An Interview With : Sunset Sons

Sunset Sons are Rory Williams, Jed Laidlaw, Robin Windram, and  Pete Harper. The three English, and one Australian, lads met in Hossegor in France. Known as the surfing capital of mainland Europe, it is still their home even if they have been around much lately.

They joined forces while working in Pete's cousins' restaurant, Le Surfing, and formed a covers band to make some cash during the off-season. They honed their stagecraft playing long shows to tourists in the Swiss Alps.

Things took off quickly for them after they started writing their own material, with major labels attracted by their infectious guitar pop and singalong tunes. Last year they played extensively on the festival circuit and toured with Imagine Dragons. Their debut album, Very Rarely Say Die, has just been released and they are touring the UK and Ireland before heading off on a European tour. The gig at London's KOKO has sold out in advance.

Musos' Guide caught up with the boys at their show in Dublin's Academy. 

This isn’t your first time in Ireland, you played here with Imagine Dragons.

Rory- And about this time last year we played our headline show in Whelan’s, which was really cool. They have all the bands on the wall.

And you're doing the Sea Sessions as well?

Jed- Yes we're looking forward to that. Have you been before?

No, but I saw Primal Scream were playing so I might have to.

Jed- Are Primal Scream playing? I didn’t know that. I love Screamadelica.

You played Glastonbury last year?

Jed- We played the John Peel tent last year on the Saturday. We were on quite early. We didn’t know what to expect. There was a guy was on before us and there weren’t many people there. There had been loads of rain. There were tractors in the tent covering everything in straw. It was weird. We went and got ready, had a couple of beers, and when we got on it was absolutely full. People were spilling out the sides. We thought "This is going to be amazing". There was the flags and everything just like you've seen before. Michael Eavis watched us from the side of the stage. I saw him after the second song and I spent the whole gig trying to alert Rory. And Rory was like ‘what are talking about?’

Rory - I though I was doing something wrong. I didn’t know what was going on.

Jed- He gave us the thumbs up.

Pete- We got a photo with him at the end and he made us all take our sunglasses off. No one is too cool, take the sunnies off.

Rory- What a legend.

You have the European tour after this.

Rory- We're doing the European tour. All I know is what is going on the next couple of weeks. It's a bit of a blur. 

Rob- European tour at the beginning of May, and the festivals start seeping in shortly after that. First one is Isle of Wight.

Jed- Enough time to go home and wash our undies and then we're back out again.

It's going to be manic for you with the album coming out?

Jed- Once it actually drops and it’s out there for everyone. It’s crazy at the moment but its going to increase.

Rob- We've had four EPs. It's been a long time coming, this album. We spent a long time recording it in Nashville and in Hossegor.

Jed- It was good to put the EPs out over time. We have four EPs with four songs on each one. That’s an albums worth of material already. Which is good because this is our first album tour but we can still play for over an hour.

Rob- We've got lots of b-sides. We actually have about two albums of material to draw on.

Your residency in the Alps, was that your Beatles going to Hamburg moment?

Rory- It was definitely like the Beatles go to Hamburg. They were good times. We used to play for two or sometimes two and a half hours. That's one show and you do that twice a day. It was good but it was hard work. I'd lose my voice.

Pete- We'd have to set up our own PA and cart it in and out of the van twice every day and drive an hour and a half home. It was gruelling.

Rory- The snow, the snow got to me. I’m not a fan of snow. Oh great, more fucking snow!

Pete- It was one of those places where if you are in the Alps to enjoy it, it’s amazing. You go snowboarding. You have a good time with your mates and have a few beers.  But when you go there to work, it's like ‘Fuck, not snow again!’

Jed- I’ve got the worst type of rose tinted glasses. We did a couple of seasons there but one of the years we stayed a little bit out of town so it would be cheaper and the house was right on the piste. We were playing a lot but I was getting up in the morning and going snowboarding. Literally out of my bedroom door, straight on to the piste and ride down. I'd do that for a bit then get in the van and go do a couple of shows.

Rory- I STILL HATE SNOW THOUGH!

Sea Sessions is famous for the surfing and you've done lots of others surfing festivals too.

Pete- That’s how we all met. We all came to Hossegor for different reasons. It’s like a surf.... what's the word?

