Great ideas come in all shapes and sizes, from big civic projects at a town and city scale to small initiatives that are just great things that should be helped to happen. One such idea was the Fever Sparks – a songwriting duo that we have supported. Songwriter Gareth Lewis, one half of the Fever Sparks, worked with us developing this and another project – the Dukes of Hafod. We matched the bands up with design students from the nearby University of Wales Trinity Saint David, producing album artwork, band branding, and also featuring the band in a student project music video.
The Fever Sparks performed recently at TEDx Swansea. Modelled on the popular TED talks, TEDx are local not-for-profit “festivals of ideas” run in cities around the world and feature a range of talks and lectures on subjects from philosophy to politics, science and the arts which are filmed and made available free online. Gareth and his songwriting partner Andy Morse were invited to perform 3 of their songs to a packed audience at the event in Swansea’s Grand Theatre where they received rave reviews on Twitter:
“Just when you think #TEDxSwan16 can’t get any better, @feversparks serve up a delicious slice of slide guitar Americana. @TEDxSwansea”
“Fantastic mini-set from those Swansea-Americana boys @feversparks at #TEDxSwan16. Loved it.”
“@feversparks @ #TEDxSwan16 #creativity at its best. Loved it. Still singing & ringing.”
“Great music by @feversparks #TEDxSwan16”
“Really fantastic first half of #TEDxSwan16 finishing with wonderful @feversparks performance”
Fever Sparks are currently writing and recording with artists and producers around the UK as well as recently releasing a single and video for their debut song ‘Loaded’. Both Gareth and his songwriting partner Andy have been finalists in the International Songwriting Competition based in Nashville; their songs have been played on national radio and they have worked with artists including Jamie Lawson, The Struts, Motorhead, Steve Balsamo, Evan Dando, Frank Turner and Zane Lowe.
Check them out here:
