Q&A with Sure Sure!

 

Sure Sure’s self-titled album is nothing short of cool. Each song somehow makes you feel content and inspired. Taking vintage sounds and making them modern suit these California natives quite well. Start to finish, an album that will surely be on repeat in my house for quite a while. Here’s what the band had to say about the album, inspiration, and future plans!

1.) Opening song, “Giants” is such a fun and relatable tune. What inspired the lyrics?

 “This song burst into existence during a Dungeons and Dragons session in which we were fighting a lot of giants (we are still on the same quest actually…). Mike started playing these really basic chords on a children’s acoustic guitar, and Chris started singing an off-the-cuff melody, and suddenly we were singing ‘Don’t let the water burn you baby…‘ together with our friends Scott and Chase and Hank. The lyrics sort of fell into place after that, taking the form of tongue-in-cheek yet sincere life advice. But the lyrics were also inspired by the feeling of being overwhelmed by the insanity of the world, and the reciprocal feeling of wanting to experience something simple and warm, like the sunlight on your skin or the touch of another human being.

 2.) How would you describe your sound on this album?

 “Warm and crackling and a bit breezy. End of summer/early fall. Sunny Radiohead”  

3.) The vocal unity throughout the album reminds me of the band Chicago. What other artists/bands do you look up to for inspiration? 

 “Nick Drake is a huge inspiration… Tame Impala, Radiohead, Feist, Steely Dan, Anderson .Paak, Talk Talk, Big Thief, George Harrison (and the Beatles of course), Andy Shauf.”

 

 

4.) Piano seems to be coming back in pop, alternative, and even rock music. What’s your opinion on keeping that “band” sound in music?

 “We just got really into capturing organic, acoustic sounds on this record.  This also probably had to do with the fact that we were listening to a lot of folk (Andy Shauf) and old Beatles (Help! / Hard Day’s Night) at the time. We still love synthesizers and modern crisp production, and you can actually hear a somewhat different production style on some of the older tunes on the album like ‘New Biome’ and ‘This Must Be The Place.’  But the bulk of the songs (‘Info Machine’, ‘Foreign Room’, ‘lowlife’, ‘K-Town’, ‘Friends’, ‘Giants’) were written and recorded quickly – each song took about two days – and we captured them in more of that traditional band style with layered acoustic guitars, upright piano, organ, and ukelele.”

5.) What song are you most excited to perform live and why?

“Oh boy… ‘Hands Up Head Down’ has quickly become our favorite on tour with Hippo Campus because we teach everyone the dance move and suddenly a thousand people are dancing like zombies while we play. It positively pops off.

6.) What does 2018 look like?

“Tour! On tour now until end of Feb with Hippo Campus, and then we have our own national headline tour in April/May. Meanwhile we will be recording new material whenever we are home in LA, as well as making live videos in our house. Gonna be a wild year.”

 

For more information on Sure Sure, visit their website!

 

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