Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Sparks Will Fly, and what’s the most embarrassing song you have on your IPOD.
Skye: I’m Skye, I play bass in the band. And the most embarrassing song on my IPOD is The Macarena – and I’ve had it since it came out and I still know the dance.
Charlie: I’m Charlie – I play guitar in the band. And my most embarrassing song on my Itunes is Photograph by Nickelback. And I only have it because there’s a lot of people I know that like Nickelback – and I just made fun of them for it because I don’t like Nickelback.
Spencer: My name is Spencer – I play guitar and sing. The most embarrassing artist on my Itunes is probably Taylor Swift – shamelessly.
Jordan: I’m Jordan – I’m the lead singer. The most embarrassing song on my Itunes is probably Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone – their newest song.

What is the music scene like in Rhode Island?
Spencer: It’s pretty much terrible – and that’s why we’ve done as much as we can to get out of Rhode Island.
Skye: The few venues that are left are either extremely hard to get into or just not popular at all. There’s really no place for a growing band to go, besides trying to do VFW halls – which are getting more and more rare after the fire code changes that happened in Rhode Island after the Station Night Club fire. And so it’s just tough for any band to find any venue that’s going to have a really good turn out.

Who’s idea was it to go on the summer adventure of the Warped Tour?
Spencer: It was pretty much a joint decision. We thought about it for a while. We thought about all the other bands that had done it. We heard something about Mayday Parade, We The Kings, a number of different bands that had done this, and heard the numbers they had gotten selling CD’s just in line. We pretty much picked up everything – spent our college money and any money we made working on a new van trailer – which promptly broke down on the way to California. So we started out selling CD’s just in line and we met some of the right people on getting a tent in here – which helped a lot.

What has been the best and worst city on the Warped Tour?
Skye: The best city has definitely been Denver. We sold over 300 CD’s that day. It was by far our highest number. The worst city – I would probably say Arizona – it was really bad. I wanted to go in the shade but I couldn’t, because there’s scorpions in the trees. It was like 115 degrees and all I wanted to do was go lay in the shade – and then a local told me I would probably get killed. So I was weary of that, so we sat in the van.

Does the van have air conditioning?
Skye: No. Just no.

I have heard from other bands to never try doing the Warped Tour in a van…
Skye: They were definitely right. Don’t do it.

What advice would you give another band who was going to go on the Warped Tour all summer next year just selling CD’s and not playing like you’ve done?
Jordan: First I’d tell then, get air conditioning in your van. Don’t try it without air conditioning. Bring lots of water. And the other thing I would say is talk to other bands who’ve done something like this and try to get an idea of sales tactics and strategies to use. We’ve learned a lot doing it this summer. We really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and a bunch of the other bands really helped us out and taught us some things.
Spencer: Honestly, I don’t know if in the economy right now, if it’s possible for a band to pull it off doing it just selling in line. That’s how we started out doing it, and our numbers, as we went East especially, just kept dropping as more and more bands joined the tour. Warped Tour eventually kicked off the bands that were following the tour – put out flyers saying there would be legal reprecussions if bands kept selling CD’s in line. The bands were just following and sneaking in during the day.
Skye: By then we were inside so we were okay. We wouldn’t be getting in trouble for that. But a lot of the bands we were friends with who were doing it had to go home because of it. It was really tough on us, even in the beginning when our numbers were high because we came out with pretty unrealistic expectations. But getting inside makes the world of difference when you go from 80-90 CD’s in line to like 100-200 CD’s everyday inside.

Who’s idea was it to call your CD The Soundtrack? Is there any story behind it or do you guys like movies?
Spencer: Basically, something we do every Friday night after band practice – we just all go and hang out at Dennys. We were sitting there one night – it was just me, Charlie, and Skye – and we just had this idea to make it a movie theme and open it with credits, do an intermission, and an ending roll. We wanted something to tie it together. Thematically the whole album has underlying themes and we sort of wanted to tie it together conceptually, just to make it hold together as an EP that you want to listen to all the way through.

Where do you come up with the ideas for some of the lyrics?
Jordan: Spencer writes most of the lyrics. Skye and I each contributed a song as well. And we really just draw our real life experiences of what it’s like growing up.

Have you guys had any label interest?
Spencer: We are on a small label out of Boston called District Kills Records that’s been helping us out a lot. Mike Hogan is the label owner – he’s basically my age – he’s an awesome guy that’s helped us out with a lot of stuff. As far as bigger label stuff, we haven’t really talked to anybody yet. I know our CD has been passed around with a few labels, but we haven’t really talked to anybody.

