Saffron, known for being lead singer of Republica, spoke to David Hennessy about 30 years of their hits Ready to Go and Drop Dead Gorgeous, when Wes Craven called her and meeting and playing with everyone from The Boomtown Rats, Ash, Gwen Stefani and Keanu Reeves.
90s techno punk pop band Republica are touring the UK this autumn, marking 30 years since they announced themselves with hits like Ready to Go and Drop Dead Gorgeous.
Formed in 1994 and fronted by Saffron, Republica emerged alongside acts like Catatonia, Elastica, Sleeper and Skunk Anansie as, like never before, female fronted bands, took centre stage.
While synonymous with the UK scene, Republica first broke America where Ready To Go was the most added track across modern rock and alternative radio for months, with blanket playlisting and heavy MTV rotation, alongside a sold-out 65-date US tour.
With over three million albums sold and a UK Top 3 debut, their impact endures, with music featured in Captain Marvel, Yellowjackets and Ted Lasso.
That resurgence has brought a renewed spotlight with Saffron recently performing as part of Alex James’ Britpop Orchestra.
Renowned for their high-energy live shows, the band have played major festivals including Glastonbury Festival and Reading and Leeds Festivals, and continue to perform worldwide, including halftime performances from Saffron during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Saffron (57), real name Samantha Marie Sprackling, was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to an English father and a Portuguese mother of part-Chinese ancestry. She also has Irish heritage on her father’s side.
Saffron grew up in Brixton.
When she was 18, Sprackling successfully auditioned for Arlene Phillips which got her a part in the musical Starlight Express.
She was also the live on-stage vocalist of N-Joi’s 1990 hit Anthem and appeared in the music video for Chesney Hawkes’ 1991 hit The One and Only.
Sprackling worked with The Cure appearing on the track Just Say Yes. She also featured on The Prodigy’s Fuel My Fire and Jeff Beck’s Pork-U-Pine and a number of songs for Junkie XL.
Saffron now works as a mental-health nurse as well as continuing to perform with Republica and as a solo artist.
The 30th anniversary tour also comes with a reissue of Republica’s 1996 debut album.
Saffron took time to chat to the Irish World.
It’s 30 years since Ready to Go, can you believe it?
“I know, what happened?”
Does it seem strange to say?
“Yeah, it does in a way.
“I think anybody that is in a band, they don’t think they can last three weeks, let alone 30 years so I guess it’s quite an achievement we’ve lasted this long.”
Was it all a bit of a whirlwind when you had that chart success, success in America? Was it crazy?
“Yeah, we were around for quite a few years before we went to the states but obviously that was a huge deal for us being an unknown, kind of the underdog band in America just touring around.
“Our last tour was a 65 city date tour so it really was something fantastic that most bands only dream of.
“To go everywhere and to meet so many people and have our songs on the radio and just selling out shows, it was a dream come true.”
Obviously Ready to Go was a huge song for you? Did you know what you had when you wrote it?
“Yeah, as a band and as songwriters as well, we kind of got an inkling definitely, ‘Oh, I think we might be onto something here’.
“Very early on in our career Mick Jones from The Clash kind of championed us and he just said, ‘Saff, you’ve got to go write. Just write as many songs as you can and get the craft going’.
“So the thing is when you get to a song you think, ‘Oh yeah, I think this has got catchy chorus’ or, ‘I think this is something people will like’ my immediate reaction is, ‘I’ve got to come up with a follow up’, because that’s what happens in pop.
“And so luck should have it, I kind of dreamt Drop Dead Gorgeous one night and rushed to the studio and put it down so we kind of had those two back to back which then turned out to be two of the big hit singles.”
Drop Dead Gorgeous was also a massive hit and featured in the original Scream film. I understand Wes Craven himself called you on the phone, was that surreal?
“Yes. Oh God, it was.
“Even now it feels like a dream.
“He called me and he was like, ‘Hey, Saffron’.
“I’m like, ‘Oh no’.
