Project Description

Interview With:

SOLA ROSA

Interviewer: Kelsey Hentschel

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Sola Rosa is one of Kiwi music’s most evolutionary and enduring acts. It’s been a near 20-year labour of love for the man behind the music, Andrew Spraggon. And this year, a new chapter begins for Sola Rosa with the release of the EP, ‘IN SPACES’. Sola Rosa remains one of New Zealand’s most travelled and internationally successful touring and festival acts, with Spraggon dividing his time between his hometown of Auckland and cities such and London where he’s built up a loyal following. Recent shows include Secret Garden Party, Greenman Festival, Kendal Calling and Nozstock Festival. Sola Rosa took some time out of his busy schedule to answer sone questions for us over at Amnplify. Read the full interview below…

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So, first of all, how did your career in music begin?

The official career started back in the early 2000’s when I was booted off the dole and decided to take the plunge and try to survive solely off my music. But I knew I wanted to make music as a career at around age eleven. I saved up on my paper round to by my first keyboard, which I still have, a Casio VL-Tone. I then got other after school jobs to pay for bigger and better synths as well as a handful of 4-track recorders. I had a couple of high school bands. I then left school and ended up as front man for a band called Cicada while working in hospo to pay the bills. We released a couple of EP’s and an album, played a lot of shows and toured the country a bit before my love for indie rock was replaced by hip hop, funk, soul etc. The music that really interested me at the time was coming through labels such as Mo Wax and Ninja Tune, as well as artists such as DJ Shadow, Nightmares on Wax etc. I decided to leave the band and try my own thing with no real idea of what that was. I spent a small fortune bought a sampler, studio monitors, a controller and an Apple computer, all of which costs a f**ing fortune back in 1999, out of that came the first Sola Rosa EP – Starter for 4.

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Was there a specific time or event that you could pin point when you decided that music was something that you wanted to make a career out of?

From memory it was around age 11 when I discovered my neighbours piano but my mind was really made up at high school. I would spend all day hanging round the music rooms, drawing all over my school books with images of super cool looking band on stage with big speaker stacks and all that. I was designing band logos; all that hilarious stuff that I’m sure is not an uncommon story with musicians. I failed school certificate music twice. My teachers told me the only career options were the Auckland Philharmonic or the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, neither of which appealed to me.

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You recently released “Leave A Light On”! How was the reception from fans? How’s it been releasing new music?

Great so far, it’s only been a couple of weeks so its still building but I’ve had some great feedback. I never intended this track to be a single, but it is probably my favourite off the EP.

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“Leave A Light On” features Kevin Mark Trail. What was it like working with him?

Kevin is great on every level. He’s possibly my all time favourite singer to work with in the studio, super creative, writes on the spot, no ego, happy to try as many different approaches to making a great track. He’s also an incredible performer and front man, we’ve done a lot of shows / tours together since 2014. He’s a beautiful soul; I have a lot of time for the guy. He’s off on tour with The Streets at the moment, which is cool.

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You’re upcoming new EP titled “In Spaces”, due out May 18. What can fans expect from the EP?

The EP contains four new originals and two remixes. I feel the Rosa tunes fall somewhere between material on the Magnetics album (2014) and the material I’m working on for the next album. They didn’t really fit with other new tunes I have for album seven so I thought I’d release them separately. The remixes were just bonus tracks for fans. I love both if them. Potatohead People are from Canada, they released a great album a few years back called Big Luxury on Bastard Jazz. Been following them ever since. Flytones are from Istanbul. I found via Instagram. I was so impressed I asked them for a remix and they came through with the fire.

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What are the themes explored on the EP?

Not so much themes but there are some real departures from my usual comfort zone beats, which are often based around hip-hop and breaks tempo. So Fly is quite an angular beat while Back To You has a half time drum and bass feel, though I would by no means call it drum and bass. Truth is like a mutant disco / dub number while Leave A Light On is probably the most signature Rosa sounding track, but still different to any previous material. SO I guess I’m exploring themes but not intentionally, not this time anyway.

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Do you think your music is continually changing? Do you actively try to mix it up?

