Interviews (252)

• May 17, 2026
• Colleen Johnson
• 44
• 0

I know it’s a Sunday, so we’re talking a school night here for most of my fellow elder emo’s, but it’s gorgeous out, and a familiar face to New England Sounds is taking on the iconic Palladium tonight in Worcester. The band in question? Maine’s Sparks the Rescue, and joining them will be best known for “Teenage Dirtbag,” Wheatus. Clad with a typical back-in-the-day five-band show energy, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth, and a Sparks performance is simply something you should have in your life. While the band did play in Amherst earlier in this run, they also performed two back-to-back shows at O’Brien’s in February and are celebrating 20 years as a band this year.

With two new tunes released last year, there’s more on the horizon from this longtime unit, and, in talking with guitarist Toby McAllister recently, a ton of hits from the band are set to be played tonight. The band also brought back unclean vocalist/screamer Marty McMorrow in 2020, so an old-fashioned classic Sparks moment is sure to be sprinkled in throughout the set as well. I chatted with Toby about everything from prepping for this tour, how it felt to jump back into the rehearsal space, and the three things he needed to pack in his suitcase in 2026 versus what seemed to be required when the band was first digging their teeth into touring!

Find our chat below, and limited tickets are still available for tonight’s gig here!

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New England Sounds: You start this new tour in two days, your first tour in a while. How are the emotions and final preparations going in these last few days for this run? 

Toby McAllister: Yeah, I mean, I think everyone’s a little scared, everyone’s excited. Because we’re all a bit older now. We were in our twenties back when we were living in the van for six months at a time. But now, this feels more doable. It’s two four-day weekends. And we just had rehearsal last night, and after we got done, I was just like, “Honestly, this is the tightest the band has ever felt to me.” So, I’m really excited to get out there and play some of these songs that we haven’t gotten to play in a long time. 

NES: And then you kind of just touched on it, I know, obviously, you’re at very different times in your life. There are families involved, and touring has changed so much. You talked about how the tour is two four-day weekends. Maybe something you like about how the touring culture has changed? Obviously, it’s very different these days from when you could live in a van for six months; there are people who depend on you. 

Toby: That is one thing that’s kind of cool about touring nowadays. Obviously, there are still bands that grind it out for months at a time. But I just don’t know if you absolutely have to do that anymore. When Sparks was touring heavily, we didn’t have TikTok and Reels. I think Instagram was kind of coming out when we were winding down our touring stuff. So, there’s just all these tools that are available now and it’s just so weird how much has changed in even just ten years. But I think you’re able to just go out and do four, five days, and then come home and spend time with your family. And then go out, and do another four or five days, and come home. Five out of six of us have kids now, even being away from my two kids for a couple days, I’m going to miss them. But it’s cool, I feel very lucky that we’re still able to go play shows, and that people still care. Because that’s ultimately what it comes down to, we feel very lucky. 

NES: I was at one of the shows at O’Brien’s, but I know those were two pretty big shows for you that you did in February. Coming into this tour, how have you been planning out these shows? You put out the two new ones in 2025, and I know that new music is on the horizon. How have you been approaching these sets? You obviously want to cater to the old fans, but you still want to have the new ones in there, too. 

Toby: Yeah, I think in the past twelve or fifteen months, we’ve put out a few new songs. We’re definitely going to be playing those, but we just want to play songs that folks want to hear. I figure if people come out and buy a ticket, we just want to make sure that they’re getting their money’s worth. So, we kind of know that Secrets We Can’t Keep and Eyes to the Sun are by far our most well-received and popular releases, or whatever, amongst the folks that listen to us. So the set will be primarily that, but we got a couple of surprises we’re throwing in too. So I think people will be stoked, hopefully. 

NES: Then this one may seem a little cheesy, but I know, from looking at it, you have your other musical pursuits, Alex, and you play, I feel like, every two days on your own, it’s your career. It’s how you make money, but how do you think your DIY roots have kind of kept you motivated? Maybe how do you think the early days of Sparks have helped you be what you’re doing today? 

