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Sunsplit - Running After You
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Sunsplit's
beautiful album,
 'Sing For Sunday'
can be purchased from apolloaudio.com
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 Sunsplit is a little American gem we all needed to discover and cherish.
And now we can thanks to their debut album ‘Sing For Sunday’.
In their fervent quest to be able to express themselves and stay true to that most alluring of music scene, psychedelic/ shoegaze rock, band founders, couple Aislinn and Ryan Van Kriedt, befriended a well established like minded band, psych rock giants Asteroid #4, no less, and decided to move from Oakland to Philadelphia [that’s 2507 miles] to join aforementioned group and poach a couple of its members in the process, as you do!
That will be guitarist Scott Vittorelli and drummer Adam Weaver.
Maybe thinking that this wasn’t enough talent under one rehearsal studio’s roof, they also recruited in demand bass player Chris McAllen from fellow psychedelic outfits The Lilys and The High Dials.
I meet the love birds in Northampton where they are officially part of the A#4 and I am officially on duty interviewing the East coast sextet.
Two interviews for the price of one journey? I just couldn’t resist.
Greedy or unselfish, you decide!
 Florence: Sunsplit is a relatively new project and you are also newly based in Philadelphia, aren’t you?
Aislinn: We are originally from Oakland, California but we moved to Philly about five months ago to join Asteroid #4 and have them back us up! Join forces, so to speak.
Florence: What’s so special about these guys that you’d want to leave sunny California?
Aislinn: The two bands found each other on Myspace and then we all met at a December Sound’s show and we really hit it off.
Florence: This is a beautiful love story and I do understand why you would want to cross the country to work with Scott and his band mates.
Aislinn: We were very frustrated by the music scene in San Francisco.
There are some good bands like LSD and The Search For God, The Skygreen Leopards, The Otherside...but really there isn’t a lot going on there. There is a huge 80s Electroclash crap scene that just wasn’t for us. People in San Fran are just not going to shows.
Ryan: One day we met Martyn Fenwick through Bobby Martinez from The Pandas and he brought us up to Scotland, in the country side, so we could write and record our debut album, ‘Sing For Sunday’.
 Aislinn: We lived about thirty minutes outside Glasgow for about four months, in a house with nothing around for miles and miles.
Florence: Was it fun?
Ryan: It was a lot of fun but it also drove me insane.
All work and no play makes Ryan a dull boy!
Aislinn: We recorded half the album in Scotland and the other half back in our one bedroom apartment in Oakland.
Ryan: While we were in Scotland we met Philadelphian bands Mazarin and The Cobbs who were on tour and came to stay with us.
Aislinn: It’s a very small world. All of a sudden we met all these amazing bands from Philadelphia over a four months period and we were really blown away by all their music. Originally we thought that we’d move to LA but after that we decided to move to Philly instead.
Florence: Are things much better for you now?
Aislinn: It’s amazing. It’s nice to have Scott and Adam, from Asteroid #4, nearby.
Ryan: And we have this amazing warehouse space to work from.
Aislinn: Everybody really supports each other there like if you need someone to go on tour. All the Philly bands are like one big family which is great because we’ve hardly been around.
Florence: Tonight you are on stage as part of the Asteroid #4, but tell me about your own gigs.
Ryan: We haven’t even played live yet and the first Sunsplit show will be right when we get back from this tour. June 2nd and then in July we are playing with A#4 and The Lovetones.
Aislinn: So far it was just the two of us writing, recording and playing everything on the album.
Florence: That just cannot translate live...
Aislinn: Exactly! We needed to put a band together. In California we were trying a lot of different stuff but there just wasn’t that big enough a scene to have the people that really were like minded for what we were going for. It’s just perfect for us to be in Philadelphia and fit in.
Florence: After your spell in Scotland, your debut album is now completed. Do you have a release date for us?
Ryan: No because we don’t have a label!
Aislinn: I guess that it has been officially released on Apollo Audio but it’s just digital.
Florence: How would you describe your record?
Is there a recurrent theme?
 Ryan: It’s mostly just songs about us, our past, our relationship and our drug habits!
Aislinn: And love.
Florence: So it’s autobiographical and very personal?
Aislinn: Absolutely! It’s definitely very intimate.
Ryan: Some of it pays homage to our influences like Phil Spector, Jesus And Mary Chain... It’s actually a wide variety of styles, from shoe gaze to a kind of electrified folk.
Aislinn: We get a lot of references from The Jesus And Mary Chain, even though what we do doesn’t sound like that. Every time someone reviews our songs they will mention it.
Florence: I’m sure you’re happy with that!
Are you being influenced/ compared to anyone else?
Aislinn: My Bloody Valentine, Telescopes, probably because we’re singing together like old Telescopes’ stuff.
Florence: As far as the subject matter is concerned would you want to carry on on that path with your next album or do you feel that this subject has been covered and exhausted?
Ryan: It depends on whatever comes out but we do have a goal of not making it as sonically complicated as this record. Without so many overlaying harmonies and something that can actually be performed live.
Aislinn: Some songs have very simple drums, in a Velvet Underground kind of way and some other tracks have very complicated drums and it’s very arranged.
Florence: How long have you been working on this album?
Ryan: About a year. It’s just a selection of a few songs. We have recorded about twenty more.
Florence: You are now part of A#4 and your own band includes Adam and Scott. It’s a testimony to your close bond, if slightly incestuous, but how does it affect you artistically?
Aislinn: It’s great and what’s great about being in these two bands is that we’re all really influencing each other in ways that are pulling us up, musically. Lyrically and emotionally Sunsplit will always be about what is going on in our lives because this is what we draw from, what we feel compelled to express. However I would like to do more as a full band and make the most of everybody’s influence.
Florence: This tour is almost over but how did you feel about being here in the UK?
Aislinn: It’s been a dream come true being here and I feel that people really appreciate what we do. There is more of an audience here and people research bands more.
I just wish that people would embrace more honest, heartfelt, ‘from the soul’ music in mainstream culture because I really think that it can enhance your life, your views and open up your mind. I feel that it deals with deeper issues and deeper emotions...not to get too cheesy about it!
Florence: European fans are more passionate. I should know I’m one of them!
Aislinn: They are way more passionate about, at least, our music scene.
Ryan: Some kids last night drove all the way from Swansea to London!
Florence: Yep that’s about right!
Aislinn: They drove four hours to see the Asteroid #4, even got a hotel room. We’re so humbled by that and it really means a lot to us.
We can’t wait to come back.
I hope that this kind of behaviour will catch on in The States!
Florence: A message to the world maybe?
Aislinn: I think that we need to get back to ‘make love not war’!
Ryan: The war is over if you want it.
Words: Florence ACHERY
www.sunsplit.com
www.myspace.com/sunsplit
www.apolloaudio.com
Editor’s last word: Sunsplit are back in the UK and hopefully Europe at the end of August. You’d be foolish to miss them! |
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