In Conversation: Sunglaciers

A few weeks back, Cups N Cakes writer Josalynn Lawrence caught up with Calgary-based experimental rock group Sunglaciers. Their new album Regular Nature, now available for streaming and purchase, is the highly anticipated follow-up to 2022’s Subterreanea. Like their previous output, this new album dabbles in their now-familiar brand of shoe-gazey, post-punk, new-wave; you can hear a little bit of Talking Heads on the fast-paced, frenzied opener “Fakes”, or Beatles-like melodies in the interlude track, “Frog Mask”.When you catch Sunglaciers live, there’s two main things to note:

1. They know how to put on a show. From carefully placed stage lights to perfectly timed musical cues, the band is in a never-ending flow state with their audience. They integrate whatever energy they receive back out into the crowd in a showcase of the band-audience relationship.

2. Their records translate extremely well live. Some tracks, like the latter half of “I Remember The Days” (which they gave a preview performance at this year’s Winterruption Festival in Edmonton, AB) fit the vibe of an open floor venue in ways that were cathartic and energetic.

However, as lead vocalist Evan Resnik notes, Regular Nature’s direction splinters from the anxious production of Subterranea. The band’s signature synth and new-wave production is still there; however, the new album feels more open in scope. There’s no pressure to identify with one overall theme. In certain ways, the album is what the listener makes of it.

Interviewer: Where does the title Regular Nature come from?

Evan: We were on tour. I forget which tour it was. I think it was the first. I think it was the first Subterranea (debut album) tour. We were in Toronto, in this cool little bar on Queen called Tammy's. It's like a little cafe, wine bar, with really nice fancy beers. And there's this amazing mural in there that's like two people, I think they're sitting on a bed or something eating chips. Let me get the name of the artist because I actually just messaged the bar last week because I was going to shout this artist out. [pulls out phone]  

So an artist named Tara Krebs painted this mural in this bar called Tammy's in Toronto. Yeah, there's like a bag of chips. And it said, you know,  “regular flavoured.” But because we're in Canada, it was like regular nature for, you know, for the bilingual component. And, it  sounded really good when we started saying it. And then I don't remember if it was Nyssa or Matt (band members) that just pitched it right then and there as the title of the next record. We'd already had a bunch of the songs written and it just seemed to make sense. So a little shout out to cool artists who make amazing murals. Shout out to our two official languages here in our country.

Interviewer: I've only listened to the first two released singles that you guys have, and it feels like you guys have some eighties and a bit of seventies new wave influences there. Would I be kind of on the right path?

Evan: Yeah, for sure. I mean, with the most recent single, “Fakes”, you know, that's probably our most overt kind of homage to Devo style, new wave, post punk from the eighties. Just fast paced, a lot of percussion, simple melody, kind of sing speak vocals. And that high energy is just something that we really wanted to have on this record, especially to start the record off. [We] just wanted to get that vibe established right away. It's a really, really fun song to play live, people have been really loving it. The other one that you've heard, “Cursed”, which is the first single, I don't really know where that came from. But I guess, like, something that's coming to my mind right now is Matt and I went to a show at Sled Island a few years ago. Mount Kimbie was playing. And it was the first time seeing them for both of us. And just kind of like, seeing how they moved around the stage, and how they were switching stations was pretty influential in terms of our current setup for live shows. And maybe some of the vibe of “Cursed” goes back to that. I think also with the lead melody being written on a sort of cool poly synth, like….  It’s a direction that we've been kind of leaning toward lately. So just having that song that’s driven by that synth all the way through, maybe gives us some of that eighties colour.

Interviewer: When I listen to an album, I like to think of it as a narrative. Maybe there's a big overall theme. Maybe there's some kind of, like, motif throughout it. How would you describe Regular Nature if it were like a story in a book or movie?

Evan: I think a really important aspect of that is the sequencing of the record. I feel like it kind of breathes and that’s sort of in line with the Regular Nature title of it. So it starts really urgent and high energy in a sort of, like, “Here we are, here's the day. What are we gonna do about it?” And then it kind of steps back a little bit for “Undermine”, and “Cursed”, as we [move] it's almost like a little bit of an exhale. And then we move into a dreamy portion of the record that's a lot of rock and roll feel. A little bit joyful. A little bit whimsical, high energy, but  dialled back a bit, and super loud. After that, we kind of fall asleep. We go into a bit of a dream sequence. We get a little bit quiet. There's a little lullaby track, and then side B starts, which is like the technophobic nightmare scenario. We have a couple of songs that are really intense and dark, and sort of horrific in their own way. And after that, there's just a bit of nihilism to round out kind of the last third of the record as we come to terms with and accept these natures and these scenarios that we're in. And then I think the last song, we kind of just die, but it's peaceful, so it's a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. We're just, you know, scrolling through the different emotions as they come to us. Different states of mind and sort of reflecting or reacting on them.

Interviewer: What do you hope the average listener takes from the experience of  listening to the album? Because there's a line in your guys’ album description where it says “this album is purposely designed to be enjoyed in a few different ways, live or at home with headphones on.” How does the experience change depending on the medium?

Evan: For this record, we really wanted to leave big sections of it open to interpretation. You can hear our up-tempo tracks and you can feel a sense of urgency, or you can feel this joy exuding. It's kind of up to you. We sort of simplified our lyrical themes for these songs, with that intent. You can take them as pure darkness, or you can interpret them in a more lighthearted or absurd way. This record, I feel like, is a lot lighter on its feet. Still, there's a whole lot of darkness in it, but it's only there if you want to see it, and if you'd rather just feel joyful or feel pensive, we hope we can do that for you, too.