Its definitely changing all the time but there’s still a thread that runs through all of it that has that Sola Rosa signature. I’m excited about the material I’m working on for the next album as I feel I’ve done a lot of exploring creatively since Get It Together in 2009, I’m always rebelling against the boxes people put the music in, so for example when I was writing a bit of Latin influenced music with beats people came to expect that so I stopped doing it. Also my tastes change all the time so the music reflects that. I don’t care about following trends and am at an age in my life where I know what kind of music I want to make and that’s freedom.

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What’s your favourite song that you have ever created?

The one I’m working on now. I don’t really go back and listen to the music once it’s released. Gotta keep moving forward. You end up listening to each track thousands of times in the studio so by the time it’s released your done with it. Performing those songs live is a different thing entirely. Del Ray is still one of my fav’s to play live even though musically I feel a million miles away from it and where I’m at creatively right now, but its just a banger live.

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With such an extensive discography behind you now, do you find it difficult to curate your setlists?

Not really. We write songs in the studio and then have to learn how to play them live. Some times they fly and some times they fall out the nest. A song like So Fly for example didn’t sound great when we first started playing it live. We had to have workshops to figure it all out and make it work and now it sounds great but otherwise songs just get dropped from the set, survival of the fittest.

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“Leave A Light On was written and recorded in my home studio in Auckland over a previous summer by myself and keyboard don Michal Martyniuk (Nathan Haines) with electric bass and guitar added by local legends Matt Short and Dixon Nacey,”

– Andrew Spraggon (AKA “Sola Rosa”)

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What is something you would like to achieve career-wise that you’ve never done?

I’ve had a pretty great career, don’t get me wrong, there have been some major highs and major lows. I’ve dealt with some pretty serious depression and anxiety, which was mostly a result of excessive touring and money issues, band member breakups, all that classic stuff you’ll find in any good artist biography but I wouldn’t take it back. Those experiences have made me a better person and taught me some invaluable life lessons. Music has taken me all around the world, I’ve been to places I never thought I’d go, met some incredible people, played some amazing shows and had a blast. I still love making music so I feel blessed at this point in my life. Anything else is a bonus.

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How does the writing process go for a Sola Rosa song? How do you collect inspiration?

99% of the time my inspiration comes from a sample. I buy old vinyl, find little samples to add to my library, find a loop, add a beat, a bass line, some keys and build it from there. Then I’ll bring in band members and other collaborators and get the beat presentable before approaching singers, or work on it as an instrumental. Often the main looped sample gets trashed, or flipped and I just continue to work on getting to sound as good as I can make it. I then pass it on to my mix engineer Andy ‘Submariner’ Morton who makes it sound better than my mix and that’s that.

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Do you take into consideration how you’re going to play your live show when recording?

All the time! I try to make things as simple as possible but its not always easy. We use Ableton Live on stage and the drummer has to sync with tracks, but recently after bringing in our latest member, keyboard player Peter Leupolu we decided to try and drop as many backing tracks as possible which has been a real game changer for feel and vibe on stage. We’re still playing to some backing tracks but its very minimal. So I’m always aware of each and every song and how is this going to translate live. I write a lot of synth bass lines but we’re lucky that our bass player is also good on keys so can play both on stage.

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What one song would you recommend someone listen to if it was their first time listening to?

I guess Turn Around ft. Iva Lamkum. Only because its one of our biggest and it still represents the genres that still most heavily influence me to this day – soul, funk and hip-hop. And when I say soul and funk I don’t mean Motown and Stax, though I love those labels, I mean any music that’s soulful and funky.

 

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What are your goals for 2018?

Right now its all about the EP which is out soon so I’m doing my thing promoting that but my main goal for 2018 is to finish the next album, our seventh studio album, at least I’d like to finish all the vocal collabs and tracking of instruments. I’ve been over to the UK twice to collaborate with singers in the last couple of years; I’m back over there in September hoping to wrap things up with final vocal sessions. I didn’t intend for the album to be full of UK artists but as I tour over there a bit it just became part of my tour schedule. There is a lot of talent over there. I also have my eyes and ears on some artists in Australia too. Some really killer music coming from across the ditch right now.

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AMNPLIFY – KH