Alan Sparhawk's conversation with David Hutcheon for the Guardian is (inevitably) heavy stuff - not least because Hutcheon also knows what it's like to lose a life partner to cancer at a cruelly young age. The pair talk about the process of grieving for women who (in Sparhawk's wonderful expression) "gave us the freedom to be who we were", and about faith and the comfort of friendships.
Sparhawk recently previewed his forthcoming solo album White Roses, My God with the track 'Can U Hear', which signifies another step on from Double Negative and HEY WHAT in its use of electronics and vocal manipulation, and another step further away from the music that Low made for most of their lifetime, characterised brilliantly by Hutcheon as "sadness alchemised into a kind of light". Judging by Sparhawk's fascinating comments about the record, the single doesn't seem to be a red herring, either: "The tools I used before no longer work. I'm trying to use my voice, but I don't want to hear my voice, so I needed to find another voice. It felt like I was stabbing into the unknown, trying to figure things out. I started the machines, messed with them until something resonant happened, and then I started singing. And, sometimes, something would come out that I could not stop and I could not mess with."
It's entirely understandable that Sparhawk would want to put some distance between past and future, and he needs to do whatever feels right. And yet I can't help being slightly disappointed that none of the songs he performed solo last year are on the record, and are (presumably) unlikely to feature in the set when he comes to Cardiff in November. Oh to have been at that Le Guess Who show.
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