FEATURE: Spotlight: SPRINTS — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

SPRINTS

_________

DESCRIBING themselves…

as “Garage Punk from Dublin, Ireland”, there is a lot of excitement around the mighty SPRINTS. They releasee their debut album, Letter to Self, on Friday (5th January). It is winning some huge reviews. I will end with one (others include DIY’s and NME’s). Tipped as a debut album to watch this year by Rough Trade, SPRINTS play Rough Trade East on Friday. They then have a series of dates around the country and beyond. An exciting start for a band. Not many artists put out albums in January. It is credit to SPRINTS that they ensure they make their mark early. In the process, we get a potential year-best album right from the off! I will come to some interviews from the band. One from 2022 and a few from last year. First, here are some more details about a wonderful and hugely promising band from Dublin. One that is primed and destined for headline slots:

“Formed in 2019 when Karla, guitarist Colm O’Reilly and drummer Jack Callan - already playing together under a slowly-dwindling former guise - had the lightbulb moment at a Savages gig that they too could play the music they actually listened to and loved, SPRINTS have barely paused for breath since. Recruiting bassist Sam McCann, for their first show back in February of that year, the difference from day one was tangible. “Our only ethos in music is to write something that matters and that means something,” says Karla. “It’s all about expressing our identities, and injecting our personalities into it.”

Often labelled a political band, even the way they inhabit that idea feels refreshing. “I don’t have to know everything to be able to tell you that something’s shit. I understand that women should have access to abortion, and I understand that mental health services are not adequate to stop people from committing suicide, so yeah, I don’t know exactly how much money is being spent on it but I don’t need to in order to tell you that it’s not enough,” Karla stresses. “It’s just a class barrier to make people feel like, if they’re not educated enough, then they can’t be involved in the conversation. But you don’t have to be Usain Bolt to run a race, and you don’t have to understand the theory of everything to understand that, morally, someone’s an asshole.”

SPRINTS have received a wealth of press support (The Guardian, Dork, DIY, NME, Loud & Quiet, Clash, Gigwise and others). They've also received an abundance of support at Radio 1 and BBC 6Music.

“On course towards future raucous, beer-soaked headline festival sets.” NME
“Screw-you power, relentless motorik rhythms and impressively large choruses.” The Guardian
"The Dublin gang neatly package existential panic into a buzzy, punchy musical box – DIY”.

Karla Chubb, SPRINTS’ lead, spoke with God Is in the TV in 2022. With some E.P.s under their belt and people tipping them for big things, it was an exciting time for SPRINTS. Coming out of the pandemic and maybe not being as gig-active as they would have liked the past two years, there was a sense of looking ahead to brighter times – which certainly came true for them last year!

“Dublin noise-makers Sprints have released two EPs to date, last year’s debut Manifesto and A Modern Job released this spring. The 4-piece comprising Karla Chubb (lead singer/guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass guitar) are signed to Nice Swan Records. 2022 has been a pivotal year for the band and I caught up with Karla to learn more.

I read that you were inspired to form a band by seeing Savages and Jehnny Beth. Is that true, or was the seed already there?

I think the seed was always there. I think all of us always wanted to be musicians. Myself, Jack and Colm played in bands previously and the guys have played together for years. And with that band we weren’t really fulfilled, and it was at a Savages gig that myself Jack, and Colm were at and she was performing and going into the crowd, and we love their albums. That is when it really kind of hit us that’s the kind of music we want to make, why aren’t we making it, I want to be that visceral and almost like wild. So Savages from the start were a major major inspiration and when we first got into the shed with Sam and we were jamming, I think the only thing I said let’s try jams. Idles and Savages were the main music we were listening to then so we’ll see how it goes. When he plugged his bass in and turned the noise up as he always does, it kinda clicked immediately. And ever since Jehnny Beth has been a massive influence, particularly for Jack and myself, as a writer, as a feminist, everything she stands for, the people who she collaborates with she is just one of the underrated artists.

She comes across as comfortable in her own skin

Yeah and whenever I listen to her on 6Music she was really soft spoken and very gentle and very French, but you see her live and that is something I really resonated with. When I tell people I am a very shy person and not an extrovert in any sense naturally, and that alter ego she has onstage has really spoken to me, I can almost pretend I’m someone else. When you listen to her on 6Music she is not the Jehnny Beth that you see in Savages onstage. It’s amazing to see that come out.

In terms of song-writing are you the main lyricist?

What we say is that I put the bones of everything together and the guys add the meat and the spice and everything else. I would be the song-writer and the only one involved in lyrics, except for Sam. Generally when he’s singing he would write his own parts and I would help sometimes.

