"That was about the world 'ending' and feeling that impending doom," Sprague says. "Then, going into making this record during a pandemic, and it felt like the world did end. We're in this suspended state of ... forever."
So, what do you do if you're just hanging out in the end times? If you're Sprague, you simply keep on trucking.
"Touring has been the primary thing that we've done the last two years," she says. "We toured with The Front Bottoms twice. We got to do a tour with Jimmy Eat World and Dashboard Confessional; it was huge for us. And then we just finished up a tour with a band called Pool Kids."
For the 31-year-old singer-songwriter, it's a continuation of the performance-heavy streak that's defined her entire career.
"I've been playing cover gigs for the past 12 to 13 years before all of this," she says. "So I was playing four or five nights a week, and at least three to four hours a night. I think that that experience helped me be prepared to play so many shows in succession. I never really say no to a chance to play a show."
And when you're willing to play almost anywhere and everywhere, it often leads to some decidedly bizarre moments.
"The most cuckoo bananas show I ever played was in 2020, when I opened for Cher at a Joe Biden rally in Peoria," Sprague says. "It's me with my acoustic guitar, singing my sad apocalypse songs, and then Cher comes out and, I think, she played a cover of 'Walking in Memphis,' talked about the campaign and went straight back to the bus."
As memorable as that event was, it's really been the bulk of Sprague's touring that's had the most effect. It's been a lot of hard work and long hours, but it's also been especially transformative.
"Just mentally, touring has given me a different kind of focus than I've ever had before," she says. "The physical act of having a schedule every day where you're like, 'I have to meet these goalposts and then I got to play the show and then we do it again tomorrow.'"
A focus on making new music
It helps that there are distractions on the road. Food's a regular favorite — Sprague loves Black Bean Deli in Orlando, Florida and Fox in the Snow in Columbus, Ohio. But it's her relationship with the rest of the band that's often made it all far easier to spend weeks and months on the open road. "I feel like I have just such a good group of people that I get to travel with," she says. "I travel with my partner, Chuck [Morriss III], who plays bass in my band, and he has 10 or 15 years' touring experience, so that really helps a lot. My band are just best friends, and so it's good to have that kind of camaraderie."
But perhaps the best way to survive both life on the road, and a continued existence in our permanent purgatory, is by keeping the real focus on making new music whenever possible.
"I've shoved making the second record somewhere in the middle of all that [touring]," Sprague says. "I wrote a lot of the songs on the new record before the touring started. So at least half of it was written in 2020. I had a good head start and a good chance to really pre-produce a lot of the songs and have an idea of what I wanted to do."
That new record, entitled "somebody in hell loves you," came out on Friday and is at least in part reflective of Sprague's seemingly endless travels. The songs encapsulate what she learned and the life she saw as a roving musician.
"The other half of the songs were more informed by getting to play so many shows and learning the kinds of shows that I love to see and the kind of show that I want to put on," Sprague says. "I think especially touring with the Front Bottoms, they're just the most fun band to watch. And to see the way [their] songs can make a whole room of people just light up, it's something that really just awoke something in me. Like, how do you write a song that can make people feel that way? I tried to channel some of that in making the new record."
‘It's all just about my brain’
"We're hanging in this weird balance of, like, it could just totally fall apart, but for some reason we're just still all here," Sprague says. "That kind of felt like where I was at mentally. We're here for some reason, so I might as well try to have a good time. Originally we were going to call the record 'Hell's Eternal Disco,' but I think 'somebody in hell loves you' feels a little more true to this group of songs."
While being on the road often meant "writing in my Notes app, and then whisper-singing on voice memos," according to Sprague, there's a certain level of comfort involved as she worked out a lot of the same ideas lyrically.
"I think I always come, at least a little bit, from the same perspective that I'm writing about my feelings," Sprague says. "So, you know, they happen in different places and in different ways, but it's all kind of just about my brain. I can't escape it."
