Interview with Chris Burney of The Sun -by Nikki Neil

Meet Chris Burney (vocals/ guitar) Bryan Arendt (guitar), Sam Brown (drums), and Brad Forsblom (bass) – a garage rock four-piece whose slick, gritty style reflects a passion for music and a hunger for the road. Collectively they are known as The Sun, and they march to the beat of their own drum. Their motto is “One Tour Forever” and their music resonates with warm tones and reverb fuzz. Clocking in at just under twenty minutes the group’s Love & Death debut EP (Warner Bros) dishes up an addictive blend of raw indie rock and well crafted, noisy pop that is as clever as it is catchy.

So you were in New York during the Grammies. Did you go to any parties?

We went to one.

Any highlights?

Cyndi Lauper.

Cyndi has highlights?

(laughs) We met Dianna Ross and our bass player ejected Kid Rock from his seating position. He snuck right in there and then told him to take a fuckin’ hike.

Now that is a perfect way to get on Mr. Rock’s good side. Hope you weren’t planning on touring with him any time soon.

Yeah, really. .

Is it true that you guys completed the EP in one weekend?

Yeah we did. It was amazing. Jay Bennett was on the ball. He is the über producer extraordinaire for the next decade.

Did he lock you guys in a room and tell you that you couldn’t leave until you were finished?

Basically. It was nuts.

Were you tempted to tweak completed tracks or did you leave them as is?

We tweaked it out. It was mixed by this guy named Mickey Petralia. He did a super good job. We had to have Mickey mix the album because Jay had to go on tour. We had a week long mix session after we recorded the album.

The band’s sound is very indie in nature, did you find it kind of odd that none of the indie labels were interested in what you were doing but the major labels were?

My ideals as a person are more in line with an indie, but the songs - - basically, they are just pop songs. I didn’t know. They were just songs that I always write. I didn’t know who liked them and who didn’t. I sent them to indies and they were like, “Uh, we’ll pass. Thanks”. So I was just going to do it myself and somehow Warner got involved. I made a deal with the devil.

The songs on the Love & Death EP (Warner Bros) have a very vintage feel to them. How did you achieve that sound?

That was Jay’s doing. We really wanted warm tones. We all have a philosophy and a definite idea of how we want things to sound and Jay is really aligned with that. We used really nice, warm, beautiful things to record with. Jay had all the perfect stuff to record us.

Do those vintage tones come through in your live show?

Oh yeah. We use crazy-ass tube amps and stuff.

Are you guys planning to release a full-length album in the near future?

We might release some old demos to fill the time frame. We have 40 songs recorded. We just have so much stuff. The whole process of piecing together the record will be fun.

What kind of album are you looking to make?

We’re probably just going to try to record 20 songs. We were told that we have to make a legendary record and nothing less will be accepted. We don’t know what that means exactly.

That is a lot of pressure.

It is. I don’t know how to react to something like that.

Are you writing songs while you are on the road?

We’re constantly writing. It’s a constant exercise. I really love to write. I hope to be a real writer some day. I want to write books and stuff. So this is kind of like the first step. You learn the revision process. You learn how to write a song.

What kind of stories would you like to write?

I don’t know yet. The songs are nice medians for writing because you have such a short amount of time that you can keep your ideas pretty simple and pure. I’m excited about getting into ideas further—to really expand on the stories that I’m trying to write in songs.

When did you learn to play upright bass?

I was classically trained and I was in orchestras and stuff when I was a kid.

Is it more difficult than playing an electric bass?

It is just different concepts in terms of what types of music you’re playing and what you want to accomplish. It’s just a different palette for your paints. It’s really not much harder at all.

So what do you enjoy more, singing or playing bass?

I enjoy just making music and bringing to life whatever idea I have in my head

I hear that you went to Ohio State. What was your major?

I just went to college because I thought it was what you had to do. And then one day I said, “Why am I in school? I like to play music.”

Do you think you will ever go back and complete your degree?

I’m definitely going to go back to school, but I won’t go back to Ohio State. I’m going to try to find something else. Ohio State is great and all, but a lot of kids don’t go there to learn. It is a difficult environment to learn in.

It’s all about football and frat parties?

Yes.

Carlos Avendano was involved in the beginning stages of The Sun. How come he is no longer in the band?

Carlos is like deathly ill. Carlos is a mysterious young man who is prone to falling sick then coming up with a genius record and feeling better.

Is he doing anything musically or is he too sick to do anything right now?

Right now he is too sick to move out of bed. He is on medication and he has a couple of doctors who are working on him and trying to get him better.

So all you can do is hope for the best

Yeah.

The other members in your band are from other projects. Are they still committed to those projects?

Sam is in a band called New Bomb Turks and they are pretty much done. They are going to do one more show over in Sweden and that is about it. They aren’t going to release any more records.

I’m very familiar with NBT. They haven’t really officially announced that they were breaking up.

Yeah, but they are pretty much done. They had an amazing run, and Eric wrote some genius songs.

And you? Do you plan to continue to record with other musicians like you have in the past or do you plan to just concentrate on The Sun?

We’re definitely going to just concentrate on The Sun. I might sneak off and make a folk record with Tim Easton some day, but that is way down the line. Easton is doing great. He just got four stars in Rolling Stone.

How do you all function together as a unit? In the video you guys joke around a lot but you seem to get the job done.

Being in a band is always an exercise in patience. You’re forced to spend 8 hours a day with the same people in a space the size of a bathroom. So it is always an exercise in patience and meditation.

What are the collective goals of The Sun?

We just want to make the best records we can. Obviously, the goal is to try to make the art even within the commerce realm, which is difficult. Finding the balance is difficult.

Since you are into writing stories, what inspires your lyrics? Are your songs based on fact or fiction?

A mixture of both. As far as emotions and feelings go, I write what I know. But as far as stories go, I like the fact that you can make up anything -- anything humanly possible. I’ve been reading a lot. I’m a constant reader. I’m obsessed with it. I’ve picked up some really cool books lately. I’ve been reading Anton LaVey’s stuff. The Satanic Bible

I did a report on the Satanic Bible back in Junior High. The philosophy behind it all is very interesting.

Really?

Yeah. It was for an honors class and I was into death metal at the time. It was very interesting to get the insight on what their perspective on life is - the whole concept of self and selfishness.

It’s just the fact that you can have whatever worldview you want. It’s not a matter of “Oh, I’m a Satanist.” It’s just cool to read other people’s ideas. Especially, people who want to think that freely and challenge things because we need it right now. It is pretty impressive lately, as far as free thought goes.

So what do think about all the controversy with Iraq and North Korea?

I’m a revolution, kind of social democracy now person. If there is ever an American Renaissance it could be such a powerful thing because as a nation we are just in our infancy. Our empire is trying to expand as far as it can go. Like this imperialist nation as a country is going to sink back into itself. It might spark something like an American Renaissance.

You commented in an interview that L.A. bands should leave Los Angeles, why so?

Because L.A is not quite the real world. If you’re a band in L.A. who is trying to make music just to get famous then why are you making music? If your end goal is fame or wealth is that any reason to truly make art? Do you make art or do you make music because you have to? I’m not saying every band should leave Los Angeles. But, you need to get out of that city if that is the only place you have ever experienced because it is so cool that we can move freely across this giant country, which is so diverse and so beautiful and there is so much to see. Every band should get out of their hometown.

[At this point the call got dropped and I was unable to reconnect with Chris. Damn Cell phones. For more on the sun visit www.thesunband.com]