UnSparkPlugged is the writing, preview and demo wing of the band Bright Spark.
We have lots of new songs at various stages of development, and they appear here designated as follows:
"Skim" means just a flavour of the song, not necessarily complete or coherent or in the right order.
"Outline" is similar but should give the structure too.
"Preview" is a bit more complete, often with a bass, harmonies and extra guitar tracks.
"Demo" is pretty much how the finished version will sound, often recorded by the full band with drums etc., but needs proper mixing and mastering.
"Current" is mixed but needs further mastering, etc.
"Final" well, are they ever final? but usually this is the released CD version and is ready for the Bright Spark page.
Bright Spark actually played its first gigs as a duo of John Bartram (guitars and vocals) and Heather Enid Wells (bass and vocals), before recruiting Pete Allen (drums and vocals), so in this sense UnSparkPlugged is the original version.
We use only real percussion or none at all, and don't use click-track, MIDI or looping, though naturally we use 'normal' effects such as reverb. This applies to both live playing and recordings.
Bright Spark's all-original 12-track debut CD, was released in March 2007 and received excellent reviews. Three different tracks from the CD have reached the top twenty in their respective SoundClick sub-genres, including No.2 for John Bartram's witty but heart-rending pop-ballad .
Bright Spark is a working band, and plays usually one or two 'proper' gigs a week. However, UnSparkPlugged in the form of John and Heather (usually) does occasionally appear at quieter venues and sessions, such as GoAcoustic.
We've all played in many bands over the years, and our backgrounds range from acoustic, folk, jazz, session work, etc, to blues, rock, pop, soul, and especially guitar-based music with vocal harmonies. We are all influenced by everyone we've ever played with, though our roots are in 1950s and 1960s music.
Various guitars, both acoustic and electric - all three of us play guitar. Pete has a Ludwig drum kit and Heather an Iceni 5-string fretless bass-on-a-pole.
The recordings are all made and mixed on a Yamaha AW16G hard-disc 16-track recorder, with final mastering and production on computer using SoundForge mainly.
Bright Spark are on
,
and on a great local site,
,
and also on
.
There is also a
page.