The Sunny Era has been played for decades together. Let that sink in and then check out the upcoming album, The Sky King, with its layered take on love in all tenses. It’s a subtle and dreamy look at a life almost like Ebeneezer Scrooge, but without the evil ghosts or need to repent. Just an opportunity to revisit and let emotions run through you. Album release on June 15 at the Amsterdam Bar.
There’s a melancholy in the songs. It feels like sadness in the rearview rather than straight ahead or in the minute. Can you tell us about the overall theme or story of the album?
The theme of the album is the love you have left behind. People, things, ideas, thoughts, important personal connections that no longer exist, or exist somewhere that is no longer where you are now. The overall theme is a person watching these things float away and drift off to a different time and space, good or bad.
The juxtaposition of The Lifetime and The Second Lifetime is striking. The Lifetime has an exotic haunting feel; The Second Lifetime seems happier and yet haunted in a more definite way. Did you set off to create two songs about lifetime or did one follow the other naturally?
These are two songs that belonged together. I really think we live many lives throughout our lifetime. The Lifetime was written as a first life, dark, raw, telling a story how we thought or think it was. The Second Lifetime becomes a nuanced view on the next steps, when “I was getting old with you” as a metaphor or as a real occurrence with someone or with ourselves. I agree that it is more haunting in a definitive way.
As a band you’ve grown over the years. Has that widened the band or deepened it? Do you have a greater number of influences or strengthen what you already had?
Definitely both. As a band that has been playing for many years together, we all bring our own breadth and depth to rehearsals. We are always bringing music to listen to, some new, some old. I do think we have a greater number of influences but this also strengthens what we have done and continue to do.
The Soliloquy is a gorgeous, emotive song but instrumental. It sets the tone so well. What made you decide to start with a song without lyrics?
I truly believe that music has no boundaries. Lyrics, chord structure, language, culture, sounds, timbre, I could go on. Nothing really matters here but how we feel about it and what it has made us feel in the past. In creating a soundscape with something powerful yet elegant, with the violin on top of the guitar, pounding drums, and theremin, this is always something we love to explore. The juxtaposition of timbre, the theremin playing against a pounding beat with a guitar rocking out off to the side, so interesting to hear how that plays out live and otherwise.
Tell us about the upcoming release show.
We’re at the Amsterdam Bar & Hall on June 15 with Better Years and Brian Just Band. These are two bands that are so wonderful, friends we have had for a long time, and some of the most beautiful people you will meet. Better Years is so expressive with what they do, great guitars that really thrive with the vocal harmonies that they produce. Brian Just Band is a band that I would take with me to a deserted island, it is so Radiation City-esque, tunes that really relax and make you think about how surreal and great life is, calming and peaceful. We can’t wait to share the stage with them!
Mostly Minnesota 