artists » Jim Ward of Sparta

It has been said that destruction breeds creation. Jim Ward has witnessed this spawning twice, as the demise of his early underground El Paso band lead to the acclaimed At the Drive-In. Its downfall birthed his current, highly-anticipated alternative rock/punk act, Sparta.

Sparta was formed by Ward and Tony Hajjar in 2001, but the two musicians have played together for over ten years. Their latest release, Threes, marks a new chapter in their book of seasoned collaboration. Along with guitarist Keeley Davis, who joined in 2005 and previously played with Denali and Engine Down, and bassist Matt Miller, Threes displays a more versatile Sparta. It is the band’s third full-length release (following the acclaimed Wiretap Scars in 2002, and Porcelain in 2004) and the first Sparta album for Hollywood Records.

When asked about the different direction the new album depicts, Ward says, “The main difference between this record and Porcelain was the amount of time we spent writing. The more time you spend writing, the deeper and deeper you get. Also, the number of songs we had written was way more than we had ever written before. From that, there’s a deeper well to draw from.” That well was full after about seven months of writing. Skimming the cream off the top yielded fourteen tracks that span the spectrum from moments of melancholy gloom to those of joyous bliss. One song that illustrates deep contrast is “Unstitch Your Mouth.” “We recorded it with acoustic, and then when we perform it live, we use sort of a toned down electric for the first half of the song.” He adds, “It really kicks at the end. That’s where I feel like it shines, because it can make the sweep between this warm, light sound based on my volume pedal, and then at the end of the song I can kick it in and it really has the guts behind it.”

Ward finds that the VOX AC30 Custom Classic is perfect for consistently turning out those guts. “I love the reverb on it, and I’ve never really been much of a reverb guy until this amplifier. I don’t think I’ve ever had an amp with reverb that I’ve liked, so that was the first thing. And of course, I love the built in tremolo.”

Sparta has been touring extensively to support Threes and Jim goes for the AC30 whenever he can. He states, “Recently, because we’ve been doing a lot of fly dates, I’ve been getting different AC30s throughout the country, and it really just makes me love mine more. It’s like the perfect blend of new design and old, classic sound. It’s a pleasure to have VOX amplifiers standing behind me, every show, every night.” Well, it’s a pleasure to have Jim Ward standing in front of them, as well!

Keep up with Jim Ward and Sparta at http://www.spartamusic.com/ and www.myspace.com/sparta.

By Evan O’Brien