Alan Sparhawk (Of Low)

Alan Sparhawk has always been a prolific, protean musician. A restless soul eager to explore unfamiliar sonic and psychic terrain. Though he's obviously (and justifiably) best-known for his thirty years as frontman of the legendary band Low, a look at Sparhawk's many side projects across that same span of time shows him experimenting with everything from punk and funk to production work and improvisation. Low itself never settled for a set sound or approach. The band was always a collaboration-a conversation, a romance-between Sparhawk and his wife, Mimi Parker, who was the band's co-founder, drummer, co-lead vocalist, and its blazing irreplaceable heart. To take the journey from Low's hushed early work, through the tremendous melodies of their middle period, all the way to the late lush chaos of their final albums, is to witness heads, hearts, and spirits in an act of perpetual becoming.

Parker passed away in 2022 after a long battle with cancer, and there is no question that WHITE ROSES, MY GOD is a record borne of grief. You can hear it in the title, as well as tracks such as "Heaven", in which Sparhawk describes the afterlife, wrenchingly, as "a lonely place if you're alone." You can sense it too in Sparhawk's decision to create this thing entirely on his own: every note, every lyric, every programmed beat. It would be reductive, even foolish, to see grief as the sole source or the final limit of this taut, brilliant, provocative, thrilling album, whose bold experimentation is powered by profound lyrics and propulsive beats

Over decades as one half of the pioneering band Low, Alan Sparhawk and his wife and
lifelong creative partner Mimi Parker explored the force of powerful, gentle places by weaving
together layering sounds, production, and emotion. Following Parker’s passing in 2022, fellow
Duluth, Minnesota musicians Trampled by Turtles invited Sparhawk to join them on tour, and
thus gave him a space to be surrounded by friends. Occasionally, he would join them onstage.
Meanwhile, he was working on his first solo material, while playing around Minnesota with his
son Cyrus in Derecho Rhythm Section, a funk band that also frequently features his daughter
Hollis on vocals. And in Fall 2024, he released his first solo album, a haunting batch of mostly
electronic anthems and éloges called “White Roses, My God.” Pitchfork wondered out loud how
something so “blown out, staticky, inhuman” could simultaneously elicit “freedom” and “spiritual
necessity,” a combination that the last Low releases had been developing already. Touring in
support of “White Roses,” Sparhawk and band widened that same frame to incorporate mirthful
soul, drones and Crazy Horse-like shredding, along with the unfiltered vocal majesty fans had
long come to expect. With his follow-up album, veritably titled “With Trampled by Turtles,”
Sparhawk’s guitar work is once again at the forefront, the songs still beamed from a unique
inner sanctum of one, then reshaped in full collaboration with the band. Performing new solo
material to a dedicated fan base around the world, collaboration fits his exemplary work ethic,
which is fueled by his ceaseless need for reinvention. Sparhawk’s music is, at any given
moment, very now.