Steve Sparrow2013-06-19T16:25:17-04:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/index.php?author=steve-sparrowCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Steve SparrowGood old fashioned elbow grease.Mum, I'm on Tellytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.20772092012-11-06T19:00:00-05:002013-01-06T05:12:01-05:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sparrow/
We are on week five of our ten week turned four month US tour and we've already covered ground equivalent to driving across the Atlantic and back three times.
Navigating our way around the US is probably about as mentally challenging as finding something decent to eat in one of its plethora of service stations. We're very well acquainted with the Colonel, Ronald McDonald, Wendy and the man himself The Burger King, and frankly we never want to see any of them ever again.
Drama aside, if you see five English men ordering bowls of vegetables in a restaurant near you it's probably us.
So since I last wrote we have been incredibly busy boys as usual. 2012 has been a whirlwind year for us. In the empty desolate vortex between this post and my last we did some of this...
We experienced our first full US tour with the amazingly talented and even more amazing people Walk The Moon which led us from LA all the way across and up, through the Midwest eventually settling in New York where I even found time for some extra curricular activities recording some guest vocals at Downtown Studios NYC.
We have co-written and recorded a song with another artist. Hopefully you'll get to hear it early next year - fingers crossed, we are really excited about our genre hopping expedition
To celebrate this year's reminder that after 21 you just get older and fatter, we kicked off our seven-day Olympic Torch relay tour at Canon Hill Park in Birmingham on my birthday. We played to 20,000 screaming teenagers, mostly girls, mostly fans of a well known boyband who were also on the bill, mostly making that horrendous noise teenage girls make when near boybands. What amazes me most is the signs they make and bring to the shows - some of them have filthier minds than our guitar tech Ryan.
In all seriousness, the Olympic Torch Relay was a really cool thing to be a part of. We were in London during the Olympics and I think we (the UK) did pretty good, we even got some sunshine! Unfortunately for me, the weather wasn't great when we got tickets for the women's beach volley ball semi-final between the USA and China. Don't worry though; our minds (and eyes) weren't really focused on the weather.
The torch had been travelling for over 70 days; a single flame kept alive and passed from torchbearer to torchbearer over hundreds of miles. Its impressively symbolic. Also, we learnt that the flame has a mother flame and a daughter flame just in case it goes out, that it lives in a lantern guarded by the police at night, and that if all of the flames go out, the organisers have to go back to Athens and light the flame using the sun. They fear gusts of wind more than people that wear wigs.
With the Olympics complete and our torch relay duties done we found ourselves back at Heathrow airport with Dallas 12 hours and a connecting flight away. That was weeks ago and since then we have been travelling non stop, we've already seen the east and west coasts, the Midwest, the south, some new fan tattoo's and we also made our national American television debut on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. You can watch it here... http://www.morningparade.com/news/watch-morning-parade-on-jay-leno/
We met Maya Rudolph and Jeff Foxworthy, signed the guestbook on the page next to Michelle Obama ,and then talked cars and crystal meth with Mr Leno himself. All in all, a pretty surreal day.
We've also managed to turn our initial 10-week tour into five months, and go from Civil Twilight to a one off show with Jon Bon Jovi, to six weeks with the Wombats, to an arena tour with The Smashing Pumpkins, back to clubs with Anberlin , a show with Two Door Cinema Club and a performance at a tailgate party for the NFL New England Patriots.
Christmas seems a long way away but we can hardly believe the opportunities coming our way.
On that note, we just want to say to our European fans that we will be back soon. At this moment in time we just can't turn down the incredible opportunities that have been coming our way in the USA. We remember you all with love and look forward to coming to see you again next year.
We're approaching Chicago now so I'm going to turn off my laptop and get on with what we do best. Here are some of the tunes we're listening to on our travels. Indulge yourself!]]>The West Coast, F***ed up Narnia and Back to Europe...tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.15365952012-05-23T19:00:00-04:002012-07-23T05:12:05-04:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sparrow/
I took a little rest and stayed out of town with family and met the boys in Portland early on Monday. After a morning of promo and a session at Kink FM's Bing lounge I was greeted with tales of debauchery from their previous night, and rumour of a 'special' burrito house they had discovered in downtown Portland.
They didn't lie, they were hands down the best burritos any of us had discovered on our US travels, but the restaurant itself, was by a long shot, one of the strangest establishments we found. After being plied with all manner of Mexican food and cocktails nature was banging heavily on the inside of our bladders. The boys kept asking if I needed the toilet and kept pointing to the door with "RESTROOMS" signed above.