“All I could think of was Freddy Krueger.
“’I love your song, can I use it in my new movie?’
“And I’m like, ‘Is it a horror film?’
“And he sent me a rough cut- which I’ve still got, probably worth a lot of money- of the original Scream without any music and at that moment it was like, ‘Wow, this guy has trusted me to see some of his work’.
“Because he told me that he’d kind of been pariah-ed out of Hollywood since Freddy Krueger. He’s said it’s just so difficult to come up with a follow up.
“How do you follow up the scariest character of all time?
“But he did it and we got invited to the premiere at Hollywood and we played at the after show party and met David Lynch as well and people like this.
“It was all very exciting.
“The lyrics to Drop Dead Gorgeous are pretty much the storyline of Scream: ‘My boyfriend lies. He does it every time, he’s in disguise’, which was great that Wes Craven had picked up on that and then, within a few weeks, it was the biggest film in the world.”
And it was no flash in the pan. Just this year they released Scream 7 so not only was it a worthy follow up for its creator but it has outlived Wes who passed in 2015..
“I know, it’s amazing.
“It’s amazing and I was just very happy as well- not for my band and the song- but for Wes Craven to surpass himself really after all those years since Freddy Krueger.
“So yeah, hats off to Wes Craven.”
You’re often cited as being one of an exciting new generation of bands with female leads. In the 90s we saw bands like yourselves, Garbage, Sleeper, Elastica. Was it an exciting time to be part of that?
“Yeah, it was.
“It really was an extraordinary time for women and girls in the music business.
“I remember my friend in Los Angeles said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to meet my friend, Gwen Stefani. She’s had a band called No Doubt for 15 years and she’s going to give up’.
“And I met her at her house and she was so lovely and she showed me all these albums and was saying how they’d been touring for years and years and no one would play them on the radio.
“And then that month MTV heavy rotated Just a Girl.
“Then suddenly that whole album and No Doubt took off and it really helped, as well as Garbage, the lovely Shirley and myself and lots of other bands, especially coming back to England, there was Elastica and Sleeper, Catatonia, Texas, Echobelly.
“It was just phenomenal that you finally felt that you were equal and you could get a chance of getting gigs and stuff.”
I’m sure all those bands you just mentioned took inspiration from Debbie Harry of Blondie. I know you did, right?
“Yes, absolutely and amazing artists like Toyah Wilcox, Hazel O’Connor, Lene Lovich, Joan Jett, Chrissy Hynde but I’m also a huge fan of Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush even though musically I’m not similar but those two specifically and Toyah are my favourites.”
How would you describe the Republica sound yourself? I have heard it described as techno pop punk and I know you never wanted to be included in any talk of Britpop which was going on at the time..
“Yeah, the thing is I don’t really like to say because you always want to feel the point of being a gang of mates in a band, you’re your own kind of category.
“The whole point of my band that I formed was to try and mix together the new technology of acid house and techno music with indie rock and a bit of punk and I think for a while there, it didn’t help us because we didn’t fit into a category or we didn’t fit into a genre but luckily people accepted it and it became kind of popular.”
In recent years you have started putting out music once again with singles like New York and Hallelujah. This year you release the new album Damaged Gods, a third Republica album coming 28 years after the second, Speed Ballads..
“Yes, I’ve been so lucky with our new album Damaged Gods and I’ve been so lucky to co-write and collaborate with people like Jeff Beck, the Prodigy, the Cure, Gary Newman, Junkie XL, DJ Carl Cox and lots of different people.
“I do love to collaborate.
“I’d like to do more of it actually.”
Are you looking forward to the tour you have coming up later in the year?
“Yes, absolutely.
“It’s the 30th anniversary so I know that Sony are going to re- release the debut album on vinyl and CD which I’m really excited about and our new album Damaged Gods and then there is this really long tour.
“We decided to do as many tiny places as we could like we did in the beginning, go back to that and to support our local, grassroots venues.”