And how did you come to the attention of Nice Swan Records?

To be honest, we still don’t really know! We’ve asked them before and they said they saw ‘The Cheek‘ on some random Irish playlist, I think they may have been scouting Irish music. That was before Fontaines D.C. had really exploded and Pillow Queens were around obviously. Their whole ethos is to focus on music outside of the hotbed cities, essentially outside of London where bands may not have the same access to exposure. I remember the day they reached out so clearly. This was during lockdown again. I got the email and I quite literally started shaking. It was from Alex saying “Hey lads we really like your music, what’s your plans?” and I’m like “This is it! This is it!”. To be completely honest they have changed our lives, they are amazing. They are just two really passionate music fans. They’re our managers now as well. They came to Glastonbury with us and they are coming over to Ireland soon to come to gigs. They really know their stuff. And its clear from working with them that they are in it for the music They are not shy to tell us not to take certain opportunities even if it would have meant a percentage for them. They are trying to help us to make the best moves.

You have talked in the past about a feeling of Imposter Syndrome. Has that shifted with experience and more exposure?

I think parts of it have. Performing live I don’t get as many nerves, I still get nervous but its definitely more manageable. I think in terms of writing, I don’t think its gone, I don’t know if it will ever fully fade. I don’t know if I want it to. But even just watching people like Sam and Colm and Jack. Sam can play way more instruments than me. But it keeps you motivated, keeps you pushing.

You are such a central part of the live performance, and you look like you’re having an absolute blast.

We have a lot of fun, I love playing with the guys. I think it just comes down to being a girl in a heavy rock band, and not really having had that much training. Maybe technically not being as good as other people, then maybe there’s the idea I should be extra good, that women often have to try ten times as hard to be given half the respect. That’s very ingrained in me, it’ll never go, I try not to let that hold me back. There are definitely days when I think I’m not that good. But at the end of the day if we’re playing life and performing then maybe that’s my skill, maybe that’s what I have that other people don’t. Its one thing to be able to play Bohemian Rhapsody but its another to be able to write a song”.

I have written features about modern music and whether artists are being personal rather than tackling bigger themes. Hatred, homophobia, issues around climate change etc. With SPRINTS, here is a band that are tackling some big themes and doing so in a really direct, interesting and memorable way. Karla Chubb spoke with DIY in November about the upcoming debut album and how the public part of her being out in the music also will resonate with many others. Messages and lyrics that go beyond her own door:

“With ‘Letter To Self’, she’s “putting this very personal part of [her] life out in the public”, and while its writing was hugely challenging, it was also hugely cathartic. “There was so much weight on my shoulders my whole life, and now I feel like a little bit of it is gone,” she says, her voice thick with emotion. “All these stories are like stones weighing me down, and now I’ve shed a few of them.”

These aren’t mere pebbles, either. Lyrically, the album explores mental ill-health (‘Ticking’ and ‘Heavy’); internalised homophobia (‘Cathedral’); suicidal ideation (‘Shadow Of A Doubt’) and more. But none of these are crosses Karla has had to bear alone. Born, like so many other bands, out of the pandemic, Sprints was “such a positive thing to turn to in such a dark time,” and the relationship between the four band members quickly flourished into something approaching familia

“We’ve all got so much better at knowing how each other works,” adds drummer Jack Callan, “so you know when to leave someone alone, or when someone needs a bit of extra support.” In conversation, this almost intuitive bond is self-evident. When Karla compliments guitarist Colm O’Reilly’s playing, Jack leads us all in an impromptu round of applause; when she mentions her anxieties over reading the album’s reviews, bassist Sam McCann gives her a steadying smile - “We’ll take them as they come”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

These moments, though seemingly inconsequential, capture the band fairly succinctly: a united front that deals in humour and compassion, but with an underlying steely resolve. Take the show they perform just a few hours later. Karla leaves the stage momentarily to don a Taylor Swift ‘Reputation’ t-shirt, before pronouncing: “Support the strikes and fuck the Tories. We’re Irish, what did you think we were gonna say?” They’ve had this keen political edge since their inception (over which time they’ve released two EPs, 2021’s ‘Manifesto’ and 2022’s ‘A Modern Job’), but never has it been more apparent - or more important - than right now.

