SPARTA
Jim Ward – vocals, guitar
Keeley Davis – guitar
Matt Miller – bass
Tony Hajjar – drums

Sparta was formed by Ward and Hajjar in 2001, but the two musicians are celebrating their 10th anniversary playing together, and Threes displays a level of cohesion that comes only from musicians who are seasoned and confident. “On this record we aren’t answering to anyone else or to any style,” says Hajjar. “For the first time, there were no back end expectations. If a song was poppy, or if it was moody, we let it go that way.  There was a great freedom we found in that.”

The great magic of Sparta is how the band uses the occasional minor chord but contrasts it with major scales to create anthematic songs of beauty and passion. Layering effect and emotional contrasts are techniques used on songs like “Taking Back Control” and “Crawl,” and they ultimately make the music cathartic.

One song on Threes that Ward admits was inspired by real life events is “Unstitch Your Mouth,” which grew out of an insult a traveling salesman yelled at Ward. Though Ward may be the best-known musician in El Paso and writes a weekly column in the local newspaper, the salesperson started slandering Ward based on his dress and not who he was. “The dumbest thing,” Ward laughs, “is that he said I looked like I worked at Kinko’s. In the blue collar world that we come from, anyone who is working is not due that kind of insult.”

The El Paso work ethic that gets someone up to work at a furniture factory at dawn, gets the Kinko’s employee to find joy, or that inspires a band to work for months on an album, looms over Threes. “I still love our hometown and what it represents,” says Hajjar. For Ward, the only member of Sparta who still lives in El Paso full-time, there is less sentimentality to Threes and more resolute acceptance. “I still live ten minutes from where I went to high school,” he says, “I’ve been at the local sandwich shop and seen people who I went to school with. I’ve seen where their lives have gone. All of that, and this album, gave me a sense of where I’ve been and why I’m still doing this.”