Fans of Sparkadia weren't sure what to make of the move to Berlin early last year. What influenced the change within the band? 

Well...the band spent the majority of 2008 touring the UK and Europe and Australia and every time we pulled into Berlin there was a particular sense of adventure and mischief that came over the band. As we moved towards the end of the touring cycle, I felt that it would be a wild idea to move to Berlin and see what happened...As it turns out, the band actually never made it to Berlin as Tiff had a baby, Dave moved onto other things and Nick went to India...I was thus left with a bunch of demos and was living in Sydney without much of a plan and was beginning to think that I should do something else with my life too...so instead of getting even more grim - I packed my bags for London and left in the middle of January 2010 with the rough plan of making the second record somehow - somewhere - but I didn't know anymore than that. 

Do you feel it was a beneficial experience? 

When I first moved to London it was the middle of a brutally cold winter. It was pretty grim. I didn't know many people and after two months of surviving on baked beans and toast, I was beginning to think that my plan was not so wise. Towards the end of February, I was lucky enough to meet a fellow songwriter who was also an upcoming producer named Mark Tieku. He had written a bunch of songs with an artist named Cocknbull Kid and had also done some writing and production with Florence and the Machine and Wolfgang. When he heard the demos - he flipped out - and we decided to go to a studio in the north and work on a song that he was obsessed about called "China". We spent basically 20 hours each day for a week working on the tune and at the end of the week it sounded awful. Like appallingly bad. We then had a big chat about what wasn't working (which the studio falling apart was a big factor) and decided that we should start again and commit to making the album - as we reasoned that it couldn't get much worse. Sounds absurd, but I just knew that there was the right chemistry between him and I. From there, we found a tiny studio in the east next to London fields and found an amazing engineer called Myles Clarke and basically spent 16 hours a day, 6 days a week for 8 weeks in a dank, cramped studio making the demos into a cohesive body of work that is the album.  

What were some of the major factors of influence in the songwriting process? 

I wanted to write bold yet slightly odd pop songs. Most of my heroes for this record were writing big tunes that weren't obvious or cheap. There is a fine line to tread but so far so good. I was into the pop music of my childhood when I used to get up at 6am to watch Rage (circa 1989-1992) as well as late Roxy Music, Bowie in his Berlin years, Roy Orbison, the pop stuff of Talking Heads as well as Debussy and Tom Waits from the Island years. As for the sound, I wanted to make a studio album rather than a live record - which was essentially what occurred on "Postcards". After a trip to Darwin in 2009 I became obsessed with Javanese Gamelan and starting using gongs and other left field instruments such as using metal poles for snare drums and junk percussion for hi hats as well as emulating gospel choirs and harpsichords and whatever else seemed to fit in the grand and deluded musical world I was creating.  

Your last record, Postcards, kept up a considerably high level of energy, particularly in its singles. Was it difficult to recapture the fire this time around - in other words, were there any symptoms of second-album-syndrome? 

Not at all. It was an entirely different process as it was just me making all the sounds and playing all the instruments. I didn't feel any pressure to recapture what occurred on "Postcards" and make volume two, "travel diaries" ha. It was liberating.  

Was there a conscious effort to make your new material different from Postcards? 

Not at all. I loved making the first record and I don't cringe when I listen back at all. On this upcoming tour we are playing 6 of the tunes from it. I suppose the music that excites you - then informs what you write and in 2009 and 2010 I definitely wasn't listening to the music that I was obsessed about in 2003 to 2007 that inspired the first record. I think it's great for bands to slowly evolve.   

 Your upcoming tour with Little Red will be your first tour in around eighteen months in the country. You must be looking forward to it?  

Very excited. So much so that I have to get up in three hours to get on a plane to Perth but i can't sleep.   

Have you been keeping up with the Australian music scene in your time away? What are some of your favourite newer acts? 

Sort of. Little Red, Washington and Gypsy and the Cat are my new favourites. There's loads of others who are doing great things too...   

Sparkadia ended up being the unexpected heroes of Homebake 2008, with nearly everyone packing into the Hopetoun to see you guys. With the festival canned for 2010, what do you think that says about the festival scene at the moment - has the importance of Australian acts been lessened in the current musical climate?  

I think that there are so many festivals going on that it is a better musical climate to be in a band. I don't believe that the importance of being Australian is diminished, I just feel that there is a slight change of musical landscape with Powderfinger retiring and loads of other bands making one record that has blown up. It's hard to headline a festival after one album but I'm sure that Homebake will be back bigger and stronger than ever in 2011.  

Finally, although you've probably heard this one a million times, please enlighten us: how exactly does one talk like they're falling downstairs? 

Well - for me - the song is about the eternal battle between the creativity/delusions of the mind and the reality of what actually comes out in your actions. We all have these grand plans about having the singing voice to swoon, the dance moves to knock someone off their feet and the words to charm...yet often when it comes down to it...well it's a beautiful mess.

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Don't miss Sparkadia on tour with Little Red!

SEPTEMBER:  

Thu 28            The Westernport Hotel (San Remo), VICVenue: (03) 5678 5205 www.thewesternport.com.au  & Moshtix: 1300 GET TIX (438 849); www.moshtix.com.au