It’s hard to imagine the Saskatoon metal scene without local four-piece Sparky. Thankfully, we never really had to.
For the past ten – yes, ten! – years, Sparky have evolved, grunted, growled and shredded, weathering members changes and the occasional on-stage faux-murder – anyone else remember when current bassist Jon “replaced” Tim in front of an overly delighted audience?
Musically the group keeps a masterful balance between pushing boundaries, adding layers of technical wizardry to keep the music nerds interested, but always thrashing hard enough for us wasters to bang our heads into a sloppy, gooey salute.
And even though Sparky haven’t played live since November 2009, the members have been keeping busy writing a new album. And the fact that it’s their 10th anniversary for Sparky might clue you in to the fact that their upcoming show at the Cosmo Senior’s Centre on Friday, September 30 is kind of a big deal, especially since they likely won’t be playing again until the new album drops in Spring 2012.
And you would be absolutely, ridiculously dim-wittedly obtuse to not jump on the Sparky track entitled “Lockjaw”, which the band have provided to us as an exclusive download.
We caught up with guitarist and producer Chris Douglas for a quick chat about his band’s entry into the absurdity of existing for a decade as well as the immediate future of Sparky.
Ominocity: Sparky has been around for a ridiculously long time – what do you attribute your longevity to?
Chris Douglas: Never knowing where it ends. We’ve never been very goal oriented, so we’ve never failed! As long as we write music, ‘we’ exist, so I guess we can attribute our longevity to patience and health.
Om: Is there any reason that you would end the band?
CD: If we didn’t have fun writing and playing music together, we would pinch it off.
Other reasons include:
– band shark attack
– mind control (to turn against each other)
– any form of multiple inter-band deaths
– elevated pizza arguments
Om: What can fans expect from your new material?
CD: Lots of different voices and grooves. It’s been a few years since we’ve put anything recent on a disc for anyone but ourselves. We’re rushing out a “mini release” for this show so we could share a slice of what we’ve been doing over the Obama years.
Om: What do you have planned for the immediate future? Touring? Full-length?
CD: Full-length album in 2012. No touring plans to date. That hasn’t really been discussed. All of our focus has been on this September 30 show. It’s been 2 years since we’ve played, it’s our 10th year as a band, and we’re excited for this show. It feels good. I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.
[audio:https://www.ominocity.com/downloads/Sparky – Lockjaw.mp3|title=Sparky – Lockjaw]