Inspired by a background in classical percussion and an obsession with synthesizers, Chrome Sparks, otherwise known as Jeremy Malvin, has been creating dazed and melodic beat-centric tunes that loosely hang between down-tempo head nodders and up-tempo club bangers for some time now. With a recent EP release, titled Parallelism, and an upcoming tour across U.S. and Canada catch Chrome Sparks at a city near you.
Interview by Sadie Bell
Photography by Mike Greene
Sadie: You’ve played with a number of bands and produced music under a variety of names before labeling yourself as Chrome Sparks. What have you discovered about yourself throughout the course of your career as a musician?
Jeremy: All I know is that I’m happiest when I’m making music, be it messing with synths or playing drums in bands. Chrome Sparks is certainly the project I’ve taken most seriously, but I love doing a lot of different shit. I haven’t discovered much… I’m still just as confused as I was when I started playing. I just do what makes me happy and cross my fingers that it works out at the end of the day.
Sadie: Your latest release Parallelism is very minimalistic and dream-like. How did you come to craft this sound?
Jeremy: The recording process for Parallelism was much more concise and focused than anything I’ve done before. Almost accidentally, I ended up limiting myself to the sound of two synthesizers for two of the tracks, and three for the other track. I used these analog synths for all the sounds, other than some tambourine and vocal samples. Limitation certainly breeds creativity and forces one to focus on certain aspects of the music while preventing exploration in others. That’s very important for me, as I often find myself not being able to finish an idea without getting distracted by the infinite possibilities for what a sound could be. By keeping the number of instruments down, I could focus on the form of each track in a more specific way and commit to my sounds early on in the process.
Sadie: All of your recordings are very innovative and seem to utilize all of the musical skills you’ve acquired. What is the recording process like for you?
Jeremy: It’s super casual! I spend most days at my studio space, experimenting and practicing. When it feels right, I’ll hit record and build on an idea. Sometimes I can get a lot down for a track in a day, with others it takes months of tweaking, sometimes over a year of working on and off. I don’t really have too much of a set process, which helps keep stuff fresh.
Sadie: You’re setting back out on tour in 2016. What sort of connection do you feel with audience when you play live shows?
Jeremy: It’s funny. Music recorded in any setting that isn’t as straight forward as recording a traditional rock band or something comparable has to find completely new legs to stand on in a live setting. In some cases, it’s as if a totally different musical project with new instruments is covering songs by the front person’s solo project (because that’s literally what anything that isn’t a band is). I’ve had to find a happy medium, somewhere between sounding like a chrome sparks tribute band (something I struggled with a few years ago), and sounding exactly like the recordings (putting all the exact samples and sounds on midi controllers and keyboards, something I did more recently, but I feel sucks a bit of potential life out of a live show). With the upcoming dates, I’ve been working on putting together a show that offers something new to the audience… not just a religious recreation of the recordings, but a re-working of them, specifically prepared for a live environment and setup. Audience members buy tickets to see the show because they trust that I’ll bring them something worth the price of the ticket and a few hours of their evening. I need to see looks on everyone’s faces confirming that I delivered on that.
Sadie: What sort of connection do you feel with your bandmates?
Jeremy: I’ve been lucky enough to have worked with some really talented pals. It’s been a bit of a rotation with bandmates over the last bit, because I’m not touring all the time and these guys are in demand with other artists. This keeps things fresh though. Unless I’m DJing, I could never be on stage alone, it makes me feel super awkward. The next tour I’m doing will just be me and my drummer, Aaron Steele. He’s a rock, and being able to lock eyes and connect with him while playing a show is not just important to me, it’s crucial. We feed off of each other.
Sadie: Where do you hope the upcoming year takes you?
Jeremy: I just want to keep learning about the music making process and challenging myself to keep things interesting. And Japan, I really want to go to Japan.
Sadie: Do you have any big New Year’s resolutions like you’ve done in the past?
Jeremy: Not this year. In 2014 my resolution was to have lunch with a different person every day. That was enough resolution for the next few ones.
