Prolific San Franciscan singer/songwriter Sonny Smith is bringing his Sunsets back to Australia this month to play three East Coast events, beginning with the headline spot at Melbourne Music Week’s Opening Night party. Having released their fourth studio album Antenna to the Afterworld to critical acclaim earlier this year,Sonny And The Sunsetss are set to woo crowds in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with their marvellous, genre-hopping, guitar-driven sound.
Is it correct that the last time you were in Australia was 2011? How did you find that tour? Are you excited to return?
It was like a chapter from a book. I could make a movie of that trip. I remember it vividly; I split some valium with a gal in Sydney and all of a sudden the trees got wooshy, the sidewalk was feeling soft.
Who will form the Sunsets line up that you will be touring with?
Ryan Browne and his cousin Arron Light from Melbourne, Tahlia Harbour, and holograms of past members.
The tour includes some interesting events, not least of which a show at the Queensland Art Gallery in conjunction with their California Design exhibition. What can you tell us about that show?
See the Queensland Art Gallery in a different light when Sonny & The Sunsets play an Up Late Friday night event during California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way, an exhibition of more than 250 iconic designs from mid-20th century California organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Up Late offers a unique opportunity to see the ‘California Design’ exhibition after hours, enjoy live music in the Gallery’s beautiful Watermall and sample from a Californian inspired menu in the surrounds of QAG’s Sculpture Courtyard. Tickets and details here.
I guess you are no stranger to galleries, having exhibited your 100 Records project at a number of galleries in the US in 2010. How did you come up with the idea for that project?
You have these pictures in your mind, you don’t know when it started, a week ago, a month, years? You don’t know what its all about, if it has meaning, you scratch around in the dark for a while, making something, sketches, notes, and something slowly comes into view. That’s about how these things occur.
Was it easy to find artists to contribute the cover art? How did you go about finding your collaborators on the project?
It was easy yeah, great artists are everywhere, and usually one artist led to another and on and on… once it was a project that was larger than myself it was more that i just had to kinda ride it out, try and hold on! like one of them wagon trains from a western and there’s a gunshot and the horses go crazy and there’s arrows flying overhead and the wagon may not make it cause any second those wagon wheels are gonna hit a rock…
Art seems to be a recurring theme, as you will also be speaking on a panel discussing the topic of Music = Art as part of Melbourne’s Face the Music Conference. Are music and writing your only artistic endeavours?
I am working on some film stuff, putting together some short films into a feature length film, that will be attached to some movie posters and shown in a gallery. Somewhat similar to 100 Records but working with short films, and movie posters and musical scores…
You have an enormous body of work behind you, where do you draw inspiration from to produce such a high volume of work?
I can only say that when I am in the middle of something creatively consuming, whether it’s making a record or writing a play or some kind of art project, when I’m up to my chin with it, I feel alive. I feel very complete inside. There may be stress involved but at least I feel human. I can shake hands with a dog and smile at the mailman and so on. When I am not working on stuff I feel very empty, very empty and kind of negative. So I do whatever I can to get myself inside some type of creative act, to feel that completeness, and sometimes you just have to force yourself to get it started, to get it going, ’cause if you sit around and wait to be hit by lightning, that just sucks. You have to court the muse.
Your latest album, Antenna To The Afterworld, is something of a concept album concerning cosmic and psychic themes. Can you tell us a little about the story behind the album?
Not really “concept” like 2112 or something, but yeah, stuff about beings from other planets, cyborgs, death, afterlife, love, searching through the cosmos for stuff. It’s supposed to be a big soup of stuff, not too strict. As for story behind the album? Same as always; being a human, trying to figure it out, love, death, friends, living in the world…
What can we expect in the set lists for the upcoming tour? Will you mostly be playing songs from Antenna… or will there be a mix of all four Sonny and the Sunsets albums? Or maybe even some new material?
Yeah, a little from every record and some new stuff too. I’m working on a song about filling out an application to be a human being. Maybe we’ll have that one in the bag when we get there…
Sonny & The Sunsets 2013 Australian Tour Dates
MELBOURNE: FRI NOV 15 @ MELBOURNE MUSIC WEEK OPENING NIGHT at The Residence w/- The Bats, Boomgates, Montero,Vishnu Keys + DJ Higher Power. Tickets on sale now & selling fast! Doors open 7:30pm.
SYDNEY: THU NOV 21 @ Pop-Friendzzzy w/- Surf City, Community Radio + Adults @ Goodgod. Presented by Popfrenzy. Tickets on sale now.
BRISBANE: FRI NOV 22 @ California Design Up Late. See the Queensland Art Gallery in a different light when Sonny & the Sunsets play an Up Late Friday night event during California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way, an exhibition of more than 250 iconic designs from mid-20th century California organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Up Late offers a unique opportunity to see the ‘California Design’ exhibition after hours, enjoy live music in the Gallery’s beautiful Watermall and sample from a Californian inspired menu in the surrounds of QAG’s Sculpture Courtyard. Tickets and details here.
Sonny Smith will also be a guest speaker at Melbourne’s Face The Music conference, details below:
MUSIC = ART: Saturday 16 November, 12.20 – 1.10pm @ Arts Centre Melbourne. Sonny Smith joins panelists Caroline Kennedy and Darren Sylvester and moderators Simon Winkler & Lauren Taylor to discuss the work of musicians who create art and artists that create music. As a vehicle for expression, can the microphone be replaced by a spray can, a tattoo gun, lasers, lump of clay or a camera? We sometimes see these worlds collide, blur, cross-pollinate at art shows or in elaborate stage shows and sometimes two callings exist in isolation. Presented by Melbourne Music Week and Face The Music. Bookings & further info here.
