Sunhills x Fresh Off The Scene
Interview and photos by Destiny Ross
Introduce yourself and what you do for the band Sunhills.
Drew- My name is Drew. I sing, I write, I manage… I manage my temper. I also play guitar and produce.
Leo- I’m Leo from Columbia. I play the bass, not really good, but I play the bass.
Nico- Well, I’m Nico and I play the keyboard and sing some harmonies.
Cameron- My name is Cameron and I play lead guitar and I produce and I mix the songs, well, I like to think, I know how to mix the songs, but I'm just pressing buttons and pulling out my hair constantly until there's a deadline and then I'm like, okay, I guess it's done now.
Sam- I'm Sam, I play drums and that’s pretty much it.
Drew- Cam's also the recording engineer, he engineers all the sessions and makes the big-boy decisions about where the mics go.
Nico- Drew's job is also to be the heartthrob.
Sam- I bring beer to the shows.
For first-time listeners, how would you describe the genre of your music?
Drew- I think if you like indie rock and you like dream pop and you like really sad bum-out songs, you're going to like our music.
Sam- That’s accurate
Drew- We wear our influences on our sleeve. I feel like it's pretty obvious to know what we're into too. With just about all of the songs, I can show you a direct correlation to a different song. We're always like, this is our Alvvays song and this is our Beach House song, that's our Slow Pulp song.
With that question, what do you hope to convey to your listeners through your music?
Drew- Vibes.
Cam- Drew and I love the aspects of music that involve just world-building within the music. Like records that are conceptual in nature and sound design that kind of like emotion portrayed into the songs themselves translated into like production and stuff. That's why we love dream pop so much, it's one of those genres that kind of does that the most for us. Especially for the record coming up, it is conceptual, more conceptual than previous work that we just hope to get people enveloped in it and just like feel the world building that's inside the music, kind of laid out but not so obvious that it's like there's a point A and point B to the story. It's more like world-building is an aesthetic that you can find yourself in and then imprint your own kind of interpretation.
Drew- I think we see music as like a mirror a lot. I think we want people to see themselves in it and to be able to have it be this blank canvas that they can put their memories onto and that they relate to. I think we want people to feel seen or represented in a song in any way, and like this song makes me want to dance or this song makes me want to dance but I'm a little scared and that's okay, or this song majorly bums me out.
To my knowledge, you have a single dropping on April 19th, “Less and Less”, can you tell us a little more about the making of the single and the ideas behind it?
Cam- The ending of that song was recorded when we were making the initial demo of the song so just us writing it and you know getting it down on paper… We tried like probably a hundred times afterward to try to just rerecord that version But we never can never find something that sounded right or felt right. I think it was just mostly demo-itis. We were so used to that version at that point, but just the energy of that ending. Even though it’s not a perfect take, it could have probably been played better, but I think that the beauty of that ending part is that it's just like raw very in the moment, not perfect, it's just lo-fi guitar.
Drew- Yeah, that's what was so hard to recreate, we did like a hundred times the same, and it all sounded objectively better but it was the emotion that didn't carry. We literally were tracking the demo vocals and as the song ends, I'm like, “Let's just throw the thing on real quick”. So I grabbed the guitar and Cams moving the stand and then we just did one take and we're like, “Okay, that's that's good for now”. Yeah, and then it just stuck around which is really cool.
Cam- But for the rest of the song production-wise and song-wise, my memory is so bad and it's been so long and I have very vague memories of writing these songs… But I remember that for a lot of the songs, the way we wrote them was that I had just too much time on my hands. I was just only working part-time, and I was just home a lot, just doing whatever the fuck. And Drew was working, Drew works from home, so Drew was just in our room, so I would always come and bug Drew, just like, because I was bored. I was like, “Hey, play some guitar with me, and stop working”. So we would literally write songs while Drew was working.
Drew- Yeah, and this one specifically, I really vividly remember. I remember feeling like, “I haven't written a song just for me in what feels like a long time”. Like, when you write something and you get in your head a little bit, where you're like, “Okay, I'm writing this”, and you're like, “Someone's gonna hear this eventually”. And that scares you or changes the way you write a little bit. I was like, I just wanna make something that doesn't go on the album, it doesn't do anything, I just wanna make something. So I got a pizza from The Pie and some red wine. I was like, “Hey, let's just make something”. And so we just sat down and made the demo, just being like, “We should make this just for us”. And I think when you do that, that's what people resonate with the most, is when you make it just for you and you're not trying to please anybody or anything. And the rest of the guys I think really liked it.
