Dublin-based punk outfit SPRINTS — Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass) — formed back in 2019. And since their formation, the Irish quartet have developed a reputation for crafting an abrasive brand of punk rock, influenced by early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siousxie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages, and LCD Soundsystem.
Their first two EP’s, 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s A Modern Job were released to rapturous praise from UK music outlets like DIY, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork, and Clash. They also received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music.
The Irish punk outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Letter To Self is slated for a January 5, 2024 release through City Slang Records. The album, which will feature previously released singles “Adore Adore Adore” and “Literary Mind,” was recorded in France’s Loire Valley with Gilla Band‘s Daniel Fox over the course of 12 days. The album “is a deeply personal and autobiographical lyrically and in its key themes, while sonically it explores a space inspired by our love of early 80s gothic, 90s noises rock and more modern influences,” SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb explains. “It revisits our most vulnerable moments and imbues them with visceral garage-punk. It aims to take the things that are considered inherently negative – feelings of anxiety, anger and rage, and turning them into a positive. Using our experiences to fuel us and pouring them into a positive outlet. It’s cathartic, it’s honest, it’s raw.” While pain is used to fuel growth, at its core, the album is rooted in a message of self-acceptance.
The album’s lead single “Up and Comer” is an earnest and furious ripper built around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming and mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Chubb’s feral delivery. The song thematically sees the band exploring and confronting imposter syndrome — but through the perspective of embittering, lived-in, fairly universal experience. And as a result, the song will be catharsis inducing for anyone, who has felt like an imposter –whether professionally, personally or both.
“It’s an invisible narrative that has been constructed by the doubts and negativity I’ve been fed by others,” SPRINTS’ Chubb explains. “It’s a song that takes aim at these ideas, and instead of letting them continue to hold me back, sees me finally break free of the expected, embrace the anger and let it rip.”
Directed by Ellius Grace, the accompanying video captures the band’s frenetic live energy — with the band performing in an empty auditorium with a fan and a bored janitor. Throughout, the band’s members confront their own feelings of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.