Sprints: “I’m really proud to stick up for people and to use our platform for something good”

You’d never know it to look at her, but Karla Chubb is worried.

Onstage, the Sprints singer and guitarist is fearless, leading the Irish rockers through some of the most blistering-yet-life-affirming shows you will ever see. In conversation, she is similarly lion-hearted, offering thoughtful-but-forthright opinions on anything you throw at her.

It’s these qualities that have helped make Sprints – Karla, drummer Jack Callan, bassist Sam McCann and new boy guitarist Zac Stephenson – one of the bands of the moment. They had a stellar 2025, releasing one of the finest albums of the year in the form of sophomore record All That Is Over, as well as supporting Fontaines D.C., conquering Glastonbury in the summer and then playing their biggest-ever headline tour.

But, even as the band tear through 2026 amid a perfect storm of commercial success, critical acclaim and cultural impact, Karla’s “nervous Spidey-sense is tingling” at the prospect of what’s happening in the wider world – and what that might mean for Sprints’ place in it.

“I have very mixed feelings about 2026,” she admits as she and Jack join Kerrang!. “We’re in a swing in terms of culture and society. Social issues that matter a lot to our generation do seem to be disappearing – we’re in a backwards trend in music.

“My mum is terrified about me speaking out. Most of the time I’d dismiss her – she’s always like, ‘Don’t be saying all that stuff onstage, and don’t be cursing as much’ – but this time she has a point. I’m genuinely a little bit scared that something could happen to me if I say the wrong thing, or say it to the wrong person.”

Karla and Jack’s concerns extend to both the specific and the more general. Sprints were due to start their North American tour on January 28 in strife-torn Minneapolis.

“There’s no more calm and peaceful time to start a tour in America,” Karla deadpans, while Jack voices concerns about reports of immigration officials trawling through visitors’ social media accounts. Even more generally, they see all the world-going-to-hell-in-a-splitter-van vibes emanating from everywhere from Gaza to Greenland, and Ukraine to Venezuela.

Somewhat ironically, however, All That Is Over is proving to be the perfect soundtrack to a world on the brink. Recorded in Paris in early 2025 against a backdrop of personal and professional upheaval – Karla had been through a relationship break-up, while original guitarist Colm O’Reilly left Sprints in mid-2024 – and unprecedented global turmoil, the band conceived an album that, according to Karla, would “sound like the last record played at a saloon at the end of the world, when it’s burning”.

And All That Is Over certainly delivers, dripping with kinetic punk rock energy and acerbic, Armageddon-friendly anthems such as Rage, Descartes and Something’s Gonna Happen. But even its makers are shocked at how quickly reality caught up with their dystopian vision.

“Yeah, like, is this now a documentary instead of a fictional record?” laughs Karla.

“We’re maybe surprised by the speed of it, but we were pretty open about thinking things would get a whole lot worse before there was any chance of them getting better,” sighs Jack. “I still think things will get worse than they are now, to be honest.

“All you can hope is that there is some kind of turning point. What that will look like, who knows? But you need a little bit of hope.”

Some of that hope, of course, comes from Sprints themselves. Even as it feels like the world is swinging nastily towards intolerance, they are determined that their gigs will remain open and welcoming to all, whatever is happening outside the venue doors.

“During times like this, what you need the most is community,” stresses Karla. “The world doesn’t feel safe for a lot of people right now, and if our gigs can become that safe space for people who are marginalised or othered, or feeling ostracised or persecuted, then that’s more reason than ever for us to tour [in America]. We’ll never stop pushing that message or that community.”

Karla says she has “always been someone who will stick up for someone if they need it – my mum has always told me I’m sanctimonious to a fucking fault!” But it was music that gave her the assurance to use her platform, helping her become a bolder presence than in Sprints’ early days, when the band emerged from Dublin in 2019.

“I’ve definitely gained a lot of confidence,” she nods. “As a woman you can spend so much time having to work harder just to exist in a space. Even wanting to learn guitar, buying Kerrang! or wearing band T-shirts, there’s that classic fucking stereotype of [people asking], ‘Name five albums.’ As a woman, you’re not allowed to exist casually in a hobby space, you have to be a fucking expert.

“I found it really tough to find the confidence to pursue it, because I felt so inept. I was made to feel like I was not intelligent, talented or strong enough. But I finally said, ‘Fuck it, there are 15 average men doing this for every extraordinary woman – and I’m just going to be an average woman and take up as much space as I can!’”

The results are anything but average. Sprints’ in-stores are full of young girls and LGBTQ+ people, often accompanied by their parents, inspired to pick up instruments and be themselves by Karla’s indomitable presence and Sprints’ inspirational music. That in turn has given Karla the strength to embrace her role as a figurehead, despite the flak she receives online.

“I’m really proud to be the frontwoman of Sprints, even if it’s not always the easiest job, in not the easiest industry,” she declares. “I’m really proud to use my voice to stick up for people and to use our platform for fucking good.

