Republica recall how they made ‘Ready to Go’ in a Shoreditch studio

Republica singer Saffron Sprackling and guitarist Johnny Male have given a new account of how they made ‘Ready to Go’, describing a song built in their Shoreditch studio from electronic beats, guitar parts and a chorus designed to bring people together. Their recollections, published by The Guardian on 28 September, distinguish the band’s original creative work from the heavier guitar version Sprackling later identified as the hit.

Sprackling told The Guardian that Republica wanted to combine acid house with indie rock. The group rented a space in Shoreditch, London, built its own studio and spent its money rewiring it, she recalled. She said they wrote, recorded and produced ‘Ready to Go’ there, making about 100 mixes. Those are the singer’s memories of the sessions; the interview does not provide session records or a precise recording date.

A chorus built for a crowd

Male said the music came first. Andy Todd found chords that became the chorus, he recalled, and the group then set about writing a verse. Sprackling said she and Male wrote most of the lyrics and melody, while Todd and Tim Dorney concentrated more on technology and synthesizer sounds. Her account presents the track as the product of several members’ different skills, even where she and Male took the lead on words and tune.

Sprackling thought Male came up with the phrase ‘Ready to go’. She told The Guardian the words had an anthemic quality and that the band wanted the song to feel like a ‘battlecry’. Rather than recounting one extraordinary event, she said, the lyrics drew on daily life and things that had happened to them. Male similarly described going out, staying up late and bringing those observations back into the writing.

Studio methods and a changing sound

Male recalled sampling guitar parts into an Akai S1000 because the Atari ST computer the group used handled MIDI. Vocals went onto an eight-track digital recorder, he said. Money earned from gigs went back into studio equipment. The practical limits of that setup shaped how the band assembled the recording, according to his account; the published interview does not include the underlying tapes or equipment records.

The picture of a band absorbed in its own studio has a contemporary parallel. In a 1996 interview with SLUG Magazine, Sprackling said Republica had a studio and spent a great deal of time recording. She called the group ‘very finicky’ about its songs. The magazine reported that DeConstruction had offered the band a deal after hearing a one-song demo, after which Sprackling said the label let them return to recording more tracks.

That earlier interview also matters to the question of who made the song. Sprackling described Republica as a band whose members drew on different experiences, saying she happened to stand at the front. Her account in The Guardian likewise assigns parts of ‘Ready to Go’ to Male, Todd and Dorney. The sources support a collaborative account of its creation, although they do not document every contribution to every element of the track.

In a separate August 2026 interview with Eon Music, Sprackling again described the original aim as bringing acid-house electronic music together with songs and guitars. She said the early material was more electronic. After Republica worked with producer Ben Grosse, she recalled, some tracks were remixed with heavier guitars and more low end. She identified that guitar version of ‘Ready to Go’ as the one that became the hit. That later change helps explain why the song audiences came to know was not simply the first version the band put out.

The image and the audience

Sprackling told The Guardian that a suggestion at her hairdresser’s prompted her to dye her hair bright red. She said the look helped the band visually. Male remembered her arriving at the studio with red hair and telling her, ‘We’re gonna be massive!’ He called it the missing link. His remark describes his reaction to the band’s image, not a claim that her appearance created the music or guaranteed its success.

The audience arrived gradually, according to Sprackling’s Eon Music interview. She said the first release of ‘Ready to Go’ was not a hit, then recalled growing interest during the band’s US touring and heavy rotation on MTV. Male told The Guardian that he noticed the video appearing on television while the band toured America and saw crowds respond. Both accounts are recollections of the song’s rise, rather than a complete timeline of every release and market.

The song remains part of Republica’s current plans. Sprackling told Eon Music in August that the band intended to reissue its debut album with additional live tracks in 2026 and tour the UK from October. Those were announced plans at the time of the interview; the cited account does not establish that the reissue or performances have since happened. For now, the new interview adds the band members’ detailed memories of how their best-known recording began and changed.