Opening the restroom door we were greeted into a weird fucked up Narnia where the lions and witches had been replaced by naked women, and the wardrobe replaced by poles. One of the stranger places to find yourself on a Monday afternoon at 3pm.
We played a small show at the Doug Fir in Portland and then began the epic drive to San Francisco. I say epic not just because it takes so long, but because you cover such vast and varied landscapes and weather conditions. From mountains and snow covered passes to vast flatlands, rolling green and beautiful Californian sunshine. I really get why people get so excited about the west coast of America.
We took a day off in San Francisco where we were gutted to be unable to get on a boat to Alcatraz... damn tourists... I decided to take a bit of time to myself. For the first time on the tour I went it alone and wandered the Embarcaderos and rode the trams in blissful solitude. I'm normally terrible left with just my own company but San Francisco had me around its little finger or 'pinky' I should say.
The photos I took on my BlackBerry will never show the bluey-green beauty of the Pacific or the warmth-on-your-face feeling that enveloped me when I was there. You just have to go. I met up with the boys in a bar where we caught our favourite premiership clubs in action... Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham if you're asking... and then began our final epic drive of the trip, this time to LA.
We arrived late in LA in an area known as 'Boys Town' on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Our plans for the next 48 hours? Two Radio Shows, A gig at the Roxy and dinner at the Rainbow, wow. Sounds just like the movies. We were living the American dream. I think I felt like the tourists do in London when they go to Buckingham palace and all the other places we take for granted as we walk past them.
I was shattered and went straight to bed leaving the other boys the task of settling into our new surroundings. Unbeknown to them, Boys Town is the gay district of Santa Monica blvd and I believe Ben's first experience of a bar in LA was nude oiled men dancing on tables to the sound of C&C Music Factory's Everybody dance now.
Welcome to boys town. Make yourself at home.
My first day in LA was one I'll never forget. I started the day as I did with most days in America, with a morning of promo. What followed was an experience that I will be eternally grateful for. We were invited to the Capitol building, a historical monument in music and the home of our west coast based record label EMI.
We were shown the studios where many of music history's greats had performed endless amounts of timeless classics. They aren't the best shots in the world but here are a sneak peak from my blackberry of the inside of Capitol records and the view from the roof over the Hollywood hills.
We spent the afternoon familiarising ourselves with Boys Town's best bars, the locals were friendly as you'd imagine and the frozen margaritas weren't bad either. I'd say we fit right in.
Our last US show was at the infamous Roxy on Sunset blvd. A tidy show to finish our US travels and much fun was had at the Rainbow and various other bars afterwards, it was our last US show afterall.
We spent our last day in LA as tourists. We visited the Observatory for the best and most majestic views of the city and then watched the sun drop into the ocean at Venice beach before heading to LAX for some sleeping pills and a 10 hour flight back to London.
We had just one day at home to wash our clothes and fight the jetlag before heading straight out to Cologne, Germany to begin our European tour.
Europe is a mad blur. We spent the first three days so jetlagged and confused that we don't remember very much of the start. Nobody was sleeping at night but the support and love we received from our European followers was unbelievable. The best fan gifts yet, fan tattoos, sold out shows, five cities in five days. We couldn't have asked for more, except for the evil Laryngitis to leave my poor voice alone. Coughing blood is cool though right?
Here are a bunch of phone pics from the tour:
It's been a period to remember, or maybe just try to remember. We've traveled thousands of miles and met so many incredible people whilst taking in these incredible experiences. The warmth of our fans and the response of people hearing and seeing us for the first time is always overwhelming, we won't be stopping anytime soon.
It all starts again in just a few weeks, the festivals have kicked off and another US tour is on the horizon. I'll leave you with a few shots of our recent trip to Holland last weekend, we headlined the Life I Live festival in Den Haag.
Enjoy. S x
Life I Live Festival Photos by Craig Thomas www.craigthomas.net]]>SXSW and Overcoming the Lure of Crystal Meth on Tour...tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.14399542012-04-20T19:00:00-04:002012-06-20T05:12:02-04:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sparrow/
I'm really enjoying this right now... what do you think?
I'm sitting in our rickety old LDV van affectionately named Winston that we bought back in the earliest days of Morning Parade, we're currently hurtling at the mighty speed of 70 mph on the traffic laden noose hung around the neck of London better known as the M25.
We named our beloved van Winston after the late great Churchill - I once read a quote from him which pretty much sums up the early days of trying to 'make it' in the music industry and its stuck with me ever since: "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm."
We're on our way to Wales for two weeks of recuperation and songwriting in Monnow Valley where we made our very first demos in 2008, those sessions feel like an absolute lifetime ago now, especially after the craziness of the past few months.