Interviewer: How did the collaboration with Daniel from ZOON come about?

Evan: Yeah, they’ve just become a friend over the last few years, just running into them and the ZOON crew, the OMBIIGIZI crew, the STATUS NON STATUS crew going through Ontario. We started going to each other's shows when our respective bands were in our respective towns. And so we knew we wanted them on this record in some way. And it just felt obvious that “Cursed” was a great, great choice for that. They’ve got such a beautiful disposition musically and as a human. And they write really, really beautiful sounds and so we wanted a little piece of that and to have that collaboration. They sent us something over and it was just absolutely perfect. It couldn't have gone any smoother. We love Daniel and we love ZOON.

Interviewer: Do you have a dream collaborator?

Evan: I think. I mean, I think any collaboration can become that. I think we want to stay open and as we keep meeting amazing artists and sharing stages with great musicians, I think we'll probably find more of that. It would be really cool to work one day with Jeff Barrow from Beak and Portishead. But I don't think we're on each other's radars just yet. Another collaborator we did work with on this record was Cassia Hardy from WARES. And she gave us these amazing synth pads and textures for the last track, “Waiting For Nothing” and just turned it into this beautiful, dreamy outro to a pretty wild and wacky album. We got Chris Dadge, laying down some pretty sick bongos and percussion on “Fakes”, the first track, and also on a track called “Undermine,” just really giving some really cool, groovy atmosphere. And then also we have Nate Waters, who's a amazing multi-talented musician in Calgary, plays in a shitload of bands. He put down some pretty sweet saxophone on a track as well. We just love hanging out with our friends, basically. And asking them to come on the record and then they seem to like doing that.

Interviewer: What's your favorite venue?

Evan: Oh, man, that's so hard. Give me a second. There's just so many, and we're lucky to have seen so many. A lot of my favorite venues I probably haven't played yet. This is like 10-15 years ago. I remember seeing amazing shows at the Baltimore in Vancouver, and I'd really love to play there one day. But for venues that we currently play, I gotta give a shout out to L’Escogriffe in Montreal or Lesco. Just a great room, nice low ceiling. Gets really hot and sweaty down there. And our shows seem to be awesome every time we're in Montreal. 

Interviewer: What’s been your experience with the bad shows? Eamon McGrath for example, when he plays, he mentions that it really doesn't matter if there's 50 people in a room or one person in a room. He’ll try to go full intense, full throttle. He'll usually try to give it his all despite playing a “bad room”. Do you guys have a similar kind of temperament? Or does it affect you if not a lot of people show up or not a lot of tickets are sold?

Evan: Things like that can affect you if you let them. It's certainly easy for that to happen. But you're not doing yourself or anyone who might have paid to come see you any favours by letting that attitude come out. We've played more than one show to literally no paying customers. Like, we've played big, good rooms to the sound tech. Every time that happens, I think about the Sheryl Crow line, “play for mosquitoes,” [hums the tune]. We try not to drink till we're thirsty again because that's a recipe for an unsuccessful tour these days. You're going to have times where you're going to play for no one. And the best thing that we can do is, well… it's a free jam. And then the very, very worst-case scenario is that you're there with your shit set up, have a great rehearsal, have a great jam, do something new, have fun. One time we played for nobody, and I went on Instagram live and just, like, pointed the phone at us and 50 people watched it. So there's always something you can do. I think the biggest risk that musicians have is when there's maybe like, five to 15 people there, and it feels really empty. But I think it's easy to forget that it could still be a life-changing experience for someone who's there watching you. You still want to do your best because you can. You can make a fan for life. And they're going to bring five friends the next time you come through town, you know, so there's no excuse to be self-pitying again. It's like expecting riches. You’re just asking to be disappointed.

Interviewer: What’s an album that got you into music in the first place?

Evan: Superunknown by Soundgarden.

Interviewer: Wow. You had that down. Usually it takes a few moments for people to think about. But you knew that.

Evan: I think YouTube autoplay gave me an interview with Kim Thayil, who was a guitarist in Soundgarden. And that just kind of triggered my memory of being a very, very small child and buying that CD in ‘94. And it’s still weird. It’s not grunge, in my opinion. It’s still a pretty strange album. But they absolutely shred on it. And I think that was my first kind of glimpse into what music could really be. And I was, again, a very, very young child.

Interviewer: Do American audiences differ with Canadian audiences? Because I always hear that, for lot of artists, when they pass through Edmonton, we’re a little shy.

Evan: I mean, I guess Americans are a bit quicker to come up and chat you up and talk to you and hang out. We’ve also learned how tough it is in America for the arts. That passion that you talked about really comes through because you’re sharing faith with people that this is their thing, this is what they love, this is what they do. And that [scene] also, just in general, differs by not being buried by the winter.

Interviewer: I guess this could be kind of like two-part question. I think the first part is sort of leading off of what you just said, some of our Canadian brutal winters. I’ve had the chance to talk to a few different artists about this, that Edmonton and Calgary can be a little bit miserable in the winter, but they found that the industrial cold and the isolation in a weird way help their creativity.

Evan: Yeah. I mean, if you're lucky enough to have a thing you love, and you share it with people, and be creative… it really helps during the colder months and really helps with…It’s almost like a spiritual sunlight. So yeah, absolutely. It’s easier in Calgary because we do get such warm winter most years. It's great. I mean, with winter? The brain is really firing when the body can’t.

- Josalynn Lawrence