Little Sparrow - Interview

by John Clarkson

published: 24 / 2 / 2014

John Clarkson talks to Katie Ware, the front woman with Manchester folk act Little Sparrow, about her band's extraordinary forthcoming debut album

Article

It was Elbow’s Guy Garvey who gave Little Sparrow her name. Her previous band included guitarist Phil Cunningham who is now a member of New Order, while Joe Moss, one of the early managers of the Smiths, first introduced her to the vibrant Manchester music scene of which she is now an up-and-coming player. Yet for all this Katie Ware has always remained just under the radar. That, however, looks all set to change with the release of her – as yet untitled - debut album, which is due out in May. Ware was brought up in rural Cambridgeshire, but surprisingly has the sort of accent that normally comes from London’s East End. She formed her first band Daze, an all-girl rock four-piece, while she was still in her teens, before being introduced through a mutual friend to Moss. He invited her North to front a new line-up of the band Marion, a much acclaimed Mancunian indie rock act of the mid-1990’s who had toured with Morrissey and whose singer Jamie Harding had recently left. The group renamed itself Headway, but broke up two years later. Although Headway had completed an album, it has never been released. Ware, who had by now relocated to Manchester, eventually started performing initially under own name before adopting the nom de plume of Little Sparrow in 2010. While initially a solo act, Little Sparrow has now expanded into a group. As well as Ware on vocals and acoustic guitar, it also consists of Sarah Dale (cello, backing vocals), Graham Clark (violin), Johnny Lexus (electric guitar) and Mitch Oldham (percussion). Ware’s lyrics tell of yearning, death and loss, and float between the existing world and that of a magical alternative and better reality. Her band’s music, over which Ware’s crystal vocals soar, is again of contrasts. Stark but surprisingly full and lush in sound, often sinister and yet heart-warming, it is as atmospheric as it is alluringly beautiful. In interview with Katie Ware, Pennyblackmusic spoke to her about Little Sparrow’s extraordinary forthcoming album. PB: How long were you with Headway for? KW: It was about two years. We were constantly in rehearsal. We did a couple of gigs. That was all. We hid ourselves away working on getting material ready for a record label, and then our guitarist Phil Cunningham joined Electronic. They needed a touring guitarist for their live dates, and so Phil ended up working with Bernard Sumner. Now he is in New Order with him. When Phil left it caused the band to split. We recorded an album’s worth of material, but it was never released. It is sitting in the vaults somewhere. There is some really good stuff on that. It is gutting that it never came out. PB: How did you go from that to creating Little Sparrow? KW: I took some time out after that. I felt pretty deflated, but if you have ever been involved in making music that impulse never really leaves you, does it? So, I came back and sung under my own name, Katie Ware, for a while. I had been doing that for a bit, and then Little Sparrow came about because I met up with Guy Garvey from Elbow. I met Guy whilst playing a gig at the Roadhouse when I still lived down South. We then became good friends when I moved in with his girlfriend following my relocation to Manchester. I saw quite a lot of him then, and he used to call me 'Cockney Sparra’”. He said, “Why don’t you change your name to something else? What about Sparra’?” and so I came away from talking with him and thought - 'Sparra’ sounds a bit hip-hop but what if I put ‘Little’ with ‘Sparrow’.” That is how that came about (Laughs). PB: ‘Little Sparrow’ was also Edith Piaf’s nickname. It has got nothing to do with her? KW: No, not at all. A lot of people ask me that question, but, no, it doesn’t. PB: Your first release as Little Sparrow was the song ‘The Hunted (a bear’s tale)’, which appeared on the Bear Family Records 35th anniversary compilation. Bear Family Records is a German label. How did you attract their attention? KW: My partner at the time had an interest in very old folk records, and Bear Family Records, which specialises in a lot of archival stuff, was a label that he followed. He got talking to Richard Weize, the guy in charge, and then he sent him some of my stuff. Richard wrote back and said, “I am doing this 35th anniversary edition. Will she do a song as long as somewhere there is something about a bear in it?” PB: That song is about a bear that falls in love with a human being, isn’t it? KW: I don’t know where it came from, but that was what I was thinking about at the time (Laughs). PB: A lot of your other songs also verge on the surreal. ‘Polly’ is about a house which is missing its owner who has died. KW: All my songs are weird little stories. Mentally I am quite childlike, and I always have a lot of stories going on in my head. I am a bit Peter Pan really. I guess I am holding on to my childhood. I also take a lot of my inspiration from books that I have read as well. At the time I was reading this book, ‘Notes from an Exhibition’ by Patrick Gale, about a woman who has been living in a loft and who then dies, and it is what came out of me with that song. Her name in the book is not Polly, but that song was born from reading that. PB: ‘The Swallow Flies’ is also about bereavement, but this time of a very close personal friend. The video for it shows you running through some woods and out into a park where you join some friends on a picnic. What was the symbolism to you of that video? KW: I am searching for something that has been lost in both the video and the song. It is almost like I am having a last dance or a last meeting