When a band like SPRINTS spends a significant amount of time touring together, they come to know each other very well. While waiting for guitarist Zac Stephenson to join our Zoom call, the other band members speculate about what might be delaying him. “He’s probably eating cheese,” they conclude, humorously pointing out their new bandmate’s fascination with mini cheeses. He joins the conversation just as they’re joking, holding up an empty cheese wrapper in triumph.
In an interview with CLASH a few weeks prior to the release of their second album, ‘All That Is Over’, the band isn’t feeling anxious about the upcoming launch. “I’m definitely feeling a lot less nervous now that we’re kind of in the thick of it,” says lead singer and guitarist Karla Chubb.
The only times they truly start to feel the pressure, according to drummer Jack Callan, is during the rare moments they find themselves not on tour. “The issue is, we’ve been off tour. We’re home for a week, and it’s like, ‘Jesus, what do we do with ourselves?’ I think we’ve become institutionalized at this point.”
They just wrapped up a busy summer filled with festival appearances, including a sought-after televised performance on Glastonbury’s Woodsies stage, and a series of shows across Europe with fellow Irish band Fontaines D.C. By November, they will embark on their headline tour across the UK and beyond. How do they maintain such energy? “ADHD, baby,” Karla replies succinctly. “It’s a wonderful thing.”
Indeed, it was during these extensive periods on the road that ‘All That Is Over’ was crafted. “Most of the free time we had was during stage performances and sound-checking. We were all together, and the instruments were already there – we might as well make some noise,” Karla explains. Zac likens it to “that phase of the tour where you get to play like a child, just messing around. That’s a great place to experiment.” Tired of playing their debut album night after night, many of the early demos found their way onto their setlist.
The album has a more gothic feel than their previous work, presenting a dark and atmospheric sound, which Karla attributes to her love for ambient music. “For me, lyrically and sonically, it was a lot of ambient music. I read a lot while on tour, and I need to listen to ambient music to read. So, I started to seek it out more. I was listening to Portishead, Massive Attack, early Aphex Twin, and Brian Eno's Music For Airports. That influenced the space, atmosphere, and moodiness in the album.”
But the inspiration for ‘All That Is Over’ did not solely stem from her reading soundtrack. Much of the album was influenced by the contents of the books she read during that time, a topic that excites both Karla and Jack. “I read a lot of poetry; I went through a lot of Mary Oliver, Vladimír Holan, Maya Angelou, and W.B. Yeats,” Karla shares, as she gestures to her bookshelf. She showcases copies of Lucy Rose’s femgore sensation The Lamb, Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning Prophet Song, and Octavia Butler’s Kindred, while Jack grabs his copy of the dystopian puzzle, I Who Have Never Known Men.
“I dive into a lot of unusual fiction about cannibals and female body horror, as well as dystopian tales,” she continues. “It all reflects the dystopian reality we live in, along with poetry that directly influences the lyrics. There’s a female poetry collection mentioned in ‘Coming Alive’, Vladimír Holan appears in ‘Beg’, and Mary Oliver shapes the natural imagery and references.”
Dystopian is a term frequently associated with ‘All That Is Over’. While it has clear literary connotations, what defines an album as dystopian? “We considered it a lot in terms of establishing the aesthetic around it,” Jack clarifies. “I think it seeps into how we connect songs, through textures and elements like that.”
“I would say the track ‘Desire’ embodies dystopia,” Karla says. “It sounds precisely how we envisioned the album to look and feel. It has that melancholic, aggressive, dark, moody atmosphere while still being powerful. The reference to Fallout: New Vegas ties into how ‘Desire’ sounds. It’s a balance of atmosphere and texture.”
She adds, “If we stripped away all the synths and atmosphere from the song, it would still stand as a regular song. However, that melancholy, moodiness, and tension would be lost. Together, they establish a dynamic interplay.”
Similar to their debut, ‘All That Is Over’ is a deeply personal work, venturing into darker themes to produce intensely charged music. Is it challenging to perform such
The American duo crushed has released their debut album, 'no scope,' in its entirety. The band has been developing the album for quite a while, featuring two musicians who...
All I could envision was a lifetime with Christina S., constantly discovering the passion of how our memories could be realized in dreaming about a life together. It was a life that consistently resonated with the profound magic of the incredible words and realms expressed by the Cocteau Twins – which, in a sense, transformed into our unique and liberated emotional language.
Be My Wife is making a comeback with his latest single, “Only You.” This mesmerizing release from the Paris-based artist signals the beginning of a new chapter for the
Bristol ensemble SCALER is back with their latest album, 'Endlessly.' Now available, this new release showcases the group as they broaden their musical range. They continue to resist limitations,
It’s hard not to view Zara Larsson’s fifth album as a realignment. Released just a year after ‘Venus’, an album that showcased the Swedish artist
.jpg)
BRIT winner Myles Smith has released his new single "Stay (If You Wanna Dance)." Available now, this release adds to the songwriter's outstanding achievements in 2025, which has been marked by
When a band spends a significant amount of time touring together like SPRINTS does, they learn everything there is to know about each other. While waiting for guitarist Zac Stephenson...