01 September 2011
As a founding member of At The Drive In 18-years ago and decade-old band Sparta, Jim Ward can list some of post-hardcore’s most existential moments in his bucket of fame claims. But he’s much more than just a slice of music history; Ward’s debut solo record Quiet In The Valley, On The Shores The End Begins, has arrived three years after Sparta announced its slumber. The cumulative project of three meticulously planned Eps, the album is as autobiographical as it is sonically disparate; the need for escape heavily embossed in every track.
“I remember when we took our break I said ‘I just need a year, just give me a year to just get this out of my system’,” says Ward as he drains his beer with shaking hands - he is still coming down from 53-hours of jetlag. “Someone said ‘what if it takes two years?’ and I said ‘Modest Mouse took off five years and they’re fine.’”
Ironically, Ward announced the waking of Sparta last month and with a fourth Sparta album set to start recording this year, the band will probably reach the five-year hiatus mark for the record’s release. For now though, Ward is concentrating on completing this Australian tour without pining too much for his gang of four.
“Usually I have a gang around me, but they’re all in the states right now,” he says, checking his mobile. “I need to be around people who have my back and care about me. It’s really important to me to be around people who I know care; and not just like a product, or a money amount.”
Ward started touring when he was 18-years-old, this tour is his first completely solo. “It’s lonely, it’s emotionally challenging,” he says. “I’m 30 and I’m more comfortable doing interviews than I am just hanging out with people.”
This ingrained, maladjusted disposition translates heavily throughout the album; first single Broken Songs sparked from a conversation with Tegan Quin (of Tegan and Sara) where they bonded on their mutual habit of bailing on situations.
“We were talking about how maybe it’s built into our horoscope, this urge to walk away from things.” The fellow Virgos were born on the same day and although Quin happily agreed to sing on the track, Ward is still hesitant talking about its roots. “I feel like I’m selling out her conversation and exposing her personal thoughts,” he admits. The opposite is true when it comes to his own though; at his Annandale show later that night Ward spoke openly of his cousin’s drug overdose in 2003 as a prelude to Mystery Talks.
“I hope that maybe if one person doesn’t do what I did then it’ll be worth it, you know?” he explains. “There’s a reason to talk about it, maybe if I’d been at a show and someone said that I would have called him up and said, ‘this is dumb! This is so dumb that we’re not talking, it really is.’ But it is what it is,” he adds.
As tortured a musician as Ward may seem, his veracious nature has permeated his projects since At The Drive In and although he, like most, has tried to steer clear of media malingering, a few have slipped through the cracks.
“Press has been interesting,” he smiles. “Somebody called the title ‘verbose’ the other day so I had to look up what that meant.” After explaining the word belonged to a review from yours truly he quipped: “well, you made me learn a new word!”
Ward is much less perturbed by media opinions now, his spell from Sparta and the reasons he needed it have taught him as much. “Part of the reason I left is because after you make a record and you start the tour, you get these reviews that are like ‘ho hum, it’s the other two guys from At The Drive In’,” Ward starts to madden. “It’s like ‘I don’t even want anything to do with your fucken’ world anymore, I want nothing to do with it. If you don’t get what that was then fuck you, I’m done.’ I needed a few years to get away from that before I could not be angry about it.
“I shouldn’t let any of that dictate my emotion. But it’s hard when you make a record that you think is insanely good and you read something that just pisses all over it.”
With a resolve to finish both a new Sparta record and a release from his project Sleepercar before the year is out, it does paint Ward as an overachiever; but the truth is he’s more content and excited now than he’s ever been.
“I’ve already lived through the shit, I’ve done it,” he shakes his head. “This feels good. It’s a whole other level for me.”
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