So what is the first thing you guys are going to do when you get home from the Warped Tour? You only have a few days more left.
Skye: Right when I get home, I’m going to go to my house, say hi to my parents – and promptly pass out on my living room floor for a good 4-5 days straight. And then we should probably get practicing, because we have a tour coming up in October and we need to be ready for it. We’ll be going right back out across the country.
Charlie: I’d say we’re definitely going to take a few seconds to breathe, because this has been non-stop, on our feet selling. But we’re pretty much getting ready for our next tour and getting a new merch line – and order more CD’s. And the biggest thing right now, so that we could make this tour possible, is to have a new drummer. So we’re going to get on that. So far we’ve had Youtube auditions that kids have recorded. So we finally get to meet these kids and see if they work well with the band – and then we’ll pick one.
Spencer: The first thing I’m probably going to do is go to sleep. See my girlfriend – and see my parents who I really haven’t called as much as I was supposed to this tour. That pretty much sums it up.
Jordan: I really don’t have nothing to add. I’m just going to go home and sleep too. And go to the beach.

Are you guys going to turn around and do this again next year?
Skye: Hopefully all this work this summer – we’ve been working ourselves to the bone every day. Constant non-stop selling. Hopefully next year we’ll be playing and we won’t have to work as hard. But if we aren’t on the tour next year, we’ll be doing the same thing all day – even if we aren’t playing. We’ll play the show, come back to the tent, and still try to bring people in to check out our stuff.

Have you met Kevin Lyman?
Skye: Yeah, actually he picked up our CD in Scranton. I talked to him. He actually bought our CD, which was kind of astonishing to me. It was really cool! I talked to him about it and he complimented it. I was really impressed how down to earth the guy is. I’ve seen him onstage talking and he hasn’t let it go to his head – that he’s the God of Warped Tour really.

Were you guys able to play a few dates inside this year?
Spencer: They had small stage set up on a few of the East Coast dates – I don’t know if you remember the Shira Girl stage they had for a few years. It’s set up by the same people who are hoping to do a stage full time next year. They had a stage for a few days on the East Coast – and we hooked up with them and played acoustic a few times. It was pretty cool.

Do you have any messages for people reading this who might want to check out your band?
Skye: Definitely just come out to our shows. We put a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of money into the recording to just make sure it conveyed us as well as we could on a CD. But our magic is really in our live show and we just put everything into every performance every night. That’s really the best place to come out and see us.
Charlie: I also want to say – having doing this for two months – I’ve been complimented on my sales pitch. But I’d like that to switch over to our stage presence. All this work will hopefully pay off. I pretty much just want every person – even if they don’t have our CD – to come to our shows because we are a lot better onstage than we are at selling CD’s. And we’re hoping to be even better this Fall. So really spread the word as much as you can – tell all your friends – and come to our shows.
Spencer: We’re really looking forward to playing live again and seeing all the people again that we met this summer. Hopefully people will come out and see us and we’ll get to actually play for them. It’s always cool to hang out with the people that bought our CD’s and make new friends, and play for as many people as we can and just have a good time.
Jordan: I just want to tell everybody who met us on Warped and picked up our CD or just checked us out online to get all their friends together and come see us in the Fall.

(Interview and Photo by Kenneth Morton)

Sparks Will Fly on Myspace

THE SOUNDTRACK by SPARKS WILL FLY (District Kills Records)

Here is a band I met at the end of a long day at the Ventura Warped Tour. They were sitting near the parking lot and performing their songs acoustic to those leaving the event. Based out of Rhode Island, Sparks Will Fly plan on following the entire Warped Tour route, promoting their band to all. The songs were amazingly impressive, so I decided to check out their EP and see what they had to offer.

After a brief bit of Opening Credits, The Soundtrack kicks into high gear with the magnificent anthem-like We’re Not Chasing Ghosts – a song so catchy and alive that one will find the chorus instantly committed to memory. That’s What She Said is another example of pure pop perfection that is instantly likable. I’ll Go Down In History (Or Up In Flames) is another top track showing that these guys can truly rock it out with the very best of the melodic punk crew.

Fans of acts such as New Found Glory, early Starting Line, and especially Amber Pacific should really enjoy what Sparks Will Fly has to offer. The band is sure to ignite interest all across the country with songs as good as those contained on The Soundtrack. Be sure to snag a copy of the EP if you come across these talented young musicians at Warped this year. Recording lineup is Jordan Hillman on vocals, Spencer Hillman on guitar and vocals, Charlie Iwuc on guitar and vocals, Skye Soderberg on bass, and Alex Lee on drums.

Info: http://www.myspace.com/sparkswillflymusic!

(Review and Warped Tour photo by Kenneth Morton)