Toby: I’ve just kind of always known it’s what I wanted to do, since I was a kid. And I mean, Ben, Nate, and I started our band when we were in like seventh or eighth grade. Me and Ben and Nate are still playing music together today, and we’re old now. I just feel like a lot of bands can’t say that they’re still playing with the same drummer and bassist, that they were when they were thirteen years old. I just think those early days really shaped me into the person that I am. And I’ve always loved music, I feel like there’s people who listen to music and then there’s people who “listen” to music, and I’m one of those people. I’m just obsessed. Alex has a band called Holly Heist that he stays busy with, I front my own band. We’ve been consistently putting out music, and we’ve got another EP coming out this summer. It’s fun, I feel like I was able to turn my hobby into a job, and that was kind of my goal ( laughs). We do a lot of weddings too in the summer, me and Alex, we have wedding bands which is a whole other element of being a musician. It’s very cool, it’s a lot of work, but it’s super fun. So yeah, we’re staying busy! 

NES: I feel like it’s rare to see a band do twenty years. I feel like the only band in a similar genre is The Maine, and they just hit that. 

Toby: And honestly, Sparks went through a bunch of different members over the years, but having the crew back together of all six of us, from when we were kids. It’s just like magic. Last night, we rehearsed, and we hadn’t played since O’Brien’s at the beginning of February; it’s May now. We put the instruments on, I got the setlist down, and it was like, damn. We just sounded really tight, we had our in-ears in, and man, I’m just so stoked, I’m so excited that we get to do this. 

NES: And I know it’s not the same tour mates the whole time, but you’re doing two dates with Wheatus, The Sophomore Beat for some shows, I’m sure it will be nice to be back around those bands again. Especially, I know you played with The Sophomore Beat a lot back in the day, when you were younger. 

Toby: Yeah, they’re our buddies from forever. It’s cool, being able to play with friends that we’ve had for the past twenty years. The Sophomore Beat, I think they’re putting out new music too, which I mean, anyone who’s putting out new music in 2026, I’m just like, hell yeah. Because it’s tough out there, and it’s hard, and there’s AI, and there’s streaming. The world needs art more than ever, so just putting out new music in 2026 just feels like a little protest to me, and I love it. 

NES: I just interviewed this band called Romes recently, and I watched an interview they did, and a guy literally asked them how much AI they put in their music, and they were like, “None?”

Toby: Yeah, what, like what the fuck? Yeah, and I think everyone’s freaking out about AI in music and stuff. But at the end of the day, I have to believe in my heart that people don’t want that. People listen to music to hear someone else’s perspective on a situation that may or may not help them get through something. And that’s what it’s all about. This AI music stuff, yeah, it’s bothersome, but I can’t imagine that people want to listen to AI music. 

NES: No, no, no, yeah, it would be so obvious if someone tried to start a career with that. 

Toby: Yeah, it’s kind of yucky. 

NES: Very yucky, then to kind of end it off, touring is very different, like I keep saying, from when you guys were in the van, a different stage of life. What are the three things you made sure to pack in your suitcase for this run? 

Toby: My toiletry bag is much more organized now. Back in the day, we used to really rough it. We got our $10 a day per diem, buy a pack of smokes, a cheeseburger and get our drink tickets for the show. And I don’t know how we made it out of there alive, honestly. But now we, Ben, our bass player, he and his family have an RV, so we’re going to be traveling in that, which is pretty amazing. He’s got a TV in there, and there’s couches and we can play guitar, and hang out while we’re driving to the shows. It will be a little better than eight of us crammed into a twelve-passenger van. But yeah, I think I’m packing three pairs of black jeans and three black t-shirts. Other than that, I guess I’ll pack my weed gummies for when I need to go to sleep at night and my face mask. Yeah, sleep’s become a little more important as I’m (laughs) entering this stage of my life. I’m curious to see how it goes. 

NES: It’s a little bit different! Just from covering Warped Tour for years,  when you guys did Warped Tour, didn’t you do it fully in a van, like the whole time? 

Toby: Yeah, all of our friends were doing it in buses, and we were like, well, if we do it in a van, we make more money. Then I’m like, that was one of the most brutal tours we ever did. It was still great, but we didn’t even party really on that tour, because every night we had to drive nine hours. But bucket-list stuff, when I look back, I don’t even remember the drives; I just remember how fun it was.

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The band will be at The Palladium in Worcester tonight, co-headlining with Wheatus and guests  Signal the Escape, Timelines, and Return Address. Limited tickets can still be picked up here!  Doors are at 6 pm with music starting at 7 pm!