The Suncharms kembali dengan album baru setelah jeda 5 tahun dari album terakhir yang mereka rilis. Saya berkesempatan mewawancara Marcus dan berbicara beberapa hal, seperti mengapa butuh waktu yang cukup lama buat The Suncharms merilis debut album penuh mereka, perspektif mereka tentang scene hari ini, dan bagaimana proses pengerjaan album terbaru mereka.
Hello The Suncharms, thanks for letting me make this interview. how are you guys?
We are all very excited to be releasing album 3. We went our separate ways in 1993, so to be back together as a group of friends and being creative is wonderful. It's not often in life you get a second chance, so we are appreciating every moment.
Can you introduce yourself to readers of this blog?
I'm Marcus the singer and tambourine rattler. I live in Sheffield.
Most of people know The Suncharms form since 1991. tell us how it starts and how the scene back then?especially in the UK, where this movement (people always say indie scene) starts.
It started from our bedrooms. Me and Richard (bass player) making compilation tapes as teenagers. Walking everywhere with headphones in, devouring music magazines and seeing bands like McCarthy, That Petrol Emotion, Brilliant Corners in tiny venues in the Sheffield Manchester Leeds. We just said to each other let's form a band. Richard picked up his brothers acoustic guitar which had one string and I started singing along to these simple songs. It just so happened that Richard started Art College where he met Matt, who had a real guitar and amp. Matt then had friends Chris and John who he'd been in bands with before. We started practicing in my parents garage before plucking up the courage to play our first gigs. Quite early on we played at the leadmill opening for the Cranes. The Sheffield scene was very diverse with punk and synth bands. It was only through the NME / music papers that created a national scene calling it Shoegaze and listening to our 90s tracks we had a lot in common with Ride, Pale Saints ,14 iced Bears. We never knowingly copied anyone.
A memorable gig was when we played with the Television Personalities & The Fat Tulips in Nottingham. Lots of Bowl haircuts Chelsea boots and clothes like the Byrds in 1965. I'm still a massive TVP fan. In 1991 there was still people keeping the Anorak / 60s scene going, which I found myself travelling to all these obscure nights.
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Any group who make you think, “okay, we must start a band too”? for example,
like Talulah Gosh they starting the group after seeing The Pastels gig, are you guys had an inspiration like that?
As a teenager the Pastels, McCarthy, Field Mice, the Byrds, the Buzzcocks all went someway to make me want to form a band. The excitement of getting a Sarah Records single posted to you in a padded envelope.
Running for the last bus and sleeping on train station platforms so you could hear a bands last song (missing your train) It was all part of that excitement of discovering music.
However it was probably The Dead Kennedys when I was sixteen that gave me the spirit to try and do and something different.
I really like your split tapes with indonesian band Mirrorlakes through Shinny Happy records.
how did the project finally came about?
We were approached by Eko who runs shiny happy records who asked if we wanted to do the split tape. We are also on two shiny happy compilation albums.
The Suncharms first album was released in 2021 through Sunday Records,
why did it take so long to finally release your first full-length album since you guys starting the band?
In 1992 we went our separate ways. There was no big fallout. We had released two EPs and done a John Peel session. No album had been written as the label also folded (Wilde Club Records). We were approached by Slumberland Records just as we were splitting to release a single. A demo tape we was posted but never arrived. (We had chance to put this right with a single Red Dust in 2018 released on Slumberland Records).
In 2016 Cloudberry Records asked us if we would be interested in releasing our 90s EPs on CD. It was 24 years since the band had been in a room together. We met in a pub and brought along press cutting and photos for the booklet that was accompanying the CD. It was at this meeting that we decided to book a rehearsal room. We haven't stopped writing since. The Distant Lights album is all original new tracks written after 2016.
I really like the new album of The Suncharms, how the process of making this record? can you tell to us?
It usually starts with Matt recording a demo of the track. We then bring all our parts to the track and it usually changes completely from the original idea. It's a very democratic process. This album has strings vintage organs, guitars repaired and played by Matt that he's sourced from Russia. Some from the 60s. We aren't constrained by fashion just add the instruments we like and serve the song, give atmosphere to the lyrics. We've even got a Mellotron on a track.
do you guys make any plan to promote this album? maybe touring around UK?
Not my plans to tour however not ruling out one off gigs.
last question, do you have any suggestion for us bands worth listening to nowdays?
For me you can't go wrong listening to Northern Soul there's always an obscure track that can be your own special find. As for cult bands it'd have to be the West Coast Pop Art Experimental band.
Thanks Marcus for your time doing this interview. Best of luck for the future for you and The Suncharms. x
