February 17th, 2018 – I used to believe all green rooms had to be green. The one I sat in with Sure Sure last Saturday afternoon was bright banana yellow, an appropriate color for the Los Angeles band, and a nice break from the muted grays of the rainy NYC afternoon outside. Sure Sure’s stop at Brooklyn Steel marked one of many on their Jan./Feb. cross-country trek supporting Hippo Campus. The whirlwind tour followed the release of the band’s self-titled debut album, a record that is as sunny and catchy as it is wistful and transporting. It will either make you want to dance, ponder life, or do both at the same time.
Before Sure Sure played to 1,800 smiling faces down the hall, I had the privilege of chatting with Chris (vocals/keys/synth), Charlie (vocals/guitar), Mike (bass/producer), and Kevin (drums/percussion) over tea and pita chips about the new album, eating well on tour, and performing live. Spoiler alert: They’re all Guy Fieri.
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Hope: When I listen to Sure Sure, it almost feels like I’m flipping through a photo album. Each song has a distinct feeling or memory that goes along with it. What was the writing process for the album like? Did you go into it with a certain vision in mind?
Charlie: It happens pretty randomly. [On “Koreatown”] Chris and I had a late night out in LA which involved a card game of Euchre in a friend’s apartment in Koreatown. The next night we wrote that song. I started playing those chords in that time signature almost immediately, and then the lyrics just kind of happened.
Kevin: [On “Hands Up Head Down”] I made a drum loop half as a joke… as more of a “hey, this would be a cool idea” and then we just ran with it. Every song is different.
Chris: I definitely associate the songs with memories. With “Hands Up Head Down,” we were checking out this band called Superet in LA and we wanted to make something spooky and similar to their music style. I envision spooky sets at the Echo when I hear that song. With “Giants” I envision driving on the 210. There was a lot of stuff happening in my life at the time that I associate with the songs.
Kevin: That’s the transportative quality of music. It was Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes) that was saying that sort of thing, right? For him it was Kid A (Radiohead) or something. That’s how I feel too. I listen to a certain album and I think about being in the backseat of my parents’ car as a child driving up to somewhere for family vacation.
** “Hearing this record for the first time was like hearing about dinosaurs for the first time when you’re four years old.” – Robin Pecknold on Kid A
Hope: Sure Sure was recorded in your house with Mike as the producer/engineer. Was there an intentional decision to keep the process (literally) in-house?
Kevin: Versus paying to go into a studio? We consciously avoided that. If you can seize the means of production, you’re going to have a better time. The flip case is you pay and then you’re on the clock. That’s not how making music should work. Or really any art. Why would there be a time crunch?
Mike: Recording in studios is amazingly fun, but I think there’s something that comes from recording in the space that you’re living in too… when you’re really existing inside of a record for a little while. It blurs the lines between living and working in a way that I think for creative stuff can be really helpful.
Kevin: Also, we’re all very hands-on. I can’t imagine going into the studio and just not having that sort of control. We know how we want things to sound or we want to figure it out for ourselves.
Mike: That’s so important to us.
Charlie: We definitely dream of doing mobile recording. Going to secluded places and recording in the future would be really cool.
Hope: What does performing live mean to you?
Charlie: It means connecting to a lot of people at one time. It’s a pretty surreal experience. It’s a chance to escape your body too… you’re almost not the same person. Not that I want to escape myself, but maybe I do? [Laughter] It’s interesting how all of your bodily needs disappear and you’re just doing a set for 45 minutes.
Kevin: That’s true. I’ve been sick for the better part of this tour, and I feel great anytime we’re playing.
Chris: For me, I like to think about connectedness to the audience and then also hopefully making people feel the way we feel. That’s one aspect of it.
Kevin: Also, sometimes I’ll get nervous in the middle of a song and it’s like a safe haven. I’ll just look at Charlie or Mike or Chris and it’s like “Okay, it’s just us playing.” They look at me and smile or laugh or something and it’s safe.
[On the tribulations of tour]:
Kevin: It’s physically very demanding. It’s mentally very demanding. It’s also just a bizarre way to exist. You can never fully understand what it’s like to tour on your body and on your mind until you actually do it.
Mike: If you do your planning and you know what you’re doing, you know where you’re going… put a good tour book together… plan where you’re going to eat…
Kevin: We will go out of our way to eat well. It’s been fun… like in Kansas we ate at this delicious sandwich shop. If you try, you’ll find that there’s good food everywhere.
Chris: It’s like food tour of America if you do it right.
Kevin: Yeah! We’re all Guy Fieri is what I’m saying.
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Sure Sure will be in Cambridge, MA @ The Middle East (Upstairs) on April 17, 2018. Buy tickets HERE. Connect with Sure Sure @suresuremusic on Twitter and Instagram. Thanks to Chris, Charlie, Mike, Kevin, Austin, Mira, and Brooklyn Steel.
Follow WCHC @wchc881 on Twitter and Instagram .