Drew- Do you guys remember hearing it for the first time or what your first impressions were when we brought it to you in demo form?
Sam- I remember the first time, I just remember going, *drum noises* This one grew on me. I didn't really like it that much at the beginning, to be honest. But this one, it's just way chiller and less heavy than some of the other songs. And so I was just like, “Oh, this is just a sad one”. Played soft. This one really grew on me.
Can you share with us some hardships or obstacles you’ve had to go through to get to where you are today?
Drew- Probably every obstacle imaginable. I think of constant perfectionism and fear.
Cam- It's hard to define what's an obstacle and what's just mental, you know?
Drew- That's an obstacle. It's just been the mental roadblocks, really.
Cam- And the mental is a big emphasis on that… especially like this record, did not need to take two years… but it did because of all the mental stuff behind it.
With the ever-evolving music scene of SLC, how do you feel Sunhills differs from other artists in the scene?
Destiny- The effort you guys put in with the fans, I feel is a lot different than a lot of other people in the scene. Like the text messages, the merch, the staying up to date with Instagram and actually being consistent with posting and fan interaction. I feel that one, it's not something that's very prominent in the scene now period with how, I guess, inflated the music industry is and with how many, you know, how many listeners all these big artists have. They can't really have the type of experience and interactions, you guys get to be able to create and, I don't know, I feel like that makes you guys a lot different, which is like something that is very respectable.
Drew- That’s so cool.
Cam- That’s all Drew.
Nico- Drew's very outgoing and good at talking to people at shows because personally, like teenagers are most of the people who come to our shows and they make me very nervous and I'm so sorry about that. I just get nervous talking to them, I'm very shy. I love to see Drew out there and he's like talking to people in line before the show and stuff and I'm sure he'd appreciate that. I think it makes the biggest difference you know.
Drew- I think we were much more interested in like filling up the room with people whose minds are being rocked and they're being inspired and that's one of the coolest things for sure. When people come up to you and they are in awe and star-struck.. idk I mean, they look up to you, you know, and being a band that those people think are cool for some reason that's like a huge honor and them being inspired to make their own music. A lot- a lot of fans will tell me all the time they're recording their songs now and asking me specific questions “How do you do this” and “How do you do this” and yeah, it's cool.
Cam- I feel like it's a very inclusive thing because you can get that with any band. Any band will love praise from their audience, of course, but it's just like It's a very empty thing when it's just one-sided that way. For us we want to get to know our fans as much as they want to get to know us. I feel like that makes it just a really good and healthy thing between us and our fandom.
With your keys player, Nicole Canaan, being the newest addition to the group, how has that addition played a part in the medley of artists within the band?
Drew- Unbelievable godsend. Yeah, Nico is one of, my personal, and I think as a group one of our favorite songwriters like ever and especially in Salt Lake and it blows my mind that they want to be in our band, it's crazy to me.
Cam- I remember when you first joined we kind of thought it was gonna just be like a temporary thing or something. Because you were like “I'm gonna join but I'm not gonna play every show… I don't have the time for that”. So I'm just like, okay, it's just like, we'll have a keyboardist for when we have a keyboardist. But, every day I'm like, “Ah, when is Nico gonna be bored of us? And I can't hang out with Nico anymore”.
Sam- I just sent a text in the group chat about a week ago and we were gonna play a show and Nico couldn't come. And I was just like, “Shows without Nico give me a reasonable amount of depression”.
Drew- It is funny how that switched where at the beginning it was like, “Oh, if Nico can't make it, we'll still play the show” and oh well that's fine. And now it's like… if Nico's not gonna do it…. I don't know. But I think they're an incredible musician and just very creative. And I love their taste and input on everything.
What does a day in the studio look like for the band?
Drew- Yeah, I think the studio is definitely a different energy than band practice. And it feels different now than it did for the record like our approach is different. So maybe touch on what those days were like at Archive.
