New Beginnings: the story of Sparta

Written by: Lucas Wright

November 17, 2006, 04:53 PM

New Beginnings: the story of Sparta

After a whirlwind of speculation on the band’s demise, Sparta recently put forth their third full-length album to dispel the speculation and the gossip. This latest musical effort, Threes, was released on October 10th and I had a chance to speak with drummer Tony Hajjar about the new album and the near end of Sparta. Of course everyone is familiar with the split-up of At the Drive In that eventually formed Mars Volta and Sparta (a subject Hajjar was rather tight-lipped about) but not everyone is as quite familiar with the near dissolution of Sparta.

In April of 2005 front man Jim Ward walked away from the band to take some time to himself. The band was under heavy criticism about the record sales of then new album Porcelain and it was uncertain whether the band would ever get back together. With the defection of Paul Hinojos to Mars Volta, Keeley Davis took his place as ghost guitarist in a band that didn’t really exist.

“It was a really strange time for us,” said Hajjar, “But we all realized that this was something that Jim had to do and I think it was ultimately for the benefit of our band.” I asked Tony how he passed the time during this interim period and found out that he traveled to Los Angeles to record a record a CD as the drummer for Manic.

Hajjar is optimistic for the success of Threes as Porcelain could easily be categorized as somewhat of a flop in the ranks of the business world. “I think it’s a more mature album and we’ve reached a point where we’ve established rules,” he explained. “We just did what we felt was right. It’s the most honest thing we’ve done to date.”

Sparta really focused a lot on this new album and isolated themselves for the making of it. They holed up in an old warehouse in their hometown of El Paso, TX where Hajjar says they “slowly chopped away at our record.” He says they worked long eight or nine hour days to compile 27 songs that they took into preproduction. They recorded the album on rainy cloudy days in Seattle, where rain is a constant, but also in Miami where the rain was a pleasant surprise.

In addition to a new album, Sparta made a short movie entitled Eme Nakia, about the life of Hajjar and his family’s exile from Lebanon. As a young boy Tony Hajjar lived through the civil war that tore the country of Lebanon apart. His mother died while Tony was still a boy and he was raised by his older brother. The film is a 15-minute mini-drama and was shown this past September at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival.
“The idea of doing the movie came up last year when we weren’t sure if we were going be a band anymore,” Hajjar said. “Then the guys asked me if I wanted to do it about my life. We wanted to do something serious and moving and we thought that would be a perfect subject,” he added. “We touch on politics and the struggle of a family which a lot of people from Lebanon have gone through.”

The film making process was a new one for the band and Hajjar, who served as the film’s executive producer. He said that he met a lot of new people and was lucky enough to be surrounded with a talented team of individuals who knew what they were doing which included writer John Renteria and director Christopher Holmes. Many of Sparta’s new songs can be heard throughout the movie which is included on a special edition DVD packaged with Threes that can be purchased exclusively at Best Buy.

We also talked about the tour that Sparta is currently on with Sound Team and As Tall As Lions. Tony said that he was looking forward to touring with two extremely talented bands and hopes to expand the fan base and listening audience on this tour and added that he believes that some fans of Wiretap Scars will love the new material. In the end, Hajjar says he wants his band Sparta to be remembered as an honest band that truly loved their music and were not elitists.