Part of that meant dealing with the prospect of even releasing a second record in the first place.
"I felt very free in making the first record because it was my first big thing that I did and I felt like I could express however I wanted to," Sprague says. "And with this one, I did feel like I'd set a precedent for or maybe a goalpost for myself of how good I wanted something to be. Maybe I will miss the mark of what the magic was in that first thing."
To some extent, Sprague recognizes that self-doubt is part of who she is both personally and professionally, and that its mere presence is a kind of double-edged sword.
"It's just such a part of who I am, and it wouldn't make sense for me to make music that sounded confident," she says. "What I tell myself, and I tell other people sometimes, is that a good dose of self-doubt is, I think, one of the most healthy and important things for a creative person. I definitely felt a lot of doubt making [the new record], but I think we were able to work through it for the most part."
She adds, "But I think questioning and doubting leads to trying harder, and trying more things, and pushing yourself harder. And I think it can ultimately lead to a better result if you don't let it destroy you."
Building a TikTok community
Sprague was able to overcome some of those sentiments because, by her own admission, she had built that little family unit since the first record. "There was a lot more collaboration on this one," she said. "Especially going into the beginning stages with Chuck, who lives in my house and has a studio, so he helps me a lot with just recording things, and he's got really good ideas. And then Sebastien [Deramat], my guitar player who we met making the first record, was much more of a part of the process. So it was really cool to have more brains to bounce stuff off."
She also built another kind of community on the road via TikTok. Sprague regularly posts tiny vlogs while touring, highlighting the band's daily routine and general adventures.
"I try to think about it like it's a silly little outlet," she says of TikTok. "The music and the bands that I was a fan of when I was younger, and the ways that I learned how to promote your music, were a little more mysterious and a little more cryptic. Like, you're curating what you're sharing with the world versus just like vomiting on the phone every day. I definitely struggle with that, and I’m still trying to figure out what the balance is 'cause I don't want to overshare."
The collaborative process and online connection did more than just lend Sprague the confidence to write these deeply personal songs; it potentially helped her grow and experiment sonically.
"I got pretty weird with the way I was starting songs," Sprague says. "Instead of writing with a guitar, I was trying to learn how to make drum loops and play with synths and be a little more playful with it. A lot of the songs, I would say, are a good bit heavier. That just comes from finally having a band that I love playing with and wanting to, like, rock out much harder with them. There's songs that are a little more stripped back and a little more electronic-based, and then there's songs that are much heavier."
Sprague’s third album taking shape
While the two records are quite distinct, they do share some thematic tentpoles. That connection drives home the very journey that Sprague's found herself on in recent years. "I didn't really see it this way when I was making it, but now that like I'm listening back to it, it really does feel like a continuation of the first record or almost kind of a sequel in some parts of it," said Sprague. "There's a lot referencing to the first record and like callbacks to things that I talked about in the first record. The last song on the new record is pretty much a direct response to the first song on the last record. So there's definitely a through line."
But for all the change and many adventures that Sprague has experienced in the last few years, the future will very much look the same. That starts with her very first headlining tour in the fall.
"I'm very nervous and very excited," Sprague says. "You know, there's just no information about how that's going to go. I have no reference point. It's a big adventure. I'm excited about that."
From there, she says that the band are "hoping to tour just like as much as physically possible next year." Plus, she just may try and squeeze in writing and/or recording a third album during all that traveling. It's still early on in the process, but Sprague already has some idea of how this latest record will take shape. It will be just as deep and personable as ever, but after all this talk of apocalypses and hell, Sprague may have learned to finally have a little more fun.
"I think it might be like a middle point between the first two records," she says. "I feel still really drawn to the sounds of the first record that I made and the texture of it. But I think continuing on the path of songwriting that I'm on now, but just adding a little bit more of a sense of humor and make it a little bit lighter."
For more information on her tour dates, be sure to visit Sprague's website.
