Sam Sparro
Subscribe
X

Get the latest from Beat

Sam Sparro

samsparro.jpg

By his own admission Sparro has been travelling his heart out over the last few months. The GQ awards were held last week but he jammed several more commitments into that short trip. “I did an event for Samsung with Ricki-Lee, we did a collaboration, and then I did a photoshoot with Kimbra and Daniel Merriweather in Melbourne. [I’ll be back in] a few weeks. I’m going to New York, doing some US shows, and then I’m coming to Australia,” he explains. “I live on a plane a lot, I live out of a suitcase a lot.”

Sparro is a coveted performer in Europe as well, and one of the bonus tracks on Re-Return To Paradise recently sat in the number one position on the Belgian charts for six weeks straight. There’s a great video up of the man performing the track Happiness (The Magician Remix) at a big outdoor party in Brussels, and you can practically hear the waffles being crushed underfoot as the crowd pinball around to its beats. A portion of the material on the release isn’t completely new.

“They’re the B-sides that basically came out on different versions of the album, but they’re going to be together,” Sparro says. “You know, you had to buy something to get them, or they were only at a certain store. They’re already out there, but now you can get them in a collection.” However, fans will be getting some fresh fruit, as there are a couple of mixes that are not yet out. “I just got those mastered a couple of weeks ago, and they’re some of my favourite ones on the record,” the singer says. “There’s like a nine minute Tiger and Woods remix of Let The Love In which I really love. And Mike Simonetti, and Plastic Plates. Really different from the originals.”

The original album was inspired by Sparro’s fascination with New York nightlife in the early ‘80s, and particularly DJ Larry Lavan from Paradise Garage. Lavan’s residency at the club touched each tip of a decade, and he’s one of six DJs in the Dance Music Hall of Fame. “He was disco, and then post disco,” Sparro says contemplatively. “He kind of transitioned into house music. He was there in the really early stages of that, but he also played a lot of funk and soul and you know, basically everything that I’m into, he played.” For more info on the era including plenty of tidbits about Lavan’s colleagues-in-cuts Frankie Knuckles and David Mancuso, readers are encouraged to check out the online film Maestro, which you can stream for free. Meanwhile admirers can look forward to the upcoming show at the Prince Bandroom, and speculate on the stylin’ threads Sparro might be sporting.

BY ZOË RADAS