The Hoosiers

The Hoosiers (formerly known as The Hoosier Complex) are an English band from the UK and Sweden. The band members are Irwin Sparkes (lead vocals, guitar), Martin Skarendahl (bass and guitar for acoustic performances) and Alphonso Sharland (drums). Their first single "Worried About Ray" reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in July 2007. They released their debut album, The Trick to Life, in October 2007.

Hailing from Exeter, Reading, Berkshire and Stockholm, the band claim to create a sound that they call "Odd pop", combining a number of musical genres. The band members cite their influences as The Cure, Jeff Buckley, The Flaming Lips and XTC.

According to their band biography, Alphonso Sharland and Irwin Sparkes the lead singer spent some time in the United States, encouraged by their chemistry teacher (Grant Serpell) who was part of the band Sailor during their fame in the 1970s), in an attempt to broaden their horizons. The pair won themselves a football scholarship at the University of Indianapolis despite a reputed claim to be "allergic to running". Having gathered enough material to compile an album, Alphonso and Irwin returned to London where they met Swiss keyboard player and sound engineer Duri Darms, and Martin Skarendahl, a Swedish ex-fireman who was then working with Darms as a recording studio engineer and studying at The London Music School.[citation needed]

The trio of Sparkes, Skarendahl and Sharland subsequently signed to RCA and released their first album The Trick to Life on 22 October 2007. The band have spoken of their desire to write songs that are about more than just "boy and girl.. finding love on a Friday night on the lash with your mates"

They are produced by ex-member of Jamiroquai, Toby Grafty-Smith.

The band's second single, "Goodbye Mr A", appeared in the game FIFA 08, and FIFA 08 can be seen in The Hoosiers music video for "Goodbye Mr A" in which Irwin Sparkes (vocals, guitar), who is from Reading, Berkshire is playing on the game as Reading FC against Manchester United. It also appears in a trailer for the 2007 film, 'Juno'.

Following the release of "Worst Case Scenario", the next release from The Trick to Life was "Cops and Robbers", as confirmed in a live webchat with The Hoosiers on GMTV. The video was broadcast on Channel 4 at 12:10pm on 22nd March,2008. Their song "Worried About Ray" reached the final five in the Single Of The Year category of the Brit Awards 2008, but came second to Shine by Take That.

Before the game was released this information was released on this website: " Cops and Robbers will feature in the game Grand Theft Auto IV ". However now the game has been released, the song is not found on the GTA IV game. This said it may feature in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV episodic packs, released later this year.

They recently completed a tour with support from The Script along with I Am Finn, Envy & Other Sins, and JP Jones.