The Hoosiers are preparing to return to the charts with their first studio album in eight years.
The group – starring Irwin Sparks and Alan Sharland – launched into the UK Top 10 in 2007 with their debut single Worried About Ray, before topping the Albums Chart with their long-player ‘The Trick to Life’.
Last month, the album was expanded and released on vinyl for the first time and looking to the future, the duo revealed they’re returning to that early sound for their new LP.
“Last year was a big year for us and a lot of things changed in our world,” Alan tells RETROPOP’s February 2023 issue. “We have new management and a new record deal, which is all driving towards the new album.”
It’s a project that, for a while, seemed like it may never happen. “I fell out of love with our band somewhere in the 2010s but, possibly as a by-product of having nearly lost the opportunity to play music again in lockdown, Al and I find ourselves more in love with each other, the band and making music with each other in this particular band than ever before,” smiles Irwin. “Possibly a mid-life crisis but we’re having too much of a good time to care.”
He adds: “Lockdown gave us a reality check. We feared playing live again was a lost cause when Al and I had a call with Craig Logan who signed us to RCA and admonished us to remind people who we were with an album of positivity. I’d just released a solo album of melancholy ‘doomfolk’ as White Tail Falls and was so ready to find the silver lining in lockdown, to provide an avenue of escapism. It’s exactly what this album was.”
According to Alan, the forthcoming LP has been produced by Sam Miller, who mixed their debut, and is “definitely the most similar album we’ve done for the first one”.
“We wrote and recorded it in about three months and it was the most refreshing, life-enhancing experience of making music we’ve had,” Irwin beams.
“It sounds like what a Hoosiers album would sound like if we’d come out in 2023. There’s optimism, effervescence and joie de vie. It’s a sonic shot of ginger, carrot and turmeric: adding zest to your life. And that’s a promise. We’re already at work on the follow-up!”
‘The Trick to Life’ and ‘The Illusion of Safety’ are out now on vinyl. ‘The Hoosier Complex’ is out January 20 on Demon. Shop here.
Read the full interview in the February 2023 edition of RETROPOP, out now. Order yours or subscribe via our Online Store, use our Store Finder to locate your nearest stockist, or get Digital Copies delivered direct to your devices.
