The Hoosiers have warned that soaring ticket prices and demanding touring schedules are putting pressure on both artists and fans, as they reflect on nearly 20 years in the music industry.
Formed in the early noughties and having gone through several line-up changes, constants Irwin Sparkes and Alan Sharland are taking stock of their journey as they look to what comes next.
A word they keep returning to is compassion — the title of their sixth album, due for release on May 15.
“Every time I tune into TikTok, it just feels like there’s so much anger and division,” Sharland told The Standard. “It does feel like something that’s lacking at the moment.”
Agreeing, Sparkes adds: “The way we talk to ourselves influences how we talk to each other, and that shapes the world we live in.”
Both are also ambassadors for the mental health charities Music Support and and SANE, as well as the youth organisation Music for Youth, supporting work to improve wellbeing across the industry and widen access to music.
It is a perspective rooted, in part, in their own experiences. After delays to their third album and a split from their label, the band went through a difficult period that could easily have derailed them — but they kept going, releasing music on their own terms.
Sparkes says the pressures artists face are built into the structure of the industry itself.
“The industry still has a long way to go. It exists to make money — that will always come first,” he says.
“The pace can be relentless — you can be touring constantly and there isn’t always anyone stepping in to say, ‘You need a break.’”
He recalls being in an airport in Japan, surrounded by artists from “that noughties wave”.
“Bands like The Ting Tings, The Wombats, The Kooks — everyone was just waiting for the next flight, and they all looked destroyed,” he says.
“We were having chats with the guys from The Wombats and they’d had something like two days off in three months. They were really big, but still being ground through the machine.
“And you can see it with so many people, like Lola Young. It’s still obviously a real issue.”
The pair also point to the shock of Amy Winehouse’s death in 2011, the news breaking while they were performing on stage — a moment that underlined the reality behind the industry.
“It was really sad,” says Sharland. “It brings home how much is going on behind the scenes — that success doesn’t always manifest in happiness.”
Asked what advice they would give their younger selves, their answers are surprisingly candid.
“I’d relax a bit,” says Sharland. “I was so uptight about it all. Relax and enjoy it more — and at the same time, work a bit harder.”
“You were amazing at FIFA,” Sparkes jokes, before turning more serious.
“I’d have therapy sooner,” he adds. “It would have made me happier and helped me navigate the band and my relationships. I wouldn’t have looked for external validation so much — that was definitely a bit of a honeytrap.”
If those themes run through the album, they also extend to how they view their audience. Both are outspoken about the rising cost of live music, arguing that ticket prices and merchandise have reached unsustainable levels.
“Gig tickets are too much. Merchandise is too much. Everything’s getting too much,” says Sparkes. “Times are hard, and artists need to take some responsibility for what they can control.”
While they acknowledge that pricing decisions are not always directly in artists’ hands, they believe there is still a role to play, particularly for those operating at the very top of the industry.
“When you’re selling out arenas and making huge amounts of money, do you need to be squeezing every extra pound out of fans?” he adds.
Sharland points to the knock-on effect, particularly for emerging acts.
“People end up going to one big gig a year instead of lots of smaller ones,” he says. “And that hurts the bands coming through.”
For The Hoosiers, who built their following in a different era, it is a shift that feels significant — even as they themselves prepare to head back out on the road.
The record will be supported by a run of summer festival performances and a headline UK tour this autumn, including London’s Islington Assembly Hall on October 13, alongside dates in Brighton, Manchester, Glasgow, Southampton and beyond.
They will also join Scouting for Girls as special guests at OVO Arena Wembley on February 13, 2027 — chart rivals back in the day. The celebrations continue that year with their own debut, The Trick To Life, turning the big 2-0.
There is some hindsight when it comes to fame and success — including a few ill-judged splurges at the height of it all.
“I had a lease Alfa Romeo I definitely couldn’t afford,” says Sharland. “The tyres wore out and I realised I couldn’t even afford to replace them.”
Sparkes laughs. “I bought a second guitar. Who needs two guitars?”
Given they now say they are “more passionate than ever” about what they do, there is more value in a second guitar than a tyreless sports car.
“You’ll never be everyone’s cup of tea, and I think we’ve never been more OK with that,” says Sparkes. “What we can do — what The Hoosiers can be — is a force for positivity. That’s what people have always told us, that the music makes them feel good.”
“There are so many beautiful people from all walks of life who come out to see us — it’s just really heartwarming to see and feel,” says Sharland. “When we did our last tour, it felt like one long hug of a show. We want to be there as much as they do. It’s genuinely nice.”
Compassion is out May 15 by Republic Of Music.
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