Sam Sparro – Complex or Confused? (Part I of II)

Sam Sparro is an intriguing character. Everything about him seems not exactly mysterious, but at least somewhat cloudy: his name, age, heritage, sexuality, religious influences, musical pedigree, lyrics, intentions, and sense of humor are all cloaked in one way or another. Even his album cover is a bit disguising.

And then there’s his music.

Don’t even try to define that.

House?…Soul?… Spoof?…Funk?

Electro?…Disco?…Religious?…Pop?

Electro-soul spoof-disco-pop mixed with religious- funk-house??? It’s enough to make you crazy.

Or maybe it’s just plain fun. Because when you get past Sam Sparro the man, and instead just focus on his music, things can get extremely enjoyable. But whether or not Sparro wants his listeners to ignore his upbringing, lifestyle, and motivations in order to just hear his music is up for debate. Though I think he’d like us to be able to understand him, I’d still love the chance to ask him how he feels. But there is one thing about Sam Sparro that is neither mysterious nor cloudy, complex nor confused. In fact it’s not even remotely questionable:

“Black and Gold,” the first single off Sparro’s just-released eponymous first album (Island 2008), is absolutely and completely undeniable. It is currently sitting at Number Two on the UK Singles Chart, bested only by the musical atrocity that is “4 Minutes” from Madonna and Justin Timberlake. (What? Bitter? Who, me? Nahhhhhh.) Sparro’s voice is remarkably dark and soulful, especially for a young, white, hipster-looking kid. He sings with a tinge of yearning and palpable sense of urgency — when Chaka Khan first heard Sparro sing years ago she’s said to have exclaimed, “Damn! That white boy can sing.” — and the accompanying beat is utterly infectious. It seeps slowly into you, and doesn’t leave easily.

Now I’m not claiming “Black and Gold” is a great song, or even a good one, though I happen to think highly of it. It’s just that you can’t deny it. It’s insistent. Kind of like “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn and John — you may not even like their music (I don’t) or the song itself (meh), but there’s just something about it that ropes you in a little bit no matter what you do. The same is true of Sparro’s “Black and Gold.” You don’t have to be a loyal customer of whatever kind of music it is that Sparro is selling, you just can’t help but buy in, even if only for a second.

Listen to “Black and Gold” @ Last.fm (Oh, and don’t forget to crank the volume)

Watch the video for “Black and Gold”

Okay, now that I’ve just done the literary version of passing Go without collecting $200 dollars…..let’s back up to the very beginning and try to clear up some of the aforementioned cloudiness surrounding this interesting new artist. First of all, Sam Sparro’s not his real name. It’s Sam Falson. Second, though his birth date is listed as November 8th, 1984 (making him 23), Sparro’s website lists him as 25. Third, despite having the Number Two single in the UK, Sparro is not English, but Australian, born in Sydney. And despite being born Sydney, Sparro was raised in Los Angeles. But then he moved back to Sydney briefly. And then to London. Oh, and then back to Los Angeles. Right…

And then things start to get interesting. Sparro’s father, Chris Falson, is a gospel minister/singer/songwriter — he writes and produces mostly gospel music — who, it has been written, “sounds like Bob Dylan on a gospel tip.” (Wow. Nope, not going there. But you can find his music on fine sites such as WorshipMusic.com). Mr. Falson also worked with Maranatha! Music (“Serving the Church with the Song of Faith”) for five years while Sparro was growing up in Los Angeles, and according to M!M’s website, there are over 120,000 church “gate-keepers” that have attended their workshops. I don’t know what that means, but it sure sounds scary. (Maybe that’s just because I’ve seen Jesus Camp).

Now, why do I bother you with this useless information? Good question.

The first reason is simple: Intrigue. Right up until the day Sam Sparro’s self-titled album dropped (April 28th) his Wikipedia page listed him as being “openly gay,” and cited a recent magazine article as the source of the information. Yesterday, however, this claim, and the citation that came with it, was removed entirely. (Hmmm…cloudy indeed). Thus, I couldn’t help but wonder if Sparro was actually gay or not, and whether his (allegedly) being gay clashed at all with his “gate-keeping” father’s Church-driven ideals.

So I went digging, and in short order found the magazine article in question. It’s from the March 27th, 2008 issue of Boyz: Passionate About Gay Life. And Sam Sparro is on the cover. In the interview, Sparro refers repeatedly to his “boyfriend” of two years, a stylist and artist, saying, “Oh, we’re a couple of gays.” And when asked if his record label, Island Records, discussed “the gay thing” with him, Sparro responded, “My stance on the whole thing was, this is me! I was already pretty set up with the direction, the music, and how I was presenting myself, so it was kind of like, take it or leave it.”

