Scott Spark - Fail Like You Mean It

Catalogue No:

OTH94006

Label:

Other Tongues

Release Date:

03/09/10

Format:

CD

Track Listing

1. Fail Like You Mean It
2. The Truth [free download]
3. Kathleen
4. What Is In A World
5. My Address Book
6. Elvis
7. Last Christmas (What Do You Say?)
8. I’m Fighting!
9. Delusions Of The Heart
10. Half Formed Song
11. Eat Your Heart Out

Info

At the age when most of us are still learning to talk properly and demanding to be dressed as fictional characters, Brisbane’s Scott Spark was taking keyboard lessons, albeit still in his Superman outfit. A couple of decades later he has lost the cape and tights and is set to release his debut album, ‘Fail Like You Mean It’.

Spark sings about shift-work, strategies for outsmarting death, the importance of delusions, love, wanderlust at Christmas-time and life’s variety of fuck-ups, while plinking the keys of anything that has them. (Fact: as a misguided teenager he also learned saxophone, until – true story – somebody shot at him to make him stop. Keys were a safer choice.)

In 2007 he released an EP called ‘Wet Behind The Ears’, and shared the stage with An Horse, Last Dinosaurs, Fergus Brown, Jordie Lane and others.

For his debut album, Spark recorded with a group of good friends between auditoriums and bedrooms for the past year or so. Those friends also happened to be some notable Brisbane musicians, including Seja Vogel (Regurgitator), Megan Washington (Washington), Adele Pickvance (The Go Betweens), John Parker (Misinterprotato), Heinz Riegler (ex-Not From There), Chris Pickering, and Yeo Choong (Yeo) among others.

Spark’s arsenal included analogue synths, a deconstructed grand, vintage Wurlitzer keys, celeste, toy piano, trombone, guitars, bass, cajón, glockenspiel, french horn, flugelhorn, drums, trumpet, ukulele, match box, kitchen sieve, a wobble-board and boy scout bird-caller. The songs were mixed in Portland by Tucker Martine, who has produced and mixed records for The Decemberists, Death Cab For Cutie, Sufjan Stevens, Laura Veirs and others. The first fruits were released as the ‘Kathleen’ EP in December 2009 (named Inpress single-of-the-week on release). The album is a definitive statement of the artist, and young man, Scott Spark. Scott Spark is touring nationally with Washington in August and September!

“Sweet tunes that sound like Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright had some very skilful and biologically impossible offspring” – FRANKIE

“A beautiful and fascinating soundscape that gets you in and wraps you up” - TOM BALLARD, TRIPLE J

“The start of something big” – SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“Onomatopoeic pop music; effervescent tunes that carry a gift for observation. An extraordinary record.” – BEAT

“Spark is a unique storyteller… One to watch.” – NINE TO FIVE

“There’s barely a dud track on this tight, well-polished debut.” – RAVE

“The man’s catalogue is practically defined by a meticulous attention to detail and artfully expressed sentiment.” – TIME OFF

“Spark blends his gargantuan talent for any key-related instrument with brooding, thought-inspiring lyrics to create a kind of piano-pop-bustle.” - THREETHOUSAND