The modern musical landscape is showing that if we don’t support these venues, they won’t be there..
“Yeah, you absolutely have to.
“I do feel that you have to hold the torch for the others, hold it high for the others that are coming behind because sadly, especially post- COVID, so many venues and so many people are (gone), there was no funding for anything in the hospitality or entertainment industry.
“People are struggling but people still love to go and see live music so as long as you keep that indie head on you and support others, hopefully those venues will still be around because otherwise you won’t be able to discover your new favourite band or your new favourite song or see a band that are so exciting.
“We’ve got Trampolene and The Gulps that are going to be touring with us and they’re two of the best new bands in the UK.
“They’re exciting, they’re electrifying and it’s great to see.”
I know you did musical theatre and some acting before the band took off but was it always going to be music for you?
“Yeah, it was.
“I was signed as a songwriter initially to Warner Chapel Music Publishing and I just started writing loads of songs and collaborating with different DJs and producers and learning my craft really.
“That’s when I decided to work on my studio skills so I learned those primarily, and then I kind of knew exactly what I wanted my band to sound like.
“I wanted to try and fuse these musical elements together.
“So, yeah, absolutely, it’s always been about music and it’s always about the song.”
You have found a new calling in recent years becoming a mental health nurse. That’s important to you, isn’t it?
“Yeah, it really is.
“I retrained about 10 years ago.
“I did it in private.
“I didn’t need to, I just really wanted to.
“And then COVID hit and oh gosh, I was really thrown in to the front line as a critical key worker in mental health.
“It was very hard looking back but it kind of was the making of me. I really wouldn’t have changed a thing.
“I think in those moments you do learn about humility and life and it’s in the small things when you’re caring for people that are so vulnerable that have no one else so I feel quite honoured and privileged that I could be there for as many of them as I was.”
You have some Irish in your family background, isn’t that right?
“Yeah, I do on my dad’s side.
“I believe it’s southern Ireland.
“I’d have to take the family tree book, have a little look later but I just remember as a kid going to County Cork.
“I do love Ireland.”
Have you performed in Ireland a lot then with the band?
“Yeah, quite a few times.
“We’re really good mates with Ash. They’re great mates.
“I remember we did do a show with Ash but also Keanu Reeves’ band was supporting us, Dogstar and he was a really nice bloke.
“He’s a good bass player as well actually.”
Another Irish band you toured with is The Boomtown Rats…
“Oh gosh, what an honour.
“I love Bob Geldof.
“I love The Boomtown Rats, what a band.
“It was like a dream come true really and we’re still great mates now.
“We did a UK tour with them when they reunited.
“It was fantastic.
“You know people think they know about Bob.
“They think, ‘Live Aid’.
“But I know The Boomtown Rats from when they first came out of Ireland and they were punks, Rat Trap and songs like that, obviously I Don’t Like Mondays, but I knew them as a punk band.
“Bob Geldof: He’s one of the greatest front men of a band I’ve ever seen.”
What has been the highlight of your career if I asked you to pick a moment? Is it the chart success, stages you played or featuring in Scream? What was most special?
“To be honest, I couldn’t pick one moment.
“I mean 30 years on, it’s just extraordinary and I’m just very grateful to the fans and the people on the radio and people like yourself that have bothered to talk and promote our music and our songs to people because that’s what they’re for.
“They’re like gifts to people.
“To still be carrying on and doing stuff for three decades it’s quite something.
“Sort of coming from a young teenage dream, it’s carried on and on so I salute everyone that’s helped us out.”
Would you have believed them if anyone had told you 30 years ago you would still be doing this now?
“Well, I think for any songwriter that would be such a huge life goal to have even one song played once on the radio or one song to sing it or play it live and people enjoy it, so 30 years is something quite extraordinary.
“We’re so grateful.”
Here’s the 30 more years of it, right?
“Well, that’s it. That’s the plan.”
Republica tour the UK in October and November.
For more information, click here.
