Sparklehorse

Music had always been a shared language between Mark Linkous and his younger brother Matt, and as Mark began work on what he planned to be the fifth Sparklehorse album in 2009, the two of them would talk through his plans for the record. Matt can clearly recall their conversations; Mark’s excitement about the influences feeding into it and the way the songs were starting to take shape. “Around the time, he was listening to The Kinks, MF Doom, Grandaddy, and the Beatles,” remembers Matt. “He said that he wanted to make a straight-up pop record like Buddy Holly. ‘That would be brilliant,’ I said. ‘Just get the best rhythm section you can find and hit record.’” During Mark’s last visit to Matt and sister-in-law Melissa they drove around in Melissa's car blasting out the albums that were providing Mark’s inspiration for the new record and singing along.  It was these experiences and conversations that Matt and Melissa - who had both worked with Sparklehorse - returned to years later as they began to sift through boxes of tapes and CDs to catalogue and preserve Mark’s unreleased recordings and bring his posthumous album, entitled ‘Bird Machine’, to life.