Karla and Sam have both just quit their jobs - “We can’t physically or mentally manage the balance of them and music anymore” - which, while daunting, is a prospect that’s only become feasible thanks to the notable success of Irish artists in the past few years. “If you see people doing what you want to do, it obviously increases the chances of you actually thinking it’s a possibility, tenfold,” Karla states. “You have to acknowledge the cultural significance of bands like Fontaines DC and Pillow Queens. There are so few acts who managed to break out of Ireland and make careers abroad until recently, but if they’ve done it, we can do it.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

There is, of course, still a long way to go, however. Karla references a recent interview that Rolling Stone and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame co-founder Jann Wenner conducted with the New York Times, in which he commented that no women are included in his new book - “the Mount Olympus of rock and roll history” - because “none of them were articulate enough on this intellectual level” (there are also, astoundingly, no Black musicians included - but there is Bono). “[Wenner] said that Mick Jagger was ‘a philosopher of rock and roll’,” Karla says incredulously, “and that Janis Joplin or Patti Smith or Stevie Nicks - some of the greatest songwriters in the world - were…” she trails off and shrugs. “I might appear one day on a list of the ‘best female punk bands’ or ‘best female guitarists’, but I’ll never appear on a list of all-time great guitarists, whereas Colm probably will.”

Self-doubt doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and Karla’s proclaimed imposter syndrome - tackled on incendiary single ‘Up and Comer’ - is closely tied to her identity as a queer woman in a male-dominated space. While being part of Sprints hasn’t necessarily helped quash her insecurities, it has given her a medium through which to rally against the social structures that supported them in the first place. “Sometimes I think, ‘Am I talking too much about being angry?’” she says. “There is a part of you - a very dark part of you - that thinks, ‘Would my life be easier if I just shut up?’

“There’s always been this idea of the angry woman, or the angry gays, or the angry trans people,” Karla continues. “But anger doesn’t mean bad. Anger means you’re standing up for something; anger means you’re addressing an issue; anger also means collectiveness”.

It has been remarkable learning about SPRINTS and what has gone into Letter to Self. Their phenomenal debut definitely marks them out as a band to watch very closely. Once more showing the quality and variety of music coming out of Ireland. Karla Chubb chatted with Stereogum a couple of months ago about the album and some of the more technical/sonic details that went in. How they achieved a very distinct sound and feel:

“There’s only so much you can do with vocals. [But] when we put the hi-hat on the snare, or Sam puts his bass through like four terrifying pedals and you get that literal screech in your ear that you couldn’t replicate with anything else, not even a synth — I think it’s those elements that actually make the music anxious,” Chubb says. “For one tiny guitar lick, we used four different Vox amps at the same time running through like five different distortion pedals. So there was that level of granularity in it.”

This suffocating sound was the band’s attempt at matching the purgative songs Chubb was bringing to them. Her lyrics came from a time in her life where self-destructive habits were coming to a head. “I realized I saw patterns in my behavior; I would get angry at friends or have relationships break down because I was so angry in myself. I was like, ‘I need to process whatever is inside of me and get it out,’ because it almost felt like there was a poison in [me] and [I] couldn’t breathe until it was all released,” Chubb says.

PHOTO CREDIT: Niamh Barry

The album’s opening track, “Ticking”, is supposed to be a representation of pure anxiety and panic, both lyrically and musically — from the heartbeat-esque kick drum intro to Chubb’s scattered lyrics to the simultaneous descending and ascending riffs in the outro part. It takes the majority of the song’s runtime to kick into the album’s first big rock-out moment; this slow-bubbling dynamic is the most essential part of Sprints’ toolbox. “It’s almost like, again, horror movie-esque, where there’s quiet parts where you wanna lean closer and then it punches you in the face because of that jump in volume,” says Chubb. Elsewhere on the album, Chubb’s dry, seething voice grapples with the music industry’s fickle sexism on “Adore Adore Adore” and “Up & Comer,” the enduring echoes of trauma on “Can’t Get Enough Of It” and finding the will to resist oppressive societal pressures on the title track “Letter To Self.

Before she used the catharsis of songwriting to expel those feelings, it often came out in more destructive ways, says Chubb. “Definitely substance abuse. I think it’s very Irish to turn to alcohol to solve our problems. I became so good at masking, I often still don’t know when I’m doing it myself. And I think that led to an incredible amount of self-consciousness, self-hate and also internalised homophobia. I think I really started to just believe I wasn’t worth being happy, like I didn’t deserve it. It’s through building really solid relationships with the guys in the band and having music and exploring those things really honestly that I’ve started to come out of the other side of that”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ste Murray

Before coming onto a review, Irish Times interviewed Karla Chubb recently. The Dublin singer and musician discussed identity issues and why Punk resonates to this day. It is always fascinating reading what she has to say. Someone who is always so compelling and honest. You can hear and feel that go into the music. You just know that SPRINTS are going to go a very long way. You wouldn’t bet against them conquering the globe:

“Karla Chubb, the lead singer/co-songwriter of Dublin band Sprints is responding to the fact that, despite some groaning and aching from various quarters of the pop culture multiverse, guitar bands and guitar-based music are not going away anytime soon.

