Sunshine Brothers Inc. is comprised of Jake Weissman, John DiSabito, Charles Vadala and Niall McCarthy – four friend-boys who met at and attend the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. On the first day of college Jake and Charles serendipitously met and played music together in the basement of their dorm building, but it wasn’t until about a year later that they would come together with John Disabito and Niall McCarthy, two students who were befriended in various music classes, to form Sunshine Brothers Inc. around some demos Weissman had recorded both in his dorm and as a younger teenager in his grandmother’s attic.
The sunshine brothers are set apart by their youth, barely in their twenties, and their roots in the prolific Western Massachusetts DIY scene. Born out of a basement show culture endemic to Amherst for decades (the same scene which birthed groups like the Pixies and Speedy Ortiz), the band has, until recently, developed largely underground in a community of young people that are driven by anti-corporate ideals that lead to highly independent creative musings. Some of the Sunshine Brothers’ most popular songs have been produced and promoted entirely in Weissman’s bedroom with only the help of his friends, which allows for the music to be transmitted to the world without sacrificing the mystery and charm of the Pioneer Valley.
While shrouded in a culture of collectivity, from house parties to classrooms, Sunshine Brothers Inc. take a more personal stance in their music. Warmed with surf-laden guitars and bright synth pads, their songs typically paint a picture of summertime, telling stories of personal relationships both real and fictional. Though nostalgic of many psych-pop moments over the last fifty years, the sound is novel in arrangement and texture. The songwriting, done by Weissman, is influenced most heavily by psych-pop stars new and old, such as The Beach Boys, Makeout Videotape, David Bowie, Sean Nicholas Savage and Ariel Pink. There is a high energy feeling in both their studio recordings and live performances that give life to Weissman’s songs.
“With the exception of the home-produced “In Your Dreams”, the record was tracked between Big Nice Studios in Rhode Island and my bedroom in Amherst, Massachusetts. The tracks have been mixed a few times by a couple different people, as well as myself.
All of the tracks were written by myself within the last year or so, and I think they deal with pretty typical, straightforward pop themes throughout- love, desire, wanting to get away, youthful stress, etc. They’re probably a little more personal than the songs on our previous record. The idea behind “Jerry” is that he (or she- I wanted to name the song/record “Cherry” because I use the word ‘girl’ in the song but I liked the name ‘Jerry’ better) is this fictional friend of mine who I’m calling out to while they’re out on the water and I’m sort of yelling to them about wanting to leave and go see the world or whatever. It’s a nice picture in my head because it just seems like a good, lax place to have any conversation I guess; Jerry doesn’t care much what I’m saying, they’re out on the water doing their thing, but they’re still listening. There are mutual respect and understanding between us; they’ll be supportive of how I’m feeling no matter what. Most the record just feels like this interaction, I’m sorta telling the stories of each song to my friend Jerry.
Musically, the record feels a little more mature to me- not in complexity, but in attitude. I tried to explore more synths than on the last record and we definitely let the keys take more of a lead on certain tracks. I think that this gave more of an 80’s feel all around than on our previous record, but it’s blended with that surfy element pretty compactly. I think the band got more of a chance to shine on this record as well; it definitely feels like the songs were defined a lot by the interpretations of each member as opposed to some concrete idea I had presented for each instrument when introducing the songs. After playing out a whole lot more since our last record, we’ve definitely built deeper relationships with each other as musicians, and, as a consequence of this, ‘Jerry’ feels like a record made by us, which is nice.”
Links
sunshinebrothersinc.com
facebook.com/sunshinebrothersinc
instagram.com/jakeweissman
open.spotify.com/artist/
sunshinebrothersinc.bandcamp.com
youtube.com/user/InnerRuptionMusic
www.twitter.com/jakeweissman
