23 January 2012 (Music Interview)

Words: Rónán Yourell

As our third labour of love is about to be unleashed on a not unsuspecting public, we thought it’d be cool to set the scene and give you some insight into its creation.

For a number of years Ross had been steadily building a collection of microphones and other paraphernalia into a home studio. With the flexibility this afforded us, we were able to broaden our soundscape and be more objective about our music.

We set out to challenge ourselves as songwriters and players, to break with the conventions of our previous work and let our imaginations dictate Little Sparks.

With the involvement of a producer (Rob Kirwan) from a much earlier stage than ever before and armed with several versions of roughly twenty songs, we embarked on a near nine month period of distilling, recording and mixing until we had in our hands the finished record of twelve tracks which you’re soon to hear.

Now, making allowances for the fact that every parent always thinks their child is beautiful and promising to leave the maternity analogies behind, let me present to you my track by track ‘behind the music' on Little Sparks.

Listen to Little Sparks in its entirety (for free!) right here.

Did We Ever Really Try?

This started out as a piano song with a simple right hand hook, but quickly morphed into a monster tune and the first single to be taken from the album. We continue to spend many hours in rehearsals, cursing each other as we play through ideas, but this song is an example of one of us, namely Ross, taking a song and turning it on its head.

Bullet in a Gun

From quite early on we felt this was a special tune, but after shooting an impromptu video in the backstreets of Madrid and getting a phenomenal reaction to it, we felt under pressure to do it justice. This led to much second guessing and re-recording, including a full-on version that sounds like The Clash jamming with the Pogues. Eventually we decided to keep it raw and bare, just like the lyrics.

Care For

Care For's rolling groove and rich harmonies make for a really bright pop tune that we can’t wait to play live. Adversity in all its forms is a recurring theme throughout Little Sparks and 'Care For' is a really positive reaction to it. 

Petardu

A beautiful, poignant lyric by Kieran, I really like the sense of space in this track. Petardu means ‘little firecracker’ in Spanish slang. We’ve had a great time touring there recently and it’s obviously rubbing off!

Right to Know

I remember Ross first playing this on acoustic guitar and being completely smitten. The chorus line 'do we get high from this love?' is so simple yet extremely provocative.

Little Sparks

'Little Sparks' was the earliest suggestion and a great title for the album, yet we travelled in circles for months, spouting all manner of ridiculous alternatives before realising that sometimes, the most obvious choice is that for a reason. 

If I have my way it will close all our live shows until the end of time. It starts out so subtly you can barely hear it, then builds and builds to an exhilarating climax. If you have good speakers, this is the song to turn them up!

Waited For You So Long

After the epic conclusion of 'Little Sparks', we thought it a perfect place to present a completely different feeling with 'Waited For You So Long'. The vocal you hear is actually from the first demo we made of the song. We recorded some lovely bird singing too, but their royalty demands were ridiculous, so we had to leave them out.

Pace Yourself

Apart from the 'Ever be the One' refrain, I love the meandering nature of this song. We wondered at times whether the structure was a bit odd, but could never bring ourselves to change it and funnily enough, when stripped back for our acoustic tour last November, it came across really well.

Give it Up Now

The spirit of Van Halen is in here somewhere. 'Give it Up Now' is all about release. Fist pumping, foot stomping, whooping and hollering, are all crucial accompaniments this song.

The Stream

My current favourite, it manages to be nostalgic and exhilarating at the same time.

Swimmer

The most onomatopoeic song Delorentos has ever written. Níal layered some truly aquatic guitars to complement the lyric. Then, having worked out the main song, Kieran brought a new refrain at the eleventh hour, which we jammed to its conclusion, with Rob, in a rehearsal room, on James street, in Dublin.

Witness in the Dark

Picking up where 'Swimmer' leaves off, the sound almost envelops you. It’s a sort of lullaby, so I think that works. I think it sounds comforting. To create the richness we borrowed a Harmonium and Níal found a bow and used it with his bass.
 

So there you have it. We hope you get as much satisfaction from listening to Little Sparks as we’ve had making it. We’re really excited to go out on tour and look forward to seeing you all in 2012.

Ró
delorentos

Little Sparks is out on Friday 27th January. Delorentos' Irish tour begins at Dublin's Button Factory on February 25th. www.delorentos.net
 

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