apartment above Chris, Dan and John and York is always here. Living together totally enhances the the idea of unity and what being a band truly means."
- Who is the main lyricist of the band?
"On both ’Atmospheres’ and ’Of Labor And Love’ , Chris wrote most of the lyrics and melodies. We fleshed out the harmonies as a group while tracking each song. Basically, Chris would bring us an idea and we’d either love it or tell him to get back to work. As cliche as it sounds we want the lyrics to our songs to be as honest as possible; to ourselves, others and the situations we’ve encountered. We’ve approached the material we’re currently writing and have written after tracking with much more of an ’open’ or ’group’ mindset."
- Where do you get the inspiration for your songs?
"Lyrically, that’s a tough question to answer without ’giving away’ the meaning of each song because we feel it’s important that people approach our songs with ’fresh’ ears without having an opinion so a connection can be made and a multiple of interpretations conceived for each song."
"Musically, we listen to pretty much anything and everything though it might be hard to gather that. Often when writing we’ll want a part to sound ’epic’ or ’big’ while we might want another section somewhat soft or even dissonant. If we wanted something that had better flow we’d consider a river or stream and attempt to capture that vibe; if we wanted something that conveyed a volcano erupting we’d make things more rigid with more overdrive."
"Our songs are written about things we’ve experienced in our personal lives whether that be inspired by our faith, the fear of moving from the comfort zone of a small town in North Carolina to a large city or simply the beauty and pain of selfless love. All of these have served as foundations for lyrical ideas."
- How do you describe your music?
"We’re not really sure how to describe our music or what genre we’d be pigeonholed in but we feel we’re an experimental indie band. You tell us what you think."
- Why did you decide to go into this genre of music?
"This is just the sound we create when writing. We’re not necessarily trying to follow in the foot-steps of any other band but just be true to ourselves and write the most honest and sincere music we can. No gimmick or charade; just a love for the art."
- Does your families feel this is something worth your time?
"That’s an overwhelming yes. Our families are very supportive and we’re grateful for their love, patience and understanding."
- Do you have any plans to tour in the future?
"That’s another overwhelming yes. In past musical endeavors we hastily jumped on weekend stints or simply hitting the road for a few weeks in the Summer; we always ended up paying out of our pockets and just breaking even in the end. We’ve approached things with Sparks In Stereo with a different mindset. We’ve taken what we feel are wise steps to secure both touring and recording. With the help of possible label support and wise decisions we look to be hitting the road full-time this Summer."
- What’s your most embarrassing musical moment?
"We really haven’t played enough shows to encounter a ’most embarrassing musical moment’ . We’ll be sure to answer get back to this question once we experience our first embarrassing musical moment."
- Dan, why did you name your cat Grandpa?
"John, Chris and I got a cat for our apartment. We couldn’t figure out a name for it so I was like, ’Cat, what’s yo’ name?’ The Cat was like, ’I’m Grandpa.’ End of story.
- When can we expect more material from you guys?
"Tomorrow. Just kidding. We rehearse constantly and are constantly finding ourself challenged and excited about the new material we have as well as just writing in general. We’ve got about 8 songs completed and will begin the demoing stage of things within the next few weeks; expect some new music to be posted soon."
- Do you believe that playing music is what you were placed on this planet for?
"We believe as a whole and individually that connecting with people and forming relationships that touch lives is what we were placed on this planet for. Music is a means of communication, and that communication is what motivates us to carry on."
So yep! There you have it. All the Q’s followed with the appropriate A’s. We hope you enjoy.
Love,
Grandpa (and Sparks In Stereo)
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