We've just arrived back in the UK after a chunk of heavy touring and promo across Europe, the UK and our first trip to the USA. It's been easily the hardest/most exciting/most grueling/most fun/most busy period we've faced in Morning Parade. This crazy existence we call our career leads us on the strangest and most varied of journeys.
After a sold out headline show at London's Heaven, three hours sleep and a transatlantic flight, we found ourselves weary eyed in front of a 3,000 strong audience supporting The Kooks at New York City's Terminal 5. That my friends, feels like the deep end, and just the tip of the iceberg.
When this tour was coming together our Glaswegian tour manager (known to us as 'Nightsheet') said that this was one of the most grueling schedules he'd seen in his 15 years in the business. He wasn't joking, but this IS the best job in the world and I thank my lucky stars every day that I am lucky enough to be doing it professionally.
A bunch of promo (acoustic sessions, interviews, meet and greets etc) later we made our way to New Haven in Connecticut where a lovely doctor took a little look at my vocal chords - I'd been having trouble with my voice like never before, a very scary prospect on a run like this, like an athlete losing use of their legs before their big moment at the Olympics. Luckily for me it turns out I was only suffering from laryngitis and nothing too major, still though, on day two of the most intense tour yet. Hardly ideal, but knowing that my vocal chords were strong and healthy gave me the adrenaline boost that helped me and the boys shrug off the jet lag and get back to our best.
That night we played our first show with a full night's sleep under our belts, Toad's Place in New Haven. A sweat pit full of students on spring break, quite different to the arena's we got used to playing in with The Kooks in Europe, but no less energy and it set the tone for the rest of the tour. The Yanks know how to have a good time and we were welcomed with open arms - all you can hope for as an artist is that you can connect with people and share some common ground through your art. To be so many thousands of miles from home and find that is exactly why we make music.
We managed to wangle our way through a few 'how do you want your eggs?' confusions, slipped through Providence in Rhode Island, said our goodbyes to the Kooks and made our way across the border into Canada, the home of Tonetta and Justin Bieber - how's that for juxtaposed?
So being the frontman definitely has its perks, but it also comes with its downsides. The boys rose early and took a trip down to Niagara falls leaving me to tackle the promo schedule alone, who cares! I'm sure Niagara falls looks just as good from the pictures sent to my BlackBerry as it does with the human eye, maybe not.
This is part and parcel of being the frontman, you have to go to bed earlier than everyone else and you have to do all the promo. Starting with live TV on Toronto's CP24 breakfast show. So while the boys were looking at one of the wonders of the world, I was wearing make up and looking like a Thunderbird on Canadian TV. That's the other thing about being in a band, you have to go on live TV and radio and stuff but nobody tells you what to do or what to expect. I always feel like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights where he doesn't know what to do with his hands.
It's all a very strange '5,4,3,2,1, Conversation!' with a stranger on cue. Remember to be witty and charming, oh, and don't forget to mention the release date. It's 19 June if you're asking America/Canada.
Much easier than conversations on cue is performing live on TV which is just what we did the day before on MTV Canada. I LOVE the adrenaline rush of a live TV performance. Don't fuck it up!
SXSW
So now to the heart of the matter and the crowning jewel of our American exchange. When you're growing up and you're in a band you dream of playing in America and the point of entry is SXSW. Tendays, over 2,000 artists performing in around 100 venues scattered across the city of Austin, Texas.
Think sweltering heat, BBQ food, Tex Mex food, crowds of people spilling from the bars into the streets, Corona, Tequila, Jack Daniels, beautiful women, frozen margheritas, music of all genres pouring out of every window and doorway, late nights, early starts and for us, six shows in four days. Sometimes at 1pm followed by a 2pm at the other end of 6th street, and sometimes at 1am and usually on the same day of course. Chuck in thousands of inebriated punters, and a hectic promo and interview schedule and you're somewhere close.
Straight off the plane from Toronto via Chicago and into an acoustic session (arriving late of course) for our reunion with Michiel Veenstra and our pals at 3FM of Holland for a live broadcast. This is how it starts.
Generally everyone spends SXSW running around like headless chickens trying to get to the next line check or to catch the bill with the bands hot on everyone's lips. Luckily enough for us we happened to be on one of those very bills - two birds, one stone. Day Two of SXSW saw us on the Neon Gold/Communion bill at a venue I'm not going to pretend I remember the name of along with Savoir Adore, Michael Kiwanuka, St Lucia and Haim.
