Chrome Sparks is in town for an appearance at the woody Splendour in the Grass festival this weekend as well as a sideshow in Sydney tonight. It seemed all too fitting to sit down with the overly chill electronica producer and continue his ‘Lunch with Jeremy’ series in which he attempts to have a bite every single day with someone and document the experience (mostly filling).

Over a delicious plate of sushi (big up fish markets) Jeremy spilled the deets on his first time to Australia, a little more on the experiment including his last lunch date, Brooklyn as a whole and his interesting home studio.

SR: This is your first Australian tour as Chrome Sparks, is this also your first visit to Australia? – How do you like it so far

CS: Yes, yes it is. So far I love it. Had a lot of good food, good cappuccino, tried a flat white. But I haven’t seen the harbour bridge or the opera house, my mum really wants me to see those.

SR: Were here for “Lunch with Jeremy”, can you tell me a little about that? – How did that come about?

CS: It was my new years resolution to get lunch with a new person every day. I’ve had over 200 lunches so far, and it’s been super rewarding. I’ve gained a lot of perspective, reconnected with a lot of old friends and have been able to connect with new friends.

SR: You say you’ve met some new friends, has there ever been a day when you’ve said “Shit, I don’t have a lunch date today” and pulled a stranger off the street?

CS: The only stranger I’ve had lunch with so far was the guy on the airplane on the way here, Eric. But I had people connect me – One day we were driving through Las Vegas for the afternoon, so I called my buddy who used to live there to see if he could connect me with anyone for a lunch date. I ended up meeting with his parents and a local pizza place! Now I know all his embarrassing stories, it was really cool.

SR: Your live shows spans from solo settings to full eight piece bands, what can we expect to see tonight at OAF?

CS: So what I’ve been doing for a while now is a three piece. Theres a drummer, myself on the synths and a third guy who mostly plays a really big mallet instrument, it’s like an electronic xylophone kind of thing.

SR: Your mixes generally contain a wide range of music – soul, disco, pop, house. Do you draw on all of these genres to produce your own?

CS: Yeah I think of the stuff I’ve made don’t necessarily fit together as a cohesive catalogue. When I figure out what i’m doing for a release, like an EP, I have to think about that quite a bit because my natural tendencious aren’t to make things necessarily in the same category all the time. Outside of doing the Chrome Sparks stuff I like making things lo-fi and stuff with guitars in it. It’s sometimes even a struggle to get things that fit together well but I think as time has been going on i’ll be able to focus in more on exactly what I want to do and put together things that are more cohesive.

SR: Recently moved to Brooklyn, why the move? Can you feel the location coming out in your new music?

CS: I was only in Michigan for college, I didn’t really have any sort of connection to the place. I’ve always wanted to move to Brooklyn because it’s a hub, theres so much music going on there, there’s great people and great food and they’re all there for a really good reason, nobody moves there for nothing. It’s really inspiring to be there and it pushes me to work harder.

I wouldn’t say it’s Brooklyn as a city as much as its the circumstances that Brooklyn has lead me to be in. Like the studio space and the experiences I have, but I don’t think there’s a “Brooklyn sound” that has found its way into my music.

SR: Can you explain your home studio in Brooklyn?

CS: At the end of November I moved into a studio with percussion quartet So Percussion, who have been an inspiration of mine since I was in school studying classical percussion. If I was to continue to do percussion, the thing i’d like most to do is to join their quarter, which is highly unlikely because they’ve been doing this for a while.

It’s a room full of percussion gear with a section partitioned off – which is my section, but it’s just part of this open room full of gear, and they’re nice enough to let me use it. I can record any of the marimba, vibraphones and weird drums from all over the world and then use that in my music.

SR: Do you find you produce mostly within the box or on a wide range of instruments?

CS: It’s a combination – I love recording there; walking around the room and finding things when i’m trying to find ideas or what I need to add. But when I need to do some mixing work I just do that on my laptop, either at home or at the studio without screwing around with all the equipment.

SR: Finishing up, which sushi did you order today? – Good?

CS: We split a sushi platter. Salmon, tuna, shrimp, yellow-tail. It was delicious, incredibly fresh, traditional Australian sushi. Prawn on the grill!

For those heading to Splendour in the Grass Chrome Sparks will play on the Sunday and for those wanting an earlier show, tonight at Oxford Art Factory.