Rory- Mecca?

Pete- I was thinking Mecca but it's not a Mecca. It's like the headquarters for the European surfing community.

Rob- We all went there for the surfing and ended up finding each other. We were all doing the same thing but differently. We thought we should play in a band together.

Rory- Those were great days. I love these days but in those days we were constantly meeting new people. I went there not knowing anyone. I just met this group of people.

Pete- I only knew Woody.

Woody from Le Surfing?

Pete- Yeah, Woody is my cousin, he owns Le Surfing. I went down there to visit him. He's like "Come down, its gonna be sick!" I was travelling over from Australia. I went there and I didn't realise how manic he is. He runs a catering business and the restaurant. I walked in and he goes "Here's the bar. Here's your room. Here's the fold out couch you'll be staying on. Here's the twelve girls I live with. I have to go." And I didn't see him for two weeks. It was alright though, twelve girls in the house!

Jed- I worked for Woody flipping crepes at surfing competitions for a little bit.

Rory-Two days, Jed. You did two days.

Jed- Two years in a row!

Rob- I was making smoothies. That was one of the greatest jobs ever. Working the professional girls surfing competition, the free smoothie bar.

Rory- I got banned from doing those events. I was in charge of the rice. All I had to do was make rice. I hadn't made rice in a while. It was one of these...

Pete- Where you put it on and press go?

Rory- I fucked it up massively and Woody was charging down the beach. This guy is the most chilled person ever. I knew I was in trouble. I heard him roar my name. "Why is there no rice?" and within ten minutes there was too much rice.

Jed- You managed to piss Woody off?

Rob- That's like pissing off Mother Teresa.

When I heard the album the first thing that popped into my head was Kings of Leon and you worked with their producer.

Rory- Cool! Yeah, there were two producers that we worked with. Jacquire King, who did a lot of the record, did Kings of Leon. And James Lewis who did the second half of the album. And a friend of ours called Joseph Rogers who did one song. He demoed it and it ended up being on the record. It was so good.

Rob- Is it the same vocal?

Rory- Yeah, same vocal. Jacquire King was an honour to meet. Louie Berry who is playing this tour with us, he's just done his album with Jacquire. He did James Bay's record.

Pete- He's certainly kicked a lot of goals in the last ten years.

Rob- Tom Waits and Norah Jones.

Pete- He's the real deal. When he says jump, you jump.

The conversation turns to the album. I've been listening to it non- stop but can't remember the names of the songs. I'm racking my brain to find the title of my favourite tune and Rob sings the opening line of 'She Wants'; "Should have been a doctor..."?

Yes, that's it!

Rob- We've been blown away by that song every night.

Pete- Last night in Belfast I couldn't hear my wedge.

Rory- Really?!  I heard people singing but I didn't realise it was that loud. Rob and I use the in-ear monitors so I couldn't hear it.

It's a good thing about having the EPs out, people know some of the tunes before it comes out.

Jed- Yeah, a lot of these songs aren't on the EPs. There are three songs on the album from the EPs. Two of them we re-recorded but 'She Wants', we tried to record three times and we never got that same vibe.

Rob- We just remixed it and put that on.

It's that magic like The Killers getting together and writing 'Mr. Brightside'.

Rory- I watched him last night, when he was doing the Royal Albert Hall, Brandon Flowers says before he plays 'Mr. Brightside', "So I saw an ad in the paper looking for anyone that could do any instrument. He gave me a cassette tape. I put it into my car and this was the first song that came on." Can you imagine that being the first demo?

Jed- A corker that.

Rory-  I'm so excited for this record to finally come out. I can't wait for it to finally happen.

Rob- hashtag onelessday.

Rory- We played Belfast last night and it was our first time. Especially on a Monday night after the long weekend. Will everybody be hungover? "No, we were hungover last night, we're good to go." It was amazing. You get that in Ireland and up North in the UK. There's a different vibe to it. You get a similar vibe in Cornwall and Devon. There was something about being in Belfast thinking "We hope they like us". And when they did, they couldn't get enough of it. That passion!

Jed- We want people to listen to the music obviously but we love it when people get right into it, when they're into it as much as we are.

I've seen those old YouTube videos with people piling up over the barrier.

Pete- That's what we want.