St Lucia remixed one of our singles Us & Ourselves and I'd heard a bunch about Haim. But collectively they were my favourite picks from SXSW along with Electric Guest, who supported us at our London show on the eve of the US tour.
It was a week full of crazy and weird experiences, few though, came close to this...
Austin during SXSW is very busy and finding a taxi past midnight is near impossible, but thanks to our 'are you nervous if I tell you I've been out of jail one week/I am a crack addict/I HAVE been drinking all day' totally illegal taxi driver, not only could we get a ride to anywhere in Austin for $10 and a box of cigarettes - we could also access Austin's best crack and crystal meth, apparently.
I always keep my meth and crack habits away from my work - I find it a little distracting... don't you? As much as I felt the strong desire to pick up a crack or methamphetamine habit, with the west coast up next, reluctantly I declined.
That's a lot to take in I think. I'll let you know how we got on in the west coast and Europe in my next post...
Until then
S
x]]>Dummy Demos, Romantic Love and American Dreams...tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12236462012-01-25T19:00:00-05:002012-03-26T05:12:01-04:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sparrow/
If this post comes across a little disjointed its because it probably is, this time of year has a tendency to do that to me.
I'm back in the studio feeling my way around a bunch of new songs and ideas with the rest of Morning Parade and in all honesty, it's kind of a weird place to be.
Our debut album isn't out for another couple of months (5 March by the way - can't resist a cheeky plug) and we're already trying to work out what we want to do next - it feels a lot like that weird limbo week between 25 December and New Year's Eve.
I've been meaning to get around to writing another one of these blog/post type things but I'm a pretty firm believer in not opening my trap unless I have something remotely interesting worth saying.
It's always around the turn of the year that the majority of media outlets start compiling their best and worst lists, and as you can imagine, I have a huge thirst for knowledge on the top 10 turkey basters/celebrity scandals/TV moments/coolest people/best dressed wags/artists to watch and most hated politicians. Or not.
Admittedly I've never really been one to be phased by trends, and I often discover things much later than everyone else, usually because I rely more on word of mouth than journalists or the people who pick radio playlists, but here are a few of my favourite discoveries in 2011:
It was released in 2008 but only bought to my attention recently, a break up record of immense brutality - "it takes more than fucking someone you don't know to keep yourself warm, oh you won't find love in a hole". True art, true sincerity and real guts to open yourself up like that.
I found it at the closing credits of Shane Meadows' This is England 88 and it has been a permanent fixture in my life ever since. Classic song writing, the kind of song I'm jealous I didn't write. His label, Bella Union are also responsible for John Grant who I mentioned in my last post.
Another discovery from BBC Four's Songwriters Circle. A bit of a 'toe tapper', according to Ron.
So with 2012 finally here I can't help but feel good about the year ahead. 2011 for us was one of the most exciting and intense years we've ever experienced. I really can't say it with words, so here are a few of my favourite memories that were captured.
All photo's courtesy of my good pal Charlie Whatley. You can find his blog here by the way www.charliewhatley.com
So yes, 2012 has much to live up to, but really, what difference does a date make? Quite a lot according to the Mayans and the media that is infiltrating my social network feeds.
When I'm not working on new songs you'll find me lurking around the internet searching for something to entertain my mind and provide a welcome break - and never before have I been made aware of so many protest groups and conspiracy films.
I always try to take things with a pinch of salt but I thought that one of the films I watched THRIVE, made for pretty interesting viewing. Decide for yourself...
I think it's interesting that more of these types of films and documentaries are creeping uninvited into my peripheral, I think people are becoming genuinely bored with being fed junk and feeling so undercut. I'm just glad that they're looking for solutions rather than just someone to blame.
I can't help but think that change can only be a good thing right now, as things aren't exactly rosy when this can be offered as a valid solution to our problems... should we put lithium in our drinking water. Really?
On another of my twilight breaks I stumbled across a talk on the subject of love from Helen Fisher via TED.com
I don't think Helen Fisher would agree with putting lithium in our water. Helen Fisher is a biological anthropologist (what?) who has been studying love and relationships for 30 years, putting lovers inside MRI scanners... Yes, really!
Other than finding out that love and the rush of cocaine encourage activity in the same regions of our brains, she claims her research shows that dopamine plays an important role in humans falling in romantic love with one another. Interesting too then that dopamine is one of the neurotransmitters that is suppressed when we take anti depressants (many of which contain lithium). Oh, and they suppress our sex drive too. Tenuously linked - see what I did there?
Tenuous or not, I thought the talk was interesting, and I vote no for lithium in our water... Who's with me?