It is, she agrees, a cyclical beast, but being at the coal face, she senses that “alternative music, punk, in particular, is definitely on the rise. You see artists like slowthai and PinkPantheress, who are very mainstream, sampling it [punk], referencing it and using it as an influence. Grime and punk share in their respective birth a lot of idealistic issues and struggles, and because we’re living through turbulent times economically, politically and socially, that’s always going to lead to a rise in more empowered music.”

There are very few female artists that have been allowed to break through, Chubb adds, so, in that sense, Patti, Siouxsie and PJ remain central and influential figures. “The people who troll Sprints on YouTube and Instagram leave comments about our videos along the lines of ‘what is this shit, it’s just ‘90s music again, so why regurgitate it, do something fresh’, and the like, but what we try to do is to take those struggles that are still prevalent today and give it a bit of a refresh, a more authentic touch with a ‘90s-inspired sound.”

Sprints have been in the refreshing business for more than four years, although all four members have been involved in music for longer. Initially influenced by bands such as UK’s Savages and Irish band Bitch Falcon (RIP), the band’s sonic baseline is fast and loud (Gilla Band’s Daniel Fox locates the sweet spot between out-and-out shredding and textured sheer art attack) while the songs are largely based on Chubb’s personal experiences. Assertive music, unambiguous words, live shows that pivot on drama and thrills, a lead singer that gets into the zone song after song with a vocals style that blends rhythm with intonation – what gives?

“Cathartic is the best word. With punk music, you can get pigeonholed as being just aggressive; the nature of it is that because it’s loud and fast it’s perceived as angry, but anger isn’t always bad, it’s also a way of healing. As for personal experience, yes, the music we have already put out and what we will be releasing over the next while is definitely chaptering a part of my life where I have struggled a lot with identity, sexuality and just not knowing what the right place for me in the world is – if there was a place at all, to be quite dark and honest.

“I think processing that is difficult, whether you’re in your 20s, 30s or whatever age you are. The boys give me the open floor with the lyrics and the music reflects that. The anxiety-inducing bass, the snarling guitar, the music build-up – they are supposed to represent the internal struggle and the spiral that many of us suffer from.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ste Murray

The subject matter for Chubb’s lyrics includes misogyny and sexual harassment (The Cheek), fragmenting relationships (Pathetic) and emigration (How Does the Story Go?). She says figuring out “what I wanted to say and how to say it became a barrier, so what I’ve tried to do is just not to think about it too much. I pick up the guitar and play around with it, and the music evokes an emotion; whatever is in my head is the topic and I’ll just splurge it out. I have found that if I’m not too worried about coming off poetic or well-written then it’s more honest. I have a lot of emotions – I’m Cancer, so I’m very sensitive – so I process a lot but the subject matter comes down to honesty… me figuring out what I should do with my life.”

That shouldn’t be an issue this year or next. Sprints’ recent signing to highly regarded Berlin-based indie label City Slang has presented to the band members (all of whom are in full-time jobs – “we’re very fortunate that the people we work with are kind enough to allow us to balance work with the band for so long”) a projected level of stability.

“What you have to do as a musician – and this is the worst for me as someone with ADHD, who is a complete overthinker and constantly overactive – is that you just have to take it day by day. As much as that means there are big, scary things possibly coming down the timeline – pensions, marriage, houses – you just have to live on a day-by-day basis, take everything as it comes”.

I am going to finish with one of the many incredibly positive reviews for Letter to Self. Even though it is early-January, we have an album that is going to be hard to beat! CLASH were among the first to have their say about SPRINTS’ terrific debut album. One that is going to sound amazing when they take it to venues around the country. Go and buy a copy of an album that everyone needs to hear. It really is going to be among this year’s most important and impressive debuts:

“Dublin four-piece Sprints signed to City Slang in 2023, and blast into the New Year with debut album ‘Letter To Self’. Opening with the brooding beats of ‘Ticking’, the vocals of Karla Chubb begin low, full of foreboding. Questioning and self-doubt are apparent from the very beginning, an uncertainty about oneself. The instrumentation builds into an all-encompassing soundscape – a thrilling start which sets the scene for what is to follow. And to hear lyrics in German, the guttural nature of the language fitting perfectly with the atmosphere of the track. Although born in Dublin, Karla Chubb spent part of her early childhood in Germany, initially turning to music as a consequence of feeling out-of-step with the world.

