Threes

Though Threes is Sparta's third full-length release (following the acclaimed Wiretap Scars in 2002, and Porcelain in 2004), it is the first Sparta album for Hollywood Records. It is also the band's first with guitarist Keeley Davis, who joined in 2005, and previously played with Denali and Engine Down. Bassist Matt Miller and drummer Tony Hajjar round out Sparta's line-up. For Ward, Threes is an album that follows the emotional arc of his life during the past two years. This is a break-down record in a way, he says. I'd lost faith in a way of living. It wasn't that I didnt want to be with a girl anymore; I didnt want to do anything anymore. I wanted to strip away everything and to examine what it means to lose faith, and then to find it again. Like most rebirths, Threes has its moments of melancholy contrasted with joyousness and melodic release. Ward says that the songs drove the sound, and he approached crafting them the way a literary writer might pen a short story. We talked a lot about character, and about where the song was going, he says. At the end of the warehouse sessions, Sparta had almost thirty songs, which were eventually whittled down the twelve songs on Threes with the help of producer Dave Bassett.