The whole study of romantic love is an interesting one though; do we really want to know that there is a science to it? Isn't that like finding out that Santa Claus or the Teletubbies aren't real?
I think that might be a discussion for another time. I best get back to writing new songs. We're being let loose in America very soon and we are absolutely buzzing about it, it's the land of opportunity after all!
I think I'll try to make my next post in the midst of Morning Parade attempting to live out the American dream. In the meantime I'm going to crack on with some new tunes, here is a dummy-lyric-demo of a song I wrote over the Christmas period, no idea where it came from, I don't think it's really a Morning Parade song but it might as well get a chance to see the light of day...
Click below for Steve's demo exclusively on The Huffington Post UK - working title Bottom To The Top ]]>Touring With The Kooks and Learning to Speak My Mindtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.10973272011-11-16T19:00:00-05:002012-01-16T05:12:02-05:00Steve Sparrowhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-sparrow/
I'm new to this...
When I was asked if I wanted to be a 'contributor' on the Huffington Post my first thought was: "What do I have to say?"
The truth is, being the frontman in a band comes with its responsibilities, one of them being not saying the wrong thing!
It seems more and more dangerous to have an opinion these days, yet we now have more ways of expressing ourselves and more ways of it being shared than ever before. So don't drunk tweet folks!
Anyways, I'm in a dressing room in the middle of a tour with The Kooks in Europe. When you get invited to play on a tour like this - with a band that is well-established, has a history, a personality and a sold out tour - it fills me with a mixture of excitement and fear. Will their fans like us? Will everyone get on? What will the headliners be like? Everybody you speak to has an opinion on the band you're touring with, usually formed from what they've read in the press or the Chinese whispers of someone who knows someone who knows someone who heard a story about them sometime. I always try to meet people with an open mind and I have been lucky in the fact that I have rarely been disappointed with what I've found in the people I've met.
I'm now 10 dates in and after a few shows and a couple of drinks I have found The Kooks to be a highly personable, warm and friendly bunch who have plenty time for everybody on the tour and my questions. It's been a massive inspiration to me that after being in 'the game' and having as much success as they have had, more than ever it seems their hearts still retain the values I am led by now, a passion for great music and great songwriting. Meeting people IS easy apparently
On the subject of great songwriting, I was introduced to an artist called John Grant via a programme on the BBC. If you haven't seen it, its a show that invites an eclectic mix of songwriters of varying genres and 'commercial' success to perform a few of their favourites to a live audience - I think you can still check it out on iPlayer. It's introduced me to a bunch of great writers I would never have found via my usual streams of inspiration. So yes, check it out.
Anyways, on to John Grant. I tuned in to see James Dean Bradfield of Manic Street Preachers fame but was blown away by the chap sitting on his left, John Grant. He performed a few songs from his Queen of Denmark record and this track, Sigourney Weaver, Blew my mind.
There is a massive awkwardness in the juxtaposition of the verses and choruses both in terms of harmony and lyric, it just really gets me. It's a car crash of a lyric in the choruses: "I feel just like Sigourney weaver when she had to kill those aliens", but it works and it's brave and, most importantly, it's original!
John Grant is writing about the most personal of experiences but within his words and melodies I have found something that resonates deep within my soul. It's inspired me to be less fearful about what I say and how I say it. He isn't afraid to bare all and share his mistakes with the world, his songs come through experience and from a place that is real to him and I think that's what great songwriting should be about right?
"Make it more universal" they say, but the weird thing is, in John's instance, he is writing about experiences that are deeply personal to him, yet they hit me, and everyone else I have played his music to, like a tsunami wave.
By being honest and opening himself up he has created something that not everybody, but some, will be able to relate to. Cheesy as it sounds, that is what is motivating me most to write songs, in giving away my experiences, sometimes even mistakes made myself or others, a universal connection can be made.
Along with my friends, as a group called Morning Parade, we have just finished our debut record and soon it will be time for me to start talking about it what it's all about. In John Grant and his songs I have found something which helps me no longer feel like I am painting a target on my back every time I open my mouth.
It's taught me to say what I mean, even if it will be rehashed, taken out of context and misquoted by anyone that chooses to take that liberty, so thanks John. I urge anybody who reads this to exercise this same tactic in life; don't be afraid to be yourself, not everyone will like you; but a few will and they're really the only ones that will matter in the end.
A good friend of mine sent this to me after I got sucked into naval gazing at some of the naïve, wide eyed, green things I've said before, things that continue to haunt me till this day in fact, it's a classic, but it stands the test of time, just like a great song.
'The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one'
- Elbert Hubbard]]>
