Sparrow & The Workshop

Sketches // Long Lost Son // Great Outdoors

From a tiny top floor flat in SE Glasgow, Belfast born, Chicago-raised Jill O’Sullivan, Welshman Nick Packer and Scottish drummer Gregor Donaldson have carved themselves a unique niche in contemporary music that somehow manages to traverse and blur any number of geographic and musical boundaries with stunning effect. Formed in the autumn of 2007, the three-piece known as Sparrow and the Workshop began when Jill had a couple of songs she had written in London and was keen to try them out. The only problem was that Gregor was in, as they recall, about 17 bands. “He said 'I really don't have the time for another one',” laughs Jill.

These aren't your standard folk-influenced songs: Gregor's drum kit has slowly been augmented with all kinds of strange percussion, including a piece of sprung steel he's dubbed a 'crash box', which pumps out gunshot and whip sounds. Nick has hacked up his lovely Burns guitar to include a bass string, enabling him to play bass and electric guitar simultaneously. “We call it 'Bastard',” says Nick. “It's always breaking.”

They have also slowly incorporated subtle elements and moods from metal, grunge, doo-wop and country into their songs – a friend of the band recently described one new song as 'Joanna Newsom backed by Black Sabbath'.

Despite the experimentation, Sparrow are nothing if not succinct. “No matter how much work we do on a song it never seems to go over four minutes,” reveals Jill. “We have very short attention spans. The songs always seem to be three minutes and eight seconds long!”

Since being signed to Distiller Records, Sparrow and the Workshop have released two EP’s. Their debut, 'Sleight Of Hand', features songs like ‘Devil Song’, and the recent mini-album 'Into The Wild' has showcased a bunch of more mature tracks, such as ‘Jealous Of Your Heart’ and ‘Swam Like Sharks’. They have received much critical acclaim from the UK media, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times and Uncut magazine. They have also received considerable radio play and have performedvarious radio sessions for Marc Riley (6music), and Vic Galloway (Radio One). They were also Radcliffe and Maconie’s Pick of the Week on Radio 2 and recently recorded a Maida Vale session for Rob Da Bank (Radio One).

There is something gloriously new about the way Sparrow flit from the most delicate of Americana ditties to crashing post-rock crescendos at the drop of a hat. They might be folk, but there's certainly nothing traditional about this band.