Belle and Sebastian… Snow Patrol… Biffy Clyro.. the roll-call from Glasgow’s Electric Honey label alumni goes on.
And the next act to carry this weighty tag are The Sunshine Social. Betty Mayonnaise reckons they might just be up to it…
1. Describe the Sunshine Social’s sound in five words (or less).
It’s always impossible to come up with a spot on genre classification, so I think we’ll just go with our favourite way that we’ve been summarised, which was by our keyboard player Greig, who described us as “an avocado and cream-cheese sandwich”. Not sure what it’s supposed to mean, but it sounds great.
2. How did you come about forming a band (lots of words if you like)
A number of the guys in the band, including Calum the lead singer, used to play a lot of open mic nights around Glasgow. A couple of them met just before Calum entered the Billy Kelly songwriting contest in 2010 and throughout the process of that competition it slowly transformed from a singer-songwriter set-up to the full band we are today. Since then we’ve gone on to add more members, and sadly lose some as they have gone on to other things. We still see and speak to the old members and we’re all friends, it’s just a fact of life that sometimes people have to move on. Now the band basically comprises of three “couples” of old school friends. Calum and Greig went to school together and were great friends, same for Spencer and Daniel, and Jake and Julian (the Aboyne Academy rhythm section). Its a good set-up as we can all call each other out when something needs changed or the amps need moved the morning after a show because we’re all so close. It has been quite an evolution over the years, starting off as more of a quiet group and ending up as the full band we are today.
3. Betty first saw this band performing a set after a film event at the Glad Cafe – most of the audience for the postpunk in Edinburgh documentary had gone home so recall there were about 6 people plus staff and technical crew – what do you remember about that night?
I think it was quite a last minute request that we come play. We’ve played the Glad Cafe a number of times, including selling it out when we released our single ‘Float’, and absolutely love it as a venue so we figured we’d go for it. It’s not necessarily a problem to play shows to small numbers of people. Every band has experienced it when they go to a town they’ve never been before or a gig starts really early. It becomes a different kind of show where you can have a bit of fun with the people who are there and try out some new things on stage. We had a good time, got to eat some delicious food and watch a really interesting documentary, so no complaints from us!
4. SSS(!) have just released the debut album. How long has it taken between planning and release and what was the hardest part?
The album has been quite a project album, we actually started the recording process around three years ago now which is quite incredible. It didn’t take three years to record though, it’s been done for quite a while and I think that for sure has been the hardest part, just waiting to be able to release it properly and do it justice. Its all good to record an album you’re happy with but you have to find the finances and right people to help you make the release a success and get all the other little bits and pieces that are required together. So yeah, sitting listening to the album but not being able to share it with anyone was definitely the hardest part.
5. What is the worst touring experience you have had?
I think the vast majority of our touring experiences have been excellent, we’re all very close friends and so its basically just a big messy holiday whenever we go on tour. Even if we’re sleeping in the back of the van or totally exhausted we’re still just having fun. That being said, our beloved van (Esmerelda) has had more than one impressive breakdown whilst we’ve been touring. There’s nothing worse than having been away for four days, dreaming of your bed, and suddenly hearing the clutch fall to pieces hundreds of miles from home. Earlier this year we had to concede that she probably isn’t going to make it back from her most recent gearbox/clutch explosion and so that was a very sad moment. All of our parents will be very pleased we’re no longer driving about in what was admittedly a 3.5 tonne death-trap though so its not all bad.
6. The album might make you all millionaires – you may be the next Coldplay. But what is plan B and how do you survive financially in the meantime? (you don’t need to answer)
It’s basically a reality of being a band now that you’re not going to be able to make a great living from it, especially when there’s six of you. But that’s not really why we do it at all, of course it would be a dream to be able to make a living by playing our music but its clear that with the way people get their music now that thats not totally possible unless you’re absolutely huge. We know lots of fantastic bands that have fanbases much bigger than ours that still have jobs etc when they’re not touring. And to be honest we’re happy to do that too, there’s quite a variety of professions through the band; some of us are still at university and college, whilst others work, like Calum who is a nurse in a Glasgow hospital. I think we all enjoy the other things we do and its good to have other things going on in your life than just your music.
7. Who were your musical heroes growing up?
We actually have a really diverse set of musical histories. Our drummer for example was a heavy metal kid and played in loads of metal bands before joining us. There are some shared loves between all of us though, bands like Arcade Fire and the Flaming Lips that we all like. I think its the mix of interests and influences between us that makes our music so interesting.
8. Namecheck one other “unknown” band you would love to see having large success.
One of the bands that supported us at the album release show, The Great Albatross, are a band that we all absolutely love (not that we don’t also love Sink Ships). We were able to support them at the Glad Cafe a while ago, and we also played XpoNorth with them last year. They’re a great group of guys and their music is absolutely fantastic. We were so happy to be able to get them to support us at the show and we all really hope that more people can discover them, they really deserve success.
9. Is there a venue somewhere that you would love to play most of all?
I think we’ve all grown up seeing bands at the Barrowlands, which is one of the best venues around. I think thats the dream of almost any Glasgow band to be able to play that venue. So many incredible bands have played there and we all personally have been to some of our favourite gigs there. It’s a big step up but definitely it’d be a dream come true for all of us to play there.
10. What can we expect from SSS during 2016 and beyond and what are you most looking forward to?
We’re really looking forward to playing the Kelvingrove Bandstand in August. It only got done up a few years ago and we can all remember walking past it when it was still a bit disused and talking about how awesome it would be to play a show there. We’re playing there on August 12th as part of the Electric Honey sessions and that should be a really fun day. Beyond that we’ll be setting up a tour to support the album once its had a bit of time to make it out there and settle. We’ve got some festivals etc to look forward to over summer as well and we’re also very keen to start recording some new stuff again as soon as possible. We promise it won’t take as long to get the next batch of music as it took to get this one!
The band’s debut album ‘Reduce To Dust’ is out now.
More at www.facebook.com/sunshinesocial