Shoegaze is a term that is loved as much as it is hated. The term started in the late eighties/early nineties, due to the increased use of guitar pedals by indie bands who would spend the majority of their time staring at their feet while creating all manner of mind-bending sounds. It became a dirty word, and the collective bands that fell under the umbrella would become known as ‘the scene that celebrates itself'. In 2016, it still has that stigma, but some bands, such as Salt Lake City newcomers No Sun, seem to embrace it.
“I mean, the shoe fits (gazes) for us,” laughs guitarist Ben Finley. “I don’t really mind having the label attributed to our band because it’s probably the least-wrong genre to place us. It can be such a vague and lazy descriptor, though. I think it’s pretty similar to how a few years ago, every band was being labelled as an emo band just because they had a couple sad songs and listened to Sunny Day Real Estate once when they were 15. Now it’s really en vogue to call any band that sometimes uses a fuzz or a reverb pedal a shoegaze band.”
He’s not wrong. When you think of shoegaze in its “traditional form”, the names My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Ride, and Cocteau Twins are some that come to mind. Now, it’s so broad in its use that just about any band gets thrown into the mix for having even the slightest dreamy tone to their music. “It seems like we get compared to MBV or Slowdive more often than not,” continues fellow No Sun guitarist, Jordan Strang. “It’s really flattering in the sense that those are bands we really look up to. We try to play as loud as possible, and I think the wall of sound vibe we try to achieve is something people find relatable to bands like that.”
The influence of those bands can heard all over their forthcoming debut album, ‘If Only.’ It is glorious, hypnotic, uplifting, and sombre. While Finley admits “there are certainly many Creation Records circa 1992 influences all over the place,” but they haven’t necessarily inspired ‘If Only.’ There is a much more dynamic range than one sound to No Sun, and even though it has guided them in a certain way, they are not your average shoegaze band.
“I’ve listened to all those classics countless times and, when you do that, a few things become second nature to the way you play guitar,” continues Finley, ”like the use of the tremolo arm and alternate tunings. Doing those things can take you to a really cool, familiar place. From there, we add all our other influences around the music to create something new. The sound of those bands is really something special for me. I really love how they can sound so sweet and innocent and also violent and harsh at the same time. Like everyone else, hearing ‘Loveless ‘for the first time changed my trajectory as a person. That rabbit hole lead me to [Swervedriver album] ‘Mezcal Head’, which may be my favourite album of all time. Although people may disagree, I hear way more of our Smashing Pumpkins and Failure influences in our music than the core shoegaze bands.”
‘If Only’ follows on from the band’s debut EP, ‘Warm’, in late 2015. Strang explains how No Sun essentially started as a bedroom project in the early stages, after he spent time playing drums in hardcore and metal bands. No Sun was his chance to push his own writing to the forefront. “I wrote and recorded a three song demo in Garage Band on my phone shortly after moving to Salt Lake City a few years ago,” he reflects. “I had never been much of an acoustic songwriter, and I had always imagined the songs as more than just acoustic demos. I asked a few friends at the time if they wanted in shortly after dropping the demo, including our current bassist Tyler. We all came from the hardcore scene previously, so this was a really exciting project for all of us, being able to play types of music we had never played before.”
“We recorded an EP that never saw the light of day, as our line up was currently fluctuating which caused our sound to change,” he continues. “Eventually our drummer Matt joined, and then came Ben, at which point we solidified our line up. The four of us recorded ‘Warm’, which came out on San Francisco’s Don’t Look Down Records. We did two short West coast tours surrounding the release, having already recorded our debut LP ‘If Only’ around the time that ‘Warm’ was released.”
No Sun have now joined the expanding family over at New York-based independent label, The Native Sound. Initially, the band were set to work with Mayfly Records, which gave them a deadline to work to when preparing ‘If Only’. However, the label had to take an indefinite hiatus. Strang explains that regardless of that, No Sun “owes the label a lot”, and the pressure to write and record helped the band focus on what they wanted to achieve from with a full-length, and had that not have happened, ‘If Only’ may have wound up as an entirely different entity.
“With our record already sent off to the pressing plant and a tour quickly approaching, we found ourselves unsure of what to do next,” he says, looking back on how they came into contact with The Native Sound. “I reached out to some friends and people that I thought might be interested in putting it out. One of the people I reached out to was King Woman/Miserable front woman Kristina Esfandiari. No Sun had played a show with Miserable in September, and we’ve kept in touch since.
“After explaining our situation to her, she recommended that we try and work with Julio at The Native Sound, continues Strang. “She basically made it all happen, and we are incredibly grateful to her for her support. She showed Julio our record and four days later I got a phone call and the two of us hashed out the details. It’s been an incredibly positive experience ever since, and we honestly couldn’t be happier about it. We’re very happy to be a part of a label that works so hard for the bands on their roster.”
Listening through ‘If Only’, the pressure that was placed upon them, and self-assured feeling that shines from the incandescent glow of the album’s core, has given way to a concise and cohesive record. “I think it’s a little bit like how it takes a director a film or two to really figure who they are,” says Finley of the growth between their EP and album. “The confidence for us stems from this iteration of the band being, and playing, together for longer. I joined only a couple months prior to recording ‘Warm.’ Following its completion, we got a much better understanding of what our band was.
“The EP is a pretty conservative representation of what we sounded like at that time,” he continues. “That’s not really a knock on it, I just don’t think we all had the same idea about what kind of band we wanted to be. We all felt it was the logical next step to get heavier and dreamier. ‘If Only’ was finished under tight time constraints, but I feel like we definitely came up with our best work to date under the pressure.”
Within the album, Strang uses the band to channel his own emotions. He explains how he pulled from his own personal experiences when writing ‘If Only’, and touches on a number of subjects rather than a central theme. He explains that it “mostly leans toward introversion and existential doubt, coping with depression and anxiety, and falling in love.”
As the release of ‘If Only’ approaches, arriving at the start of 2017, No Sun are already thinking about their future post release. “As far as the big picture goes, the ultimate plan is to continue writing records and tour as much as possible,” says Strang. “I feel like there are plenty of different sounds on ‘If Only’ when listened to from front to back, and I’m sure we’ll keep writing that way. As far as the here and now, we’ll be doing a lot touring in 2017 and probably record a new record. It seems like there has been a lot of momentum building lately. We hope to keep building upon that and growing as a band as much as possible.”
Circling back to the shoegaze tag one final time, and in answer to the question of what No Sun plan on doing to stand out in today’s climate, Finley offers one final insight into their action plan: “We’re going to kick your fucking teeth in, softly.”
‘If Only’ is released on January 20th via The Native Sound, and is available to pre-order now.