The Tinderbox Spark is Brisbane's newest contemporary jazz ensemble.
Not even a year old, they're about to launch their debut album with their biggest party yet at the Brisbane Jazz Club. “It was an experience in itself just to be out there,” Lauren Grace says about the process of recording an album despite being such a young band.
“It was recorded live essentially, minus an audience, so that was a pretty crazy experience for me as a vocalist but I learnt a lot doing it.”
The group – which primarily consists of Lauren as vocalist and Lachlan Bell as guitarist – recorded their album 'Need Of Mine' at Brisbane's Applewood Studios, a renovated church with high ceilings and wooden floors, that The Jungle Giants and Hey Geronimo have used previosuly. “We were able to take advantage of the acoustics in the space very well so that was something we incorporated on the album,” Lauren says.
“It was also part of the reason to go [to Applewood] – to be in a different space and record in a way we have never done before. We jammed the whole recording into three days, which was pretty full on for us. We stayed over night during the course of the recording; it was good and ended up being enough time for us, but it was such an intense experience.”
As intense an experience as it was for the band, living in the same quadrants for thee days while recording an album seemed to work for the band. “It's always good to have time out with fellow musicians and be able to share your relaxation time along with your actual band time, so you get to be a bit closer as a group — like one of those forced school exercises. It ends up giving you a better product in the end.
“It was central to the way we wanted to maintain things as a group," Lauren adds about the independent recording experience. “We love the way jazz sounds live so that's why we recorded our album live... the energy between musicians when they are playing together and they are feeling the same way is what gives a record something special and that's what we wanted to capture.”
Despite already having recorded an album and having a long laundry list of songs, The Tinderbox Spark have only been playing together for barely nine months. “We're still pretty new in the scene,” Lauren admits. “Lachlan and I started writing songs at the end of last year, we wrote a couple of songs and we liked what was coming out so we gave ourselves a deadline and said, 'let's do it!'. So we booked the studio and gave ourselves six months to have it all together, because we're deadline driven like that.”
And it worked: since then Lauren and Lachlan have been hard at work establishing a genuine sound and feel to their music. “Our idea was not to sound like anybody but ourselves and so the elements that we have tried to incorporate stem from our ideals,” Lauren says. “One of which is honesty, so we will try to make sounds that are honest and natural and warm and meaningful.
“Jazz can be really varied and I would go as far as saying that we are folk influenced in a way; you could say that given the open style of composition we've used. That's the way we have designed the music; it's flexible and we are able to play it with other musicians if we ever travel or Steve [drums] and AJ [bass] aren't available.”
The improvised feeling and spontaneous sound that The Tinderbox Spark have managed to capture on 'Need Of Mine' translates perfectly to a live audience. “The record captures one element of our sound but to hear it played live is completely different again,” Lauren says. "There's always going to be improvisation and feeling and a dynamic chemistry and atmosphere... When we play live it's a whole different experience again.”
Written by Benjamin Pratt
The Tinderbox Spark launch 'Need Of Mine' at the Brisbane Jazz Club on September 6; they have another show at Padre Bar in Woollongabba on September 19.
