Drummer Tony Hajjar said his band Sparta didn't have any songs ready when it went into the studio to record its most recent album, "Porcelain." And he admits that, at first, it was intimidating.
"We started from scratch, basically," Hajjar said by phone from Richmond, Va. "Sure, we had pieces of songs here and there, but nothing was finished."
Upon realizing that it needed some material, the band — Hajjar, guitarist Paul Hinojos, bassist Matt Miller and guitarist/vocalist Jim Ward — decided to write the songs. Hajjar and Ward holed themselves up in a Los Angeles rehearsal space and began writing.
"Jim and I wrote a bunch of songs," said Hajjar, "and then he left, and Paul, Matt and I got together and wrote for a week. We then went and played some festivals in Europe, and then moved out to the desert and continued writing."
All in all, the band wound up with 16 songs, 14 of which wound up on "Porcelain." "When you lock us in a room together, a lot can happen, and we did what we did" said Hajjar, who, along with Hinojos, was in a band called At the Drive In.
When the band first got together in 2000 in El Paso, Texas, it was just about making music, said Hajjar. "We just knew we wanted to make music, and we wanted to see if it was going to work or not. And when things started clicking, we just wrote more and more."
In 2002, Sparta released the extended-play album "Austere." Later that year, the band released its debut album, "Wiretap Scars." "I remember we had written eight or nine songs in Paul's mom's basement. And we had written songs separately and had our own music. When we got together for the EP and album, we tightened the songs up and recorded them.
"When we recorded 'Porcelain,' we were totally doing something new. We had learned a lot from the recording of the EP and first album, and used that knowledge to help us with the new album."
Hajjar said the hardest part of being in the band now is keeping the songwriting up to par. "We don't ever want to become stagnant. We want to keep improving. We want to make better songs. We want to make better music and we want to play better live.
"When we first started out, people thought Sparta was a side project to At the Drive In. We kind of resented that. Why would we put our heart and soul into a side project? We wanted to do something, and if it worked, we were going to keep doing it. And that's where we are right now."
If you go. . .
What: Sparta, Further Seems Forever
Where: In the Venue
When: Saturday, 7 p.m.
How much: $13.50 and $15
Phone: 467-8499 or 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: scott@desnews.com