While the world seems to crumble around us, Sprints have had their own internal hurdles to overcome, all while experiencing widespread critical acclaim. The Dublin noise-rockers explain how “melancholy” new album All That Is Over helped reshape self-consciousness into confidence, finding flickers of hope in these perilous times…
Five years after Sprints formed in Dublin, their marathon had turned into a sprint. Grafting towards their dream of a full-time career in music, four notices of resignation and one excellent debut album accomplished this reality in the first week of 2024, catalysing a relentless year that would include 103 shows.
“You're sitting in the eye of a storm,” reflects vocalist Karla Chubb. Though hype skyrocketed and the band sold out London’s 2,300-capacity O2 Forum Kentish Town, changes were brewing behind the scenes. Guitarist Colm O’Reilly departed, permanently replaced by Zac Stephenson. Karla navigated the end of an eight-year relationship. The whirlwind intensified, all in the context of a socio-political atmosphere that reached terrifying new lows.
Crucially, Sprints emerged through that turbulence, “closer than ever, and really creatively stimulated,” declares drummer Jack Callan. Their second album All That Is Over contends with these realities, searching for collective strength in our bleak, tense surroundings…
Did you feel any internal or external pressure to follow up Letter To Self, a debut album that was received so well?
Karla Chubb: “There was no pressure on us, externally, to put anything out – if anything, our label wanted us to wait longer. We had gone through so much, Zac had joined and music was starting to come out of us by circumstance. Our life was so insane that there was naturally so much to write about.
“We wanted to keep moving. There was a worry that if we waited, particularly with the line-up change, we would be a little bit forgotten. This was a new beginning for Sprints, so it was important to bookmark it.”
Karla, you’ve retrospectively admitted that writing your debut came with some self-consciousness and anxiety. Was there a shift in confidence to make your next move, and if so, what sparked that?
Karla: “I didn't allow myself to succumb to loads of imposter syndrome when writing. All of us really trusted our instincts and each other. Decisions were made quicker, songs came together faster. There was less pressure to prove myself [by making] sure I had a guitar solo or sang in a particular way. I didn't really care anymore how I was perceived.”
Jack Callan: “Gigging so much and doing [music] professionally definitely helped. That was always the goal, and then we’re doing it?! It gives you a bit more confidence and faith in yourself.”
In Descartes, you sing, ‘I speak therefore I understand.’ Is it ever overwhelming to articulate your thoughts through music – do you feel a sense of reliance on it?
Karla: “One of the album’s key messages is how vital the arts are for everyone to stay in touch with their humanity and empathy. In this world of overconsumption and desensitisation, there's a real lack of empathy anymore, and the arts are what bring us together.
“Music has always been a way to let off steam, but it's also just a lot of fucking fun. The arts will be the first thing discarded in budgets and recessions, but it's the one thing that's going to keep us human, at the end of the day.”
Descartes also reminds us: ‘We have love and we have art.’
Karla: “I need writing to process [things]. We need music, as a group, to function.”
How did the Fallout: New Vegas videogame influence the album?
Zac Stephenson: “It’s not that dissimilar from what the world seems to be heading towards. Within New Vegas, there are still communities, and there’s a lot of good. The other Fallout games are more cynical, but that game is actually a world you might want to live in – even though it's a nuclear apocalypse.”
Karla: “It was more of an aesthetic reference… the grunge, the grittiness, the dystopian nature.”
How does it make you feel when you discover parallels between futuristic videogames and present-day reality?
Sam McCann: “It definitely stresses you out in a subconscious way.”
Jack: “It feels very close to what's going on now, [or what] could easily be the case in 10 years. It’s way scarier than horror, because it feels so real. You can also find a bit of peace in there, because people have been thinking about this and making these worlds for a long time.”
Where does this album fit in the contrast between the intensity of the present, but also this dread for the future?
Karla: “It’s quite hopeful, but there is a melancholy in that. Everything that came before – this liberal, beautiful, world [of] social change that we were heading towards – seems to have completely ceased, and we're now barrelling full speed in the other direction.
“That is the undertone of the entire album: we built this beautiful new music[al] life, we're on tour in this bubble, and the whiplash you get from [the real world] is very difficult to deal with. Coming Alive and Desire are about how you can use the arts, your friends and relationships to push yourself out the other end. We might not be heading towards a good place, but we have to head there – elbows out and arms up, like you're going into the mosh-pit.”
Instead of trying to prevent the impending doom, is it more about focusing on coming through the hardship together?
Karla: “We're heading into a storm. There's only so much that we can do, and hopefully we can stop it. By building a strong community to continue to push out the other side, [we can] remind people that there's something worth fighting for in remaining human.”
Could you explain the intonation behind the title, All That Is Over?
Karla: “It's open to interpretation: All That Is Over or All That Is Over, and a new beginning. It's melancholy and open-ended but hopeful. We're heading towards disaster, but disaster always comes back around to rebirth. We went through a very tough year and still came out swinging, so I'm sure we can get through anything.”
With those glimmers of hope, does the opposite notion of utopia fit into this dystopian picture of All That Is Over?
Zac: “We were there early in the summer. It's Glastonbury, probably!”
Jack: “It's definitely something we're interested in, but this album is quite reflective of the world we've found ourselves in. It would be nice to think that we could do a utopian album at some point.”
Karla: “Life is about duality. To embrace the dystopia of reality also highlights the utopian parts of it at the same time. That is the juxtaposition that we're in. Our life is really fucking fun and insane sometimes, and then you look at Instagram, like, ‘I don't wanna be part of that world.’”
Dynamically, does that duality explain why the album weaves between such bare ambience and blistering noise-rock?
Karla: “We wanted to surprise people… it would be very easy to soften the edges, but we wanted them to get a little bit rougher.”
Sam: “For a third album, I would like to get even rougher, angrier, louder. Some bands tend to get softer – that's their journey, and that's cool – but I wouldn't like to do that.”
Karla: “The more shit we're exposed to, the less we give a fuck about what people say. I want to keep going left-field, making even more noise and pissing off the right people, continuously, because it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to make noise onstage.”
Sprints’ new album All That Is Over is out September 26 via City Slang
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