Somewhere in between art rock and wistful pop lie Sparkadia, whose debut album 'Postcards' is quite possibly the most replete and accomplished debut you'll hear this year.
Formed by childhood friends, 25-year-olds Alex Burnett (vocals, guitar) and Dave Hall, (drums) in 2004, the Sydney four-piece became a reality with the addition of Nick Rabone (bass) and Tiffany Preece (keyboards, guitar, vocals). Together, they write modern pop songs, pop songs that explode and shimmer with choruses that never leave your head and hooks that floor you on the first listen. 'Postcards' offers up a dozen snapshots of life that meld bittersweet lyrics and floating melodies with a sunny spin on heartbreak.
From the anthemic singles 'Too Much To Do' and 'Morning Light', to soon-to-be classics, 'Jealousy' and 'Connected', it's a collection of songs that have a timeless quality.
"Many of the songs on this album are postcards I wish I had sent, and others are ones I really wish I didn’t have to send," says Alex. Each track was written in a different room in a different city over the past four years, before being affixed with a stamp and sent to the renowned Miloco Studios in London, where producer extraordinaire Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode, Doves) applied his deft production hand to give the album an expansive, cinematic feel.
"We wrote a long wish list of producers that we wanted to use. Ben was probably the first realistic option as the two above him, Martin Hannett and Phil Spector, were dead and in jail respectively," muses Alex.
"We loved the records Ben had worked on as producer. He was fantastic at pulling unique sounds, which was an avenue that we wanted to explore, and he also let the bands do their thing, which was important to us as we'd spent many hours honing our ideas and didn't want someone who'd come in and completely change everything that we did."
Thanks to the strength of the songs, it wasn't too much of a challenge to convince Hillier to work with Sparkadia – he only had to listen to two demos before he was on board. It was a similar case when the band was brought to the attention of UK label Ark Recordings (set-up by Russell Warby, The Strokes and Foo Fighters' booking agent, and Jamie Davis, co-owner of Transcopic Records with Graham Coxon). A 90-minute car ride to a wedding in New South Wales with the demos was enough to convince Jamie of the band's potential, and Ark soon had them in the UK working with Hillier on 'Postcards'.
Back home in Australia, music fans in Sydney had already cottoned on to the immediacy of Sparkadia's sound, with gigs and late night house parties introducing them to a group of fans who have remained loyal from the outset. Their first single, 'Morning Light', had huge support from triple j, and helped their debut EP 'Things Behind The Sun' sell-out instantly.
Even though they'd been playing music together since they were 13, 'Morning Light' was actually the first song Alex and Dave wrote together as Sparkadia in the summer of 2004. They were at university at the time, but weren't excited about the concept of graduating and then working full time – music offered an escape from the real world. They discovered vinyl, picking up secondhand LPs by the dozen, and began listening to such luminaries as Elvis Costello, Buddy Holly, the Pretenders and Burt Bacharach.
"Since we were kids of the 90s, we were blissfully musically unaware of the past and were in desperate need of new-old music," says Alex.
With this newfound musical inspiration serving as a driving force, the pair worked hard to create a sound that was unique to them.
"We were on a mission to write and record music that was less about guitars and feedback and more about melody, an interesting beat and a lyrical message," Alex explains. "We became obsessed with the art of creating something from nothing."
When committing lyrics to paper, Alex sometimes found that using a typewriter helped him to nut out the right words. "I began writing lyrics on hundreds of sheets of paper, but they often got jumbled and lost. Often most of it was random ramblings that were uninspired and unfocused anyway. Similarly, typing lyrics into a computer seemed a little too corporate, and it became even harder to type anything with any value. I then borrowed a typewriter and it all fell into place. Since the whiteout function didn't work, I HAD to commit and thus had to think harder and make sure that what I typed was quality. The typewriter also had a great sound when you hit the keys which somehow brought the best out of me."
The best indeed. Sparkadia's majestic pop songs have already paved the way for them to tour the UK twice (as guests of The Thrills, Jimmy Eat World and Vampire Weekend no less), and seen them support the likes of Modest Mouse, Death Cab For Cutie, Elbow, Mika and Ben Lee on their home soil. Their songs have been playlisted by the UK's BBC Radio 2 and championed by influential BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe, as well as earned them accolades from The Guardian, MOJO mag and Q Music to name but a few.
And that's all before they've even stuck a stamp on their debut album and sent it home for all to hear…
No current tours.
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