Jack Ladder/Lost Animal guitarist Kirin J. Callinan has hit out at Sparkadia’s Alexander Burnett, claiming he stole his ideas. In an interview with The Vine, promoting his new solo tour, Callinan alleges that Burnett used his ideas and chord progressions on the singles China and Mary, which were released ahead of Sparkadia’s latest album The Great Impression (18 March 2011). Callinan states that he had an idea for a band called China long before he knew Alex; however, after he met Alex he invited him to be part of the band and “they worked on a bunch of songs”.
Burnett then went overseas to work on music for Sparkadia, and Callinan claims he showed some of their recordings to the label. “He sends me this email saying ‘Aw man, I’m really sorry. I just threw a bunch of our recordings into the demos that I played the label, and they were the ones they responded to, you know. I know you won’t mind.’ I wrote back saying ‘Whatever, it’s fine’.”
But when Callinan heard the first single China from Sparkadia’s new album on the radio, it rang a bell…
“Some time later, I hear this single on the radio – it’s fucking [Sparkadia’s single] ‘China’, using a chord progression that I wrote independent from him. That was one thing. And then Laurence Pike [drummer with PVT and Jack Ladder’s band] brought it to my attention again, with [Sparkadia’s] ‘Mary’. I hadn’t heard it. I have a song that goes [sings] ‘Maaary…’ and he has a song that goes [higher] ‘Maaary’ and it just blew me away, because I brought these ideas to the table.”
Callinan says he was close to putting a freeze on Burnett’s APRA payments, but at the last minute decided to be the bigger man.
“At the end I decided I didn’t want to go on with this, get involved in legal stuff. I don’t really give a fuck. It would be heaps cooler, anyway, just to break his legs”, he said.
Sparkadia – China
Sparkadia – Mary
