SUN CLUB

By Jon Hersh

“Sun Club is a group of buddies playing happy music ” is a surprisingly accurate introduction to this five-piece Baltimore-based group. Playing energetic but light-hearted beat-driven pop, Sun Club have toured constantly in support of their first release Dad Claps at the Mom Prom, playing over 100 shows in the US and Europe in the last year alone. Black on the Canvas caught up with Sun Club over email to discuss, among other things their obsession with the TV show Friends.

INTERVIEW

You guys make being in a band look like the most fun thing possible. How much fun are you guys having right now? What is fun and what isn’t so fun about being in a band?

Sun Club: Fun to hang with the boys roll around town being loud af.

No, I mean, how much fun are you having RIGHT NOW, as you write email responses to this interview?

Sun Club: Soooooooo muchhhhhh funnnnnnnn

What are the origins of Sun Club? If you say anything other than you’ve been best buds since childhood I won’t believe you.

Sun Club: We met a year ago, don’t see each other that often. Don’t really know each other either.

How has Baltimore shaped you as a band? Is there are Baltimore sound or style that we should be aware of?

Sun Club: Baltimore is sik as fuk. Lots of really creative and inspiring people here. we haven’t really been playing locally tons in the past year, but living here and going to all these great shows is super inspiring for us to play musiiic. DIY mentality and lots of awesome big shows with wild music at them.

DC has always seemed to me the proper big brother to Baltimore’s bohemianism. What’s your take on the dynamic between the two cities?

Sun Club: IDK if I would call DC a big brother to Baltimore. Uh DC is cool they have good venues. Obama seems like a pretty cool dude. Baltimore is definitely the place I’d want to live. I’ve never really hung out in DC besides for shows. It’s definitely more proper and IDK if that’s our thing as much.

How did Europe handle Shane’s sexiness? I guess a better way to put that is: you toured Europe! Holy shit! What were some of the highlights?

Sun Club: Lets just say we’re not going back.

JK

Some highlights: Amsterdam we ate chocolate waffles, Brighton we got some sik shoes, London we hung out with the cool frands, Scotland had some sik accents. I think the biggest highlight was the service station on the highway in between Scotland and England. They had a duck pond, this crazy view of mountains, and all this local organic food from local farms. Almost as good at the New Jersey turnpike!

Tell us about your gear setup. How has your sound evolved?

Sun Club: We have a shit ton of different shit. Keep getting louder. It’s messed up.

How should we explain to our readers your obsession with the TV series Friends? Is it one of those things that cannot be conveyed, only experienced?

Sun Club: Kinda just one of us. But dragged all of us into it. Had a long conversation yesterday about what Friends vs. Seinfeld says about a person. I think Seinfeld is better in theory but friends just is so much better and more fun to watch.

The “Beauty Meat” video shows the band swimming in a stream, rolling around in the mud, etc. Is this the band in its natural habitat?

Sun Club: Yes. Out in the woods. In the summer. So nice =)

What are your plans for the summer? More touring?

Sun Club: Probably not actually. We are probably just going to swim a lot. Gonna probably write another new album. Gonna lap ourselves with albums. We have one already recorded but we’ll probably write an entire new one before that comes out.

I look a bit like ‘Ross’. If I dress up like him can I get in free to your shows?

Sun Club: Ross is kinda a dick. You don’t sound like a dick but Ross is a dick.

Jon Hersh does kind of look like Ross, and you can follow him on Twitter. This interview has been lightly edited.

Photo by Pamela Ayala