So I guess that about settles it.

But the second reason I bothered looking into Sparro’s father is that after numerous listens to Sparro’s album, I started to hear references (I thought) to religion, God, faith, spirituality, and evolution in his music — even on the song I feel is so universal it gets everyone somewhere, “Black and Gold.” So when I confirmed the “openly gay” claim, a hundred questions flooded my head.

I wanted to know — needed to know — was I listening to a religious album? If so, do I want to be? Have I been duped? Is this some kind of neo-gospel music that no one told me about? How does Sparro reconcile his homosexuality with his Christian beliefs, if indeed he has any? Is his father, the minister, okay with Sparro being gay? Does his father know? (Or is he about to find out?) And what about the other set of lyrics on the album that I could swear are either drug references or sexual references? Or the songs that just seem like pure jokes or total spoofs? (More on Sparro’s other songs in Part II). Do those void the idea that Sparro might actually be singing about God and Christianity?

My confusion only deepened when I saw the Maranatha! Music (the company Sparro’s father worked for) logo, an outline of a “Dove,” which M!M’s website proudly proclaims is, “One of the most widely recognized logos in the world.” Why? Scroll back up to the beginning of this article and look at the upper right-hand corner of Sam Sparro’s album cover. Though it’s clearly a different design, the coincidence is kind of freaky. And I couldn’t help but wonder if that connection is, at least in part, how Sam Falson the unknown L.A. barista, became Sam Sparro(w) the international gay popstar. But if it isn’t merely a meaningless coincidence, which it could well be, is it an homage to his father’s work, or a “fuck you” to it? And more deeply, is it an homage to the Church, or a “fuck you” to it?

Maybe cloudy was an understatement for this kid.

More Internet digging was done (Warning: digging was deeper this time), but to little avail when it came to finding instances of Sparro clarifying any of my myriad questions. Except (of course) in regards to his insta-hit, “Black and Gold.” In a March 2008 interview with British music website Noise Makes Enemies, Sparro talked about the inspiration behind the song: “Well, I was looking up at the sky one night, feeling a bit tiny and alone, and all I saw was black sky and gold stars — so that inspired the song. It’s really about trying to find God.” (Italics mine). Though it certainly doesn’t make me like the song any less — I still can’t stop listening to it — just as I thought he might be, Sparro is indeed referring to God in the chorus of “Black and Gold:”

‘Cause if you’re not really here, then the stars don’t even matter / Now I’m filled to the top with fear, that it’s all just a bunch of matter / ‘Cause if you’re not really here, then I don’t wanna be either / I wanna be next to you…Black and Gold, Black and Gold, Black and Gold.

But it seems clear that Sparro is more than just “trying to find God.” He’s terrified that God might not be here, and is directly connecting the value or worth of his own life to God’s very existence. Perhaps a bit dramatic for my taste, but quite obviously a rather darkly looming question for Sparro.

Armed with Sparro’s confirmation from the interview, even the opening lyrics of “Black and Gold” suddenly sounded more like an Evolution/Creationism reference to me: If the fish swam out of the ocean, and grew legs and they started walking / And the apes climbed down from the trees, and grew tall and they started talking / And the stars fell out of the sky, and my tears rolled into the ocean / And now I’m looking for a reason why, you even set my world into motion. Interesting.

And then of course there’s the line that hangs in the air like a giant white question-mark-shaped cloud: If vision is the only validation, then most of my life isn’t real. Yikes. Does this mean that because Sparro is unable to see God himself, he is unable to validate his beliefs? And that he considers God, or the idea of God, to be most of his life? Sparro seems like a young man desperately searching for answers, and obviously visual validation of God’s existence may prove to be…problematic?

Still, it sounds to me as if Sparro is not exactly a “believer” per se, and therefore not intentionally making “religious music” like his father. But rather that he’s grasping at or grappling with the religious ideals around which he was raised: God, Christianity etc. Whether or not the fact that Sparro is openly gay is contributing to his confusion in accepting a religion and/or a God that frowns upon homosexuality is something only Sparro can know, and I can’t speculate about. But something strong is compelling him to question his faith. And we’re watching it happen. Either way, this is heavy stuff for a hit pop song.

To be continued…..

(Check back tomorrow for Part II of “Sam Sparro – Complex or Confused,” where we’ll talk more about the music off Sparro’s brand new album, and less about the man behind it…..Hint: He’s not a one-hit wonder).

– Jonathan

Sam Sparro’s Official MySpace

Sam Sparro’s Official Website