Cam- Yeah Archive was different. Archive, which is the studio up in North Salt Lake that we rented out to track, so we track drums and bass and then we rented out that space later to track some roads. A lot of the raw sounds on this record are like roads through a Leslie speaker and in a jazz chorus so it's got the cool ghostly sound. At Archive, it's very cut and dry. It's like you're in a studio you're paying like three hundred bucks for the rental space To rent out the space. So it's like, okay, you're on a very set schedule, but it's also nice because that studio is nice. So just throw up a bunch of mics and make sure you get all the songs done in two days for bass and drums and whatever you get is what you get because you paid for time and that framework is kind of what I wish I kind of did for the rest of this record because the rest of it is we're at home and we're tracking the rest of it which is guitars, vocals, and synthesizers.
Sunhills has built a reputation for energetic and captivating live performances, can you share one or two of your favorite moments while performing?
Cam- I will say the one that sticks out to me and it's not while performing, but it was when we first walked onto the stage at The Depot, opening for The Backseat Lovers, and that crowd… just roaring. It was like, it was intoxicating almost. It was incredible, that feeling.
Drew- I distinctly remember the first time people were singing with us and I went home and wrote in my journal. I was like, I'll never forget this. And it was at this tiny little venue in Provo called Third Space, that doesn't exist anymore. There were like six people there and two of them were singing, just like these friends, and I'm like, “Oh my God, you guys”. And that meant so much to me. And now, it's a really surreal thing, you know, to have people do that. I try to make it a point to look everyone in the eyes that's there while we're playing and just looking at someone and they're like almost gonna weep and they're like singing with you…
Cam- Even more so, when fans sing songs that are not even out.
Are there any artists or bands you'd love to collaborate with in the future?
Sam- Rick Rubin.
Drew- We obviously have dream producers and things like that. My dream is like do an album with Sean Everett who recorded all of the Alabama Shakes and the newest Alvvays record. I'd love to work with somebody like that or John Congleton I think that would be really cool. He’s a producer who does a lot of cool stuff for groups like, like Alvvays and St. Vincent.
Can you share a little bit more about your new album “Planetarium” and what inspired this piece?
Cam- It wasn't planned to be conceptual. It just kind of naturally happened, which is kind of awesome. It's kind of what we dreamed that we wanted to do as musicians when we first started to get to know each other. I don't remember the moment that we kind of realized that there was kind of a thematic element to it that we wanted to perpetuate. But at some point just like a couple of songs in, it’s like it's kind of this space rock vibe. It feels like we and the listener are both in some planetarium or something.
Drew- That’s it verbatim. I think we really like to do a lot of juxtaposition or we like to do a lot of contrast and stuff like that. It just felt like it was scratching an itch doing something that was like really intimate and deeply self-reflective in terms of lyrics. It felt like such a small world in itself being surrounded by just this ethereal majesty that felt interesting where it was like, you can be stuck in a place like physically, but also mentally, and those are different things and kind of working through them at the same time. There's something really special about that.
Cam- Like you can understand that the universe is massive and you can go anywhere, but then, at the same time you're also claustrophobic to your own head. And your own mindset.
Drew- Yeah, you can be really struggling, but also remember that you're so tiny and insignificant and that that sometimes makes it easier to deal with and sometimes a lot harder. And I think there are moments on the record for both of those.
What are the differences and similarities between your last album and this one?
Drew- I think the differences are there's less I would say conventional hooks, a lot of songs don't have choruses, that have catchy hooks. I think a lot more distortion too. I think we got a lot heavier. I also feel so different because this is really the first Sunhills thing that we, us, did all together. We all took a big part in the process of making the songs and arguing about where the bridge should be and when guitars should come and all just all the little things and I think that made a huge difference. I still feel like it's our kind of sense of humor and I think it's still like our interests.
Cam- And long songs.
Lastly, what has been your favorite part throughout the process of creating this new album?
Cam- Finishing it. Honestly, mixing was probably the most agitating part of it, I guess. Because mixing is probably the most mental exercise thing out of all of it. Recordings like, putting up a mic, playing your guitar, moving around a little bit, getting your tones sounding good and tracking it and that’s fun.
Drew- But I especially love, there's a song that's an instrumental called “Dizzy Dome”. That's the only song that we live-tracked and were all in the room together on.
Sam- That was like my favorite day in the studio.
Drew- It's about nicotine too, it's the smoke break of the album. It's both about like all of our addictions to nicotine and more conversely, it blends in with the concept of the record and it feeling like you’re at the dome theater at the planetarium.