It’s then straight into the scuzzy static-fuelled guitars of ‘Heavy’. The external questions continue: “Do you ever feel like the room is heavy?” they ask. The energy and passion evoked here are raw and true. The lyrics build, eventually exploding in an air of frustration “watching the world go around the window”.

‘Cathedral’ is in a similar vein. There is a darkness here; “Maybe living’s easy / Maybe dying’s the same.” The emotional intensity continues to seep through the music. The combination of Sam McCann’s bass and the guitars of Chubb and Colm O’Reilly combine to create a cacophony of sound, fast and furious.

‘Shaking Their Hands’ takes us to a different place, with its weariness with life. More contemplative, witnesses Chubb deliver a softer vocal. The theme is more thoughtful with the singer “counting the minutes until the clock strikes six” – a sentiment most can connect with. However it’s an intriguing song as the question is inevitably “whose hands?”. ‘Adore, Adore, Adore’ was released as a single and projects the idea of being judged with its question “Do you adore me?” The pace rattles along and its chorus of “they never call me beautiful, they only call me insane” suggests a desire to fit in, to be accepted.

‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ has an eerie start with its haunting plucking guitar chords. Again there is a atmosphere of foreboding, a lack of belonging. The repetition of “I am lost” is gut-wrenching and Chubb builds the tension until the frustration boils over “can you hear me calling?” The sentiment is heart-breaking as it seems to be a call for help, and that wavering guitar chord perfectly evokes the anxiety. Likewise with ‘Can’t Get Enough Of It’, the agitation remains. The inevitable ear-worm of the repeating “This is a living nightmare” is breath-taking, as it combines with the soaring soundscape. The mid-track key change takes the listener by surprise as it punches at the very core with its emotional impact. Perhaps there is a sense here of not being able to be oneself, a lack of self-belief, of security in ones own self-worth. And goodness do those guitar parts add to the overall sense of anxiety.

The sign of a great song is that it still elicits an emotional response long after its initial release. And so it is with the 2022 single ‘Literary Mind’. Re-recorded for ‘Letter To Self’, Sprints have shared that this track has evolved over time. It is pacier than the original single version and is all the better for it. A love song, it relieves the tension felt so far on the album. It’s a song to belt out at the top of your voice, and is thus cathartic for us all. And just listen to McCann’s vocal on the outro, you know Sprints love playing this track. ‘A Wreck (A Mess)’ opens with electrifying guitar riffs and the percussive beats of Jack Callan. The lighter tone set by ‘Literary Mind’ continues. Again lyrically reflective ‘A Wreck (A Mess)’ is delivered with wild abandon, all scuzzy guitars and thunderous drums. The ebb and flow of the pace keeps the listener on their toes, plus lyrics that will live long in the memory including: “is everyone a wreck, is everyone stressed?”

Latest single ‘Up And Comer’ reached the dizzy heights of the 6Music A-list. The opening guitar riffs stops the listener in their tracks every time. And then the full force of ‘Up And Comer’ kicks in and once it reaches top speed you just know it’s not stopping with its full-frontal assault. The chorus is simply electrifying.

The title track closes out ‘Letter To Self’ and it takes a stand against the internal turmoil. “I’ll give as good as I get”. Here there is defiance. The expression is one of hope, of possibility, of coming out from under the weight of expectation, of fighting back. It sees the journey through the album reach its conclusion. Now the lyrics question those who criticise, those whose behaviour is inappropriate. ‘Letter To Self’ states confidently “I am alive” compared to the questioning “am I alive?” from opener ‘Ticking’. It’s a thunderous end, the theme of the track completely different from the rest of the album.

With ‘Letter To Self’ Sprints have produced an album brutally honest and personal. They have not been afraid to express the feeling of being an outsider, of looking for validation, of attempting to overcome self-doubt. The human condition and thus society is complex and difficult to navigate but Sprints have not been afraid to express uncertainty and vulnerability. And all the while they have enveloped these themes in the most glorious noise for us all to find comfort and lose ourselves in.

Is it possible to have an album of the year contender on only the first week in? Of course it is. 9/10”

Follow SPRINTS and support their terrific work. They have some U.K. dates before heading to Dublin. They then have European dates too. There are also U.S. dates in their diary. A band that will go down a storm there. In fact, they are pretty solidly booked through a large chunk of this year. Don’t bet against them being included at Glastonbury and other big festivals. Letter to Self shows that they are a band we cannot ignore. Another wonderfully original and impressive band to behold! From a country supplying other musical greats like CMAT. It is amazing, though not surprising, discovering all the wonderful music…