In Conversation With #138 - ONLY SUN
Creating their distinct blend of electro indie-pop ONLY SUN have carved their sound from endless experimentation. These efforts have resulted in the groups debut album ‘Tangled Mind’ a whirlwind of sound that pulls you through an all-encompassing journey of mental health. We sat down with lead singer Euan Bryden, to give some more insight into the group's inner workings.
Hi Euan! How are you doing?
Hello! I’m good, life’s just a bit manic at the moment. We’re just getting stuck into the album release, getting all over social media. It's crazy. Like, I seem to spend all my time on Tik Tok which is quite funny! But it’s all for the album to land as well as possible.
How did you guys get started? How has your sound progressed since then?
We’ve been together for 10 years ago this year! Taylor, Abed and Ed were in a pop punk band, and myself, Ed and Abed were in an indie band called Havana. We used to make little demos and play shows out in High Wycombe. But then we reformed as Only Sun in the first in our first year of uni, maybe like seven years ago. It was then we started taking it seriously. It just sort of went from there! So, it's been a long time, which is a bit crazy. I feel like all of our previous work has just been practice for our new album up until this point.
I think over the years, we played a lot of lighter stuff. But as we've developed, it's gotten heavier. I sort of describe our sound now as being a mixture of friendly indie pop, with a sort of whiplash of heavier elements thrown in, just to keep everyone on their toes. When you're starting out, everyone always tells you to find your own sound. But what does that even mean? Your sound develops from playing shows, seeing what people react to, and seeing where you get energy from when in the studio and writing. A bands ‘sound’ really comes out of that.
It’s been a long road, and we haven't been pushed in any certain direction by any outside forces, so we can choose exactly what we want to do. It feels a lot more organic, because we’ve built ourselves up, brick by brick.
Congrats on your album! How was the process of making it?
We started conceptualising the album 2019. Taylor started to write instrumentals and started sending hundreds of demos through to my WhatsApp. I’d gradually listen to all of them and start writing vocals, so in the end we had up to 25 demos ready to go. Then eventually we got together as a band and whittled them down. Some of the demos that we dropped I absolutely loved, but they just didn't feel right with the mood of the album.
We wanted it to be a summer 2020 release originally, but we had to push it back. The original delay was due to writing concerns, but then Coronavirus happened so we pushed it back to May. But it's crazy because sometimes we listen through the old demos that we've made for the like, the original release date and it's completely different. It’s incredible how much lockdown did for us in that sense, it improved the quality of the album so much. I'm just so excited, because I think it's the best thing we've ever made. And the best thing that I've personally ever been involved with.
25 Demos!? How did you choose which ones to put on the album?
It was a lot! Over three weekends, where we went into our studio with our producers and engineer Tom Miller, and played through the tracks. We all threw our ideas into the mix, and eventually came up with a voting system to decide the tracks that we wanted to keep. It just came to sort of a perfect compromise. God bless the algorithm, very diplomatic.
We always thought that it'd be nice to do little off cuts at some point. Hopefully, it would be pretty cool.
What are some of the running themes throughout the release?
The overall concept for that album is mental health. Around about the time that we were writing, I was going through a really, really rough time, and only just learning that the things affecting me were proper disorders, rather than just feeling bad.So, each of the tracks is a different of a snapshot in time, that all come together form this image of a tangled mind. It's like a patchwork quilt of a brain trying to figure itself out.
It’s funny how relevant it’s become. But I like to think that a lot of people can relate to the feelings expressed on the record, or it could help them figure out some of their own emotions. Have a sort of visceral experience of it.
That sounds amazing, it seems like you really had to tap into your emotions! What is your song writing process like?
Lyrically I can't sort of write from a feeling that I don't feel strongly. But I think that for that album, I just sort of sat in my emotions and just wrote from there. I really enjoyed making it poetic in that sense, because you can create metaphors and similes that just haven't been done and haven't been seen before. I think a lot of younger bands, us included, fall into the trap of trying to write something that sounds cool, and I don't think that's necessarily the right thing. Writing from that honest and open standpoint is the best way to create music that’s authentic to you.
I had a lot of influences musically as well, like The Wombats. EverythingEverything is one of my biggest influences, I love the way they create music. They’re vocals take melodies that could be quite pedestrian and just transform them. If I'm given a blank demo, I nearly always come up with quite a normal vocal line and try and wrap it into the weirdest vocal line I possibly can. They definitely serve as inspirations when it comes to that.
You guys have quite a history, what advice would you give to younger artists?
Just get out there and play shows! Whenever you can, wherever you can. When we were young, we took every single show that we possibly could. It was absolutely. horrific at points, but it really helps you sort of learn what you like to do and who you are as artists. I don't think that we'd be the same band, as we are today. If we hadn't rocked up an empty venue after five hours of driving. It really helps you hone your craft and decide what you want to do. Also write about what you want to write about. Because there's so many bands out there that just write what sounds cool, and that doesn’t get you so far.
Finally, what are some of your goals for the future?
So obviously, at the moment we’re pushing this album as hard as we can. But as soon as we can organise a show in any city in the UK I would like to, and to have it packed and to have people going crazy to our music. We’re so close now, that's my dream. It's a good dream.
Feature by Lily Blakeney-Edwards