Interview with Nick Sowersby, a.k.a. Sunbeam Sound
Machine
By Matt Doria [@DEEninetysix]
‘Wonderer’
is the killer debut album from psychedelic pop outfit Sunbeam Sound Machine - a
five-piece powerhouse onstage, but a one-man operation behind the curtains. To
grab all the sweet deets on the new album, we had a chat to Nick Sowersby, the
genius behind Sunbeam Sound Machine!
WickeddChildd
(W): I’m really intrigued by the name Sunbeam Sound Machine… How did you come
up with that?
Nick Sowersby (N): There’s no miraculous
story behind it. It’s just kind of… Words, that I liked. I didn’t want [my band
name] to imply that it was one person or several people or anything, so I just referred
to it as a machine.
W: How
did you get to where you are right now, having just put out your debut album?
N: I had been recording the songs from the
first two years over the last two years, I think, and then when those [EPs]
came out, I joined Remote Control Records. They said they were interested in
putting an album out, and that’s when I got to work on this album, probably in
January of 2014.
W: I
was listening to the record earlier and I have to say, it’s fucking amazing.
It’s so transcendental, I just wanted to close my eyes and fly away to some
mystic dreamland. Is that sort of what you were aiming to create with this
record?
N: Yeah. I want the songs to take you away
and put you in a different headspace. If it does that, than that’s fantastic!
W: Your
sound is very defined by that trippiness and that earthy sound. Have you ever
come across a track and worried that it was too trippy, or not trippy enough?
N: I’ve sort of experienced both. I think
it’s easy, when you put lots of effects on things, to get away from the actual
song. I mean, there’s always a song in the middle of everything, and if I get
too far away from that, I’ll dial things back a bit. But then there’s other
ones where I just think something needs to sound a bit more atmospheric, so
that’s when I’ll start adding more effects to it.
W: What
was the process like bringing all of these pieces together in the studio to
make the album?
N: It was a bit of a challenge, but it was
a really fun challenge. Trying to get all of these songs to work together was
kind of difficult, but just really fun. I guess that working all by myself
means I can work on things whenever, and just take as long as I need to get
things exactly right so they all work together.
W: When
you’re not in the studio, Sunbeam Sound Machine becomes a five-person
operation. How does the live band work, and how are all of those different
elements tackled?
N: It’s two guitars, bass, drums, backing
vocals and samples. It’s a bit tricky with some songs because they’re so
heavily layered, but you give each song a bit of a new life when you start
playing them with other people. You figure out which parts of the song are the
most important ones to play live.
W: Not
too long ago, you jumped onboard the indie label Remote Control Records. What’s
it like being a part of that outlet, and how does your work with them differ
from your independent work?
N: People hear it, that’s the main difference.
They take everything and send it out into the world. They’ve been really
supportive, and they just run a great label.
W: This
is possibly the most cliché and overused question in the world, but I’m going
to ask it anyway - where do you see Sunbeam Sound Machine going in five years
time?
N: I’ll hopefully be a few more albums down
the track. That’s just the main thing for me, getting more songs out there,
more music out there. Hopefully we’ll be touring a bit more, and then we can
take it overseas. That would be amazing.
W: Where
across the world would you like to play the most?
N: I’d really love to play in Japan! I’ve
been there a couple of times. For one, I think it would be a good excuse just
to go back there. There’d be some pretty crazy crowds there as well, so that
would be heaps of fun.
Wonderer is out now via
Remote Control Records
Grab
a copy for yourself here!
