Interview: Air Show Disaster's Eric Sporer Talks About His New Album "The Ocean"
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“The idea of “The Ocean” is that you don’t see what’s beneath it, you just see the surface. Beneath the surface is where all of the life is. Some of the great mysteries of the world are in the depths of the ocean. ”
Congratulations on the completion and release of your recently unveiled fourth album "The Ocean". What were some things that influenced your writing of the album's songs?
"The Ocean" as an album was pretty wide-ranging. Musically, there's a wide variety of influences. The title track and "Liberator" feature electric organ and definitely have some influence from Deep Purple. The last two tracks, "A Single Grain, One Million Years" and "Converge" have a lot of heavy psych influences.
For subject matter, there isn't any singular influence. The title track is about my daughter. The album goes through more pretty personal experiences, from being dumped to homesickness to seasonal affective disorder, before it takes a philosophical turn for the last couple of songs.
How would you compare this new album to your third album "Exodus", which was released last year?
"Exodus" was a real departure for me in a lot of ways. It was all instrumental and written as a flowing story of a lost traveler in the desert. It used a lot of Spanish scales and the songs flowed one into another.
"The Ocean" is more in line with what I've written in the past; it's a return to form. Everything is more rooted in rock and blues with more traditional song structures. It uses more traditional rock instruments.
There's nothing instrumental on "The Ocean", which changes the listening and storytelling experience in a major way. While they both are dear to me, "The Ocean" tells my own stories in a pretty straightforward format.
When I sat down to write "Exodus", I knew what scales to use and what story I was trying to tell, there were almost "songwriting rules". When I was writing "The Ocean", it was more just letting the songs write themselves.
Would you say that "The Ocean" has an overall theme or concept throughout its eight songs? If so, what would you describe it as?
The idea of "The Ocean" is that you don't see what's beneath it, you just see the surface. Beneath the surface is where all of the life is. Some of the great mysteries of the world are in the depths of the ocean.
The songs are all supposed to stick to that theme and be about what's close to the heart. Beyond that, there's not real theme.
Can we expect music videos for any of the album's songs?
I've never done a music video, although I'm considering it more and more.
I've got a very DIY mentality to my work; I play all the instruments, I produce everything myself, I release it myself, I did the artwork myself. If I can figure out how to make a music video myself you might see one soon.
What led you to deciding to create Air Show Disaster as a solo project? Were you releasing music as part of a band before leaving New York in 2017?
I was playing with a band called Half Grand for a while. We never released anything. Aside from that, I was just jamming with people in my free time or playing songs for friends.
When I moved to Washington I had kids and a real job and was in a city without a music scene. I had a bunch of songs ideas and needed some musical outlet. I started setting up a home studio more as a way to just work out the songs by myself. When Covid lockdowns started, things just kind of took off.
With "The Ocean" now released, what are some of your goals musically for the rest of 2022?
I'm looking to perform some music locally. I've got enough solo pieces that I can put together a small set. I'm also hoping to keep writing and recording.
Stream and Share “The Ocean” on Spotify
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