DCU’s Freshers’ Ball took place on Wednesday night, with English pop-rockers The Hoosiers headlining. Four albums later, frontman Irwin Sparkes knows how to wind interviewers up. Here are his expectations of the Hoosiers’ latest record:
“…for the sky to grow dark, and a mighty sound like roaring. Thunder and rushing water just tear the earth asunder, and suddenly, boom there will be, coming down, descending from heaven, our fourth album.”
“I mean it gets harder and harder to do a publicity stunt, but I think we’ve managed it, we’ll pull it off this time … Wait, did you want a proper answer?”
Their first album in 2007 was a success: ‘The Trick To Life’ occupied the top spot in the UK album charts and garnered two top 5 singles.
Fast forward to today, and the fickle business means they’re no longer relevant. Everybody asks the same thing – how do you go from chart toppers to university gigs?
“Usually, it’s hard. People ask ‘hey, what happened to that band, where did they go, why did they stop?’ The impetus is always on the band: ‘what happened to you guys? Why did you decide to stop promoting your music?'”
“What happened for us, like so many bands, is that the guy that signed us left. And then the bands that he signed tend to follow. New people come in and they want to give all the money and resources to their new acts.”
“They don’t benefit, they don’t get any kudos from having a band that someone else has signed. So unless you’re lucky enough, and you move quick enough, to get a couple of albums out in your career, then … yeah. And we took too long as well to record that second album because we were touring.”
Their second album, ‘Illusion of Safety’, was released by Sony, but was considered a failure, having only reached #11 in the charts. The band then went and re-released the album independently and have since stuck to that approach ever since.
Coming down from their fifteen minutes of fame has given him context in his life:
“The Hoosiers used to be our life. But now there’s been a bit more room for balance. That’s taken some getting used to.”
“You could live in this little bubble, but it’s not healthy to do that. You could end up with a slightly distorted world view if you take it too seriously. You could end up destroying yourself, and I don’t even mean just drink and drugs, it can just mean that you struggle to relate.”
“At the end of the day, this is rock and roll, right?”
Ryan McBride
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