For their second time performing in Dublin, four-piece rock band Sunset Sons have gone from their headline set in Whelan’s back in May to supporting Imagine Dragons in 3Arena. The intervening time has seen them busy touring and recording their debut album. The band – made up of vocalist Rory Williams, bassist Pete Harper, drummer Jed Laidlaw and guitarist Robin Windram – sat down with GoldenPlec to discuss the band’s beginnings, touring and embracing social media in today’s music industry.

Having met in Hossegor in the South of France through a series of coincidences, the four of them decided to start making music together. Their own musical tastes didn’t interfere too much with what they were making. Ranging from Oasis to Nirvana to Bruce Springsteen (incidentally, the last time Windram visited Ireland was to catch Springsteen at the RDS) and some more metal influences, each member has their own preferences. “There’s many similarities in what we listen to,” says Windram, “but then it goes off on a tangent. Everyone has their own style.”

Harper agrees. “We all like the same basic music, The Stones and The Beatles… Melody is important, we’re not scared of a big chorus.”

Once a band was in the works, coming up with a name wasn’t something they worried too much about, although it’s a difficult thing to do – they said that at the end of the day it wasn’t the most important thing. It was Laidlaw who eventually coined Sunset Sons. “I thought that we needed a name that made us sound like a gang and yeah… I don’t know where it came from. I wrote “Sunset” down one day because of where we live and stuff and thought that it was a bit cheesy, but I wrote a load of names next to it and ended up with that one.”

It took a while to convince the others, but they’re all happy with it now.

 

Up until now, Sunset Sons have four EPs to their name, but they’re eager to get their debut album out. With it nearly finished, the band are set to apply the final touches after this tour ahead of a March 2016 release date. The boys reflect on the difference between this recording process and those of the EPs. “The first EP we did we did in under a week, four days. Which was crazy." Williams explains, "Each EP we’ve done we’ve had a little bit more time, a bit more money going into it. We keep saying the album is our baby, we want it to be the best we can put out. Half way through the year we wrote a bunch of new songs. We weren’t completely finished with the album so we recorded these tunes and now we’ve just got a list of about 16-18 tunes that we’re gonna [sort through].”

Thematically, the band try to stick to what they know, writing about their lives and experiences. As Williams says, “We don’t try and go off on a tangent and write about things we’ve never experienced or done. It seems a bit silly to sing songs and perform about something that have never happened to us.”

The Imagine Dragons tour is the first support slot Sunset Sons have done, and after the release of the album they’ll be off on a tour of their own. They discussed how in some ways support tours bring with it more pressure because you are trying to win people over, but then on the other hand at headline shows there are higher expectations. But as far as supporting bands goes, Sunset Sons have been delighted with the reception and it’s making them more excited for their own tour. “Last night in Belfast was amazing,” says Laidlaw. “From the minute we got on you could just tell that everyone in the building was so up for it. You can feel that, it’s so tangible.” In other words, you know in the first song if the crowd is going to be into it and if it’s going to be a good show or not. But if there’s not that moment?

“It’s quite nice to have the challenge,” says Williams. “We started playing in France, and they’re a tough crowd! One of first ever shows we played, we didn’t think the response was amazing and this guy comes up and goes ‘man, that was amazing!’ And we were like ‘really?’ and he was like ‘yeah’.” It was at the Quicksilver Boardrider’s Office so everyone gets two free drinks on a Thursday and he was like “they bought a third one!” So that’s the benchmark!

When Sunset Sons were nominated for the BBC Sound of 2015 it was a real “kick up the arse.” as Laidlaw says, “ we didn’t really know what it was. Then we looked a bit more in depth at some of the other bands that have come through it.” (James Bay, SOAK, Wolf Alice and Years & Years also made the list).

 Pretty much straight away, Sunset Suns noticed a difference in attendance at their shows. It’s a big jump from the bands’ early touring days. “When we came to the UK for the first time,” Williams explains, “we’d only been playing shows in France, in our little town to our mates. So branching out to playing UK shows you’re thinking “will anyone show up?” and people were showing up and we were like “oh, okay, cool.” We knew going to Europe would be the starting ground again but the response we got was way bigger than what we’d had the first time in England.”

Now, as Sunset Sons are gearing up to their next headline tour, the anticipation for the tour is unlike anything they’ve experienced before, with people buying tickets and posting about it online. The band don’t shy away from social media, with the attention online growing at an “incredible rate” over the course of this tour. “It’s really important,” says Windram “you can’t ignore it. You can either go against it or go with it and we’ve kind of jumped on board and gone with it.” For Laidlaw – the appointed “insta-man” of the band – the ability to actually talk to fans on social media is something he loves. “I have this running game where any time I’m just sitting in the van or whatever I’ll go through messages and people who have like hashtagged us or taken pictures of us and I’ll just like them, and then people screenshot that and are like ‘oh my God, you liked my picture’ and then I’ll like it again and it just keeps going. We won’t talk to fans one on one and have an in depth conversation but like if they ask us a question we’re not too cool to respond… We’re not Prince!”

It may seem a bit relentless, but Sunset Sons aren’t about to start complaining. “It gets called a ‘job’,” says Williams, “because you tour so much, and the last eighteen months have been hectic… but it’s not a job. We have the privilege of touring around. “

With a 2016 looking like an even more hectic year for Sunset Sons, the band plan to end the year with a little downtime. As Williams explains, ‘Home’ is “a tiny little town, so trying to keep away from each other is impossible! We’re all gonna go away for a while. It’ll be one of those things that I guarantee after two weeks of not seeing the boys I’ll just wanna be playing shows again. Which will be cool, so after a month we’ll probably just be hugging each other!”