with my friend. I didn’t get to see him before he passed away, but it is symbolic of what I would have liked to have happened if I could have seen him before he went. I am searching for him, and in my mind it would have been ace if I had got to say goodbye. ‘The Swallow Flies’, however, is a positive spin on it. When I sing it, I feel quite positive about the loss rather than it being a sad thing. I try to celebrate his life rather than being very sad about it. A part of me, however, would have wished for the ending to have been like that in the video, that I could have just seen him one last time. PB: ‘By My Side’ is about a woman missing her husband who goes out to sea, and ‘Sending the Message’ is about the break-up of a love affair. Abandonment seems to be a common theme in your music. Is that something which you are conscious of? KW: I didn’t realise it until you said it just now, but you’re right (Laughs). A lot of my songs are about the fear of being alone. PB: You have said that you take some of the inspiration for your songs from books. Are all the others autobiographical or are they also about things that gone on in the lives of your friends as well? KW: Some of my songs are about things that have happened to my friends. Also, if it is stuff that has happened to me in my personal life, I will try to put a childlike spin on it and make it more of a fairy tale. When I was with Marion/Headway I wrote only from personal experience and there was a lot of angst there, but it can get a bit tiresome writing like that constantly. I found when I wrote 'The Hunted' that it was much more enjoyable. It was a wonderful coincidence that I happened to write about a bear, but it just clicked. PB: Was that your first song which wasn’t directly about yourself? KW: Yes, and I found that I really enjoyed it. I found it unlocked my childlike creativity. PB: You grew up listening to bands like the Cure and New Model Army, and both Headway and Daze were rock bands. How did you go from that to playing music such as you do now with such an acoustic bent? KW: One of the bands that I listened to a lot when I was growing up was All About Eve. If you listen to All About Eve, they are very mythical, aren’t they? Their songs are all about magpies and things like that. Their singer Julianne Regan was something of a heroine to me. She came from that whole Gothic pack and bands like the Cure, the Mission and New Model Army, and then did something different with it. I suppose that sort of influence was always there. When I came to Manchester, Joe Moss, who introduced me to Headway and the Marion boys, re-educated me (laughs), and opened up my eyes to a whole new perspective of music, especially older music. My dad was also a guitarist in a psychedelic band, so he tried to educate me about groups like Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, but obviously rock took over. I have returned to them later on though, and once I came to Manchester I again had my eyes opened up to a wider variety of music. Instead of writing what I thought I should write, which was slightly rockier, I have let that go and now write what I want to. I think I have found myself a lot in recent times. PB: You have got a really strong band, but some of them live outside Manchester and they are all working musicians, who are involved in other projects. Does that make it sometimes difficult with regard to live work? KW: Sarah and Mitch both live near Hebden Bridge, but that is not the problem. The problem is that they are working musicians and go away for about a third of the year abroad. I am going to lose Sarah for four months soon, as she gets paid better money working and playing her cello abroad than she does in the United Kingdom. I have got used to it and I plan everything around it, but it can be difficult. It does means though that they are free for the rest of the time, so I can’t moan too much (Laughs). PB: You have also been working on an album. When can we expect that to come out? KW: We have just booked my album launch. It is going to be on Saturday May 3rd, and we are going to do it at the Three Minute Theatre in Manchester. I am really looking forward to it. We have got to have it finished for then (Laughs). PB: You have put a lot out of songs on Soundcloud and also your own website. How many of them will appear on the album and how many of them will be other songs? KW: I am not exactly sure. There are three songs which aren’t out yet that are still to be mixed and which are to be added. I am thinking at the moment about making the album a collective of everything that I have done up until now and putting a lot of songs on there, but I haven’t fully decided yet. I may pick certain ones for the album and release the rest as some form of bonus tracks. I still have to make up my mind about that. PB: You have had some independent label interest, but you were also thinking of putting the album out yourself. Have you decided who is going to put it out yet? KW: I am going to fall back on releasing it myself, but when it is complete I might tout it around and see if I can get a label interested in it. I want to put it out on an independent rather than trying at this stage to go larger. I just want to keep it manageable. I don’t want to get too stuck on things there, so I will just release it myself if I can’t get an independent interested in it. PB: Final question! What have you got planned after the album’s release? KW: I will try and tour it to the death! Hopefully I will also play some festivals in the summer time. I’m really excited to have this album coming out. It’s been a wonderful journey this far, and for me it will be a celebration of all I have worked towards in the past couple of years. PB: Thank you. Photos by Melanie Smith www.mudkissphotography.co.uk