A Chat With Sunsleep About Inspirations, A New Album, And More
Hi Devin,
Firstly, congratulations on the new album, Terrible Things! It is such an exciting accomplishment, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to hear about the process behind it. I've put together a few questions that I think will give readers a deeper look into the creative journey and inspiration of the record.
Can you share the story of how this project first came to life and what sparked the inspiration behind it?
Certainly! Terrible Things wasn’t really going to be an album at first. I started working on some demos right after the release of the 1st Sunsleep record, “Moonlight Euphoria” and have always been consistent with writing / producing and keeping ideas flowing. I just planned on releasing a handful of independent singles at first, then more songs started to develop, and eventually had a vast amount of songs, somewhere in the ballpark of 20-30 ideas, and filtered them down into an album.
Did the album end up the way you originally envisioned, or did it evolve in unexpected ways? Did you have any obstacles along the way?
Yeah, as I started honing in on more stylized material, I knew that the album needed to have a consistent theme to it sonically and lyrically. I really enjoyed some of the more “dirty” and saturated-sounding elements on songs like “Animal” and “Deadweight” in contrast to brighter synthwave-inspired stuff like previous Sunsleep material, “Moonlight Euphoria” and “Dive”. I think Terrible Things really showcases the strengths of genre fusion between driving Brit-inspired rock and smooth R&B elements. I have been super into bands like “Nothing But Thieves" and “The 1975,” and you can definitely hear some of that influence in here on the production side of things. Lyrically, I had been going through a lot of life changes, and it is sprinkled throughout this record as a consistent variable in all the songs, with the loss of love and all the complex emotions that come with that.
I think the obstacles I faced were with writing so much material; I knew that some ideas just weren’t as relevant to the album experience as a whole. You have to be very decisive when it comes to these things, and I really wanted to put out an album that felt like a cohesive experience.
Is there a particular song that feels most personal or meaningful to you? If so, what makes that song stand out to you?
It’s really hard to choose because there are meaningful moments in every song, honestly. If I had to pick one, though, I think “Terrible Things”, the title track, is the most on the nose when it comes to expressing this album and is a big reason I chose it as the album title. It stands out because sonically and thematically, it really hits the mark in my opinion on driving that point of how self-doubt and emotional turmoil can feel like this devastating impact on every aspect of life. We tend to tell ourselves lies about how we deserve all the hurt that transpires in our lives to a degree, and sometimes the demons we face are really a reflection of self-sabotage. It’s a song about power in realization that maybe those monsters are only as big and scary as we make them out to be in our minds.
What do you hope listeners feel or experience when they listen to the album for the first time, and what do you think will keep them coming back to it?
I think this album is going to challenge my listeners to a degree. It really is the first completely self-produced Sunsleep record as a whole without any outside influences or collaborations. With that being said, there are some changes here and a bit. Terrible Things is a lot less “guitar-driven” than previous material. There is space for things in this album melodically and structurally that a wall of guitar parts isn’t taking precedence over. I know some of my more “Posthardcore” based fans probably aren’t going to be as keen on it at first listen because of this. However, this is still a “rock” record at its core. I think this record opens up the catalog a bit more genre-wise, and those who appreciate what I have done here are going to love it. Most of your favorite albums aren’t “exactly” what you are expecting at first, and I hope this one has that effect on people a bit. It’s an evolution of what has been previously laid out, and you can take or leave it. At the end of the day, I enjoyed creating this album and personally feel it’s one of the most focused pieces of art I have ever put together. That aspect of "challenge" in a record is crucial, in my opinion. There’s no point in doing the same album 5 times over, and I don’t ever aim to do that as an artist.
When it comes to writing music, do you start with the lyrics or music? Walk me through your process a bit.
In simple terms, music arrangement has always come first in all the projects I have been involved in. This album was no different. I am a multi-instrumentalist at my core and have always had a hand in every aspect of instrumentation in Sunsleep since I became involved. I am a songwriter, and everything always starts with a chord progression and a beat that inspires melody. Naturally, most of those arrangements, being a “rock” artist, start on a guitar, but it isn’t always the case in Sunsleep either. Ever since the first EP, songs like “Haze” evolved from synth-based arrangements at first. This record is a bit of all of that. Some songs came together on my acoustic guitar, songs that were written off samples at first. Songs that developed from a melody line that popped into my head in the shower and everything in between. Inspiration utilized has no right or wrong answer. Lyrics and top-line melodies usually take more time to develop for me. I really like massaging out my hooks, and that’s not always a “throw it down” off the top of your head type of thing. Usually, I will write a scratch vocal once the arrangement is there instrumentally and the structure is fully fleshed out on a demo. Then I go back into that scratch vocal and adjust a few transitions that might be more interesting and come up with alternatives. The process of getting really infectious vocals for me is always pretty detailed, and I spend quite a bit of time recording various takes and compiling the best performances into a solid topline.
I know you produced this album yourself, along with the previous record, Moonlight Euphoria. What are the biggest challenges when it comes to producing an album all by yourself?
With any self-produced venture, one of the challenges is being “stuck in your own eco chamber,” as they say. It’s definitely an advantage to have multiple heads to bounce ideas off of in any project. That being said, though the reverse is sometimes too many cooks in the kitchen doesn't always produce the best result. In Sunsleep, my role has always been the bigger picture kind of writer when it comes to songwriting and producing. Even on the earliest stuff, a lot of what I brought to the table in a band situation was cleaning up ideas and making them a bit more focused overall. Moonlight Euphoria was the first album I was doing finals on when it came to production, but I have had my hand in the production of every Sunsleep song since I joined. This album the main difference is that there isn’t that influence of the guys involved in the band on previous albums, of course. Moonlight Euphoria was a mixed bag when it came to ideas. Developing a lot of it was stuff I worked on, then brought to the band, and collaborations happened that way, or when we got together to write specifically for that album, on a few trips they took out to Utah to write with me. Terrible Things, I got to take my time on more so. This didn’t have a hard deadline, and I really wanted to let songs flourish over a few years and come together in a very constructive and focused way. Even though I self-produced this one, I still have my people I was constantly sending rough cuts to for outside perspectives. Just this time, producers and songwriters I have worked with in the past are outside the scope of the “band” relationship.
Did you experiment with any new sounds, instruments, or writing approaches this time around?
One of the more interesting elements I introduced on this album was multiple layers of percussive elements. Striking glass with a pencil on “Animal”, recording various tambourines and shakers on these songs, or stomps and cajons on songs like “Lose Your Love”. I really experimented with extra organic percussive elements outside your traditional drumset to amalgamate an interesting side to the percussion on this album that lives underneath everything and brings out movement and dynamics. I also introduced a handful of organs to back up some of the guitars for a more “soulful” feel as opposed to pads and synths. I had a lot of fun with the automation of time based effects as well. Like pitch shifted delays/reverbs on vocals and formatting the pitch overall as well during transitions for a very different sound you don’t hear on other sunsleep stuff. Also utilized quite a few different sounds on my Fender Acoustasonic throughout this album. It’s a hybrid guitar that has a lot of interesting voicings built into the pickup selection and it definitely provided a new backbone to some of the rhythmic guitar elements.
Now that Terrible Things is out, what is next for you - creatively or personally? Can fans expect a tour for this album?
They can expect more exploration! I always love messing around with new production techniques in my songwriting. One thing I always strive to do is keep things fresh! I am always writing and finding new ways to bring my music to life!