“I definitely have way thicker skin [than I used to],” she adds. “But I don’t have metal skin. I’m a person and I have emotions and of course it gets to me.”

In recent interviews, she has called out the mansplainers and misogynists who queue up online to either patronise her or dismiss Sprints as being ‘a terrible Breeders cover band’ or ‘a rip-off of The Distillers’. “They’re fucking class – so I’ll take it!” she mocks.

“It still happens,” she laughs. “Which I’m probably secretly delighted about, because it gives me a lot of material. People are like, ‘We already have one woman in a band, we don’t need another one’ – but they’ll be happy to list their 15 favourite bands, who are all men.

“We need more women at the front, more women in the pit and more women making a lot of fucking noise.”

The boys in the band, meanwhile, have to watch their friend deal with it all.

“The more we’re in the public eye, the worse it is,” Jack sighs. “All we can do is be there and be supportive in whatever way we can. I wish it didn’t happen, but you don’t have a whole lot of control over it.

“Thankfully, in the real world, people are generally quite nice. But online, people have this sense they can say and do whatever they want. Karla would fucking batter them if they said it to her in person!”

Of course, making a stand these days can come with a higher price than dealing with a few keyboard warriors. Kneecap and Bob Vylan have both faced all-too-real-world consequences over speaking out about Palestine, a subject Karla has also been vocal about.

“I found that really shocking,” she says. “That’s the difficult thing to realise: not everyone does think the way we do. But is that not maybe more reason to say it than ever? It’s never really given us second thoughts.”

Sprints, see, have that most essential of rock’n’roll qualities: conviction. Karla says writing the lyrics that she does represents a “subconscious exorcism” of how she’s feeling about what’s happening in the world But, for all the gravity of the geopolitical situation and how horrible things can often feel, Sprints believe in the joyful, life-changing power of the arts. That’s why their songs are peppered with literary references and Easter eggs, ranging from Italian poet Dante and French philosopher Descartes to British novelist Rachel Cusk and Czech poet Vladimír Holan.

“When we wrote Descartes, I was like, ‘Ooof! I’m definitely showing my English major colours now and going full pretentious,’” laughs Karla. “But then I was like, ‘Fuck it.’ As a woman, you’re criticised for fucking everything anyway, so they might as well criticise me for being intelligent and pretentious. At least that’s a badge I can wear proudly.”

Right now, Sprints’ concerns are mostly more earthly. Irish music might be having a massive moment, but they’re contemplating a move to London – Jack and Sam are already there, while Karla and Zac may follow soon.

“There’s a lot of opportunity there,” says Karla. “We want to grow as artists, we want to get more connected and work with other people – and that will be easier when there isn’t an ocean between you. Plus, we’re spending fucking thousands on Ryanair flights, it’s just not financially viable!”

Indeed, despite the success of All That Is Over, Sprints – like many bands these days – still struggle to make ends meet (“We’re pretty fucked, to be honest,” sighs Jack). They have contemplated the pros and cons of signing to a bigger label – they’re currently with legendary indies City Slang and Seattle’s Sub Pop – but say there’s no easy route to success in an industry that feels “rigged”.

“The way it works at the moment is broken,” explains Karla. “Money is the driver, algorithmic suggestions are bought and paid for via marketing campaigns and it’s very difficult for anyone to make any money. The live circuit seems to be clique-ier than ever and it’s a very difficult time to break through. There’s so much noise and it’s very hard to find the authenticity.

“You have your one-in-a-million successes like Geese, which is amazing to see,” she adds. “But the rest of the time, you need massive budgets to grow, and it can be very difficult to do very much without it.”

Still, at least their burgeoning popularity brings some perks, including an unlikely friendship with leading activist Greta Thunberg, forged while Sprints were touring with Fontaines D.C. in Germany.

“We ended up giving her a lift to the pub,” says Jack. “I was up front in the van putting the music on. I put on 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover by Paul Simon and she went, ‘I love this song,’ and gave me a fist-bump!”

“We’ve been sending memes back and forth since,” adds Karla. “I get lots of food and drink-related ones, because for some reason we bonded over Aperol Spritz. She’s really sound.”

In fact, Sprints might just be the Greta Thunbergs of 2026 punk rock. They’re fully committed to making the world a better place, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun (and a few fancy cocktails) along the way.

And that’s why the band – an absolute laugh riot onstage and in person, despite the seriousness of much of what they have to say – are in no mood to move on from All That Is Over just yet.

“We’re always thinking about new music,” smiles Karla. “There’s stuff in the works, but I don’t know if album three will be as rapid as album two. We’re enjoying the dystopian chaos at the moment…”

So, even with all this going on, don’t worry, be happy. Sprints have 2026 all under control.

All That Is Over is out now via City Slang/Sub Pop. Sprints play 2000trees on July 8. This interview originally appeared in the spring 2026 issue.

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