Sun Airway talks to WUTK about SXSW, the A-Sides and a new record

Jon Barthmus, the man behind Sun Airway, sat down with Brittney B and the Indie Aisle's Doug Johnson for an interview about all things music. Sun Airway rocked the Pilot Light last Wednesday with Asobi Seksu and Cults. You can listen to the interview or read it below!

Sun Airway interview with WUTK by bbryant3

WUTK: So, Why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself.

Sun Airway: My name is John and I am part of Sun Airway. Patrick is kind of my second half of the recording part, but our live band is five people.

WUTK: Really? So two of you write it and then you have a full band?
SA: It’s mostly my project that I started with Patrick, but now its become a real band.

WUTK: How would you describe your music?
SA: Oh, man. You think I would have an answer for that by now. That’s always the toughest thing for me to say. The short answer, I guess, is electronic-pop. I’ll stick with that.

WUTK: I know you said you have been touring for a little while. How has it been?
SA: It has been pretty amazing. The first half was with Cults and Small Black. We all just got along really well, and kind of turned it into a rolling party.

WUTK: Then is this your first show with Asobi Seksu?
SA: Last night was our first with them and they were great. I’m psyched to see them for the next few nights.

WUTK: This is kind of like the ultimate indie music show, You get all different sides of the music spectrum.
SA: Yeah it seems like going to and from SXSW there is so many bands going that you can put together some really solid tours.

WUTK: Do you have any good stories from SXSW? You played eight shows in four days!
SA: Sadly, my main concern was just keeping my voice. It was such a blur. We had some definite good times. I ate a lot of good food truck food. Waffle tacos is all I’m going to say. Also, there’s a big thing in Philly called “Making Time” and they were doing something at SXSW that ended up being a big Philly thing. After us was Spankrock, and we has playing some of his new stuff. He just got everyone super into it.

WUTK: Are you working on any new stuff right now? If so, what kind of music?
SA: I am. We are trying to get out a 7’’ this summer, and then hopefully another album next year. So I’m just starting to write some music. I have one song done and a few in the works.

WUTK: From what we have read, you get a lot of comparisons to Animal Collective. What do you think about that?
SA: I’m okay with it, as far as reference points goes because I really like Animal Collective. But, I am also sort of confused by it because I don’t every really think you would confuse us with them. I think people need something to latch onto. It is a flattering band to be compared to.

WUTK: You were part of the A-Sides. How did the A-sides morph into Sun Airway?
SA: Well, basically everyone but the drummer quit. Not out of any real reason. We were kind of over touring. So, I mostly just wanted to make music. I had been messing around with electronica music and samples and I wanted to just really try to dive into it and make a record of it, so that’s what we did. Oh and now the Sun Airway band is 4/5ths of the A-Sides.

WUTK: So now you all just came together and made a new and improved A-Sides?
SA: Yeah pretty much. People left and did their own thing, but by the time Sun Airway got around to playing shows everybody wanted to get involved again.

WUTK: The Sun Airway stuff sounds pretty different than the A-Sides. Do you think on a touring basis atleast that you will start to sound a little like the A-Sides?
SA: The good thing about the A-Sides was that everyone was just really good at what they were doing. But, I think there is a lot of times in a live show everyone’s strengths in what they play really come out like they did in the A-Sides. So, maybe there is a little something there.

WUTK: Did the guys in the A-Sides help you with your newest album, Nocturne of Exploded Chandelier?
SA: No one helped on it. It was kind of make the music first and then do it live.

WUTK: When did you start working on the album that came out in October of last year?
SA: We started it in August of ’08, so it was kind of a long time coming. A lot of that was just building a studio and trying to learn how to use all the gear.

WUTK: How did that album come together? What was your inspiration?
SA: I guess it was coming from a lot of places. Most of it I had written already. It would probably have been the new A-Sides record, but once we started Sun Airway I was recording them all in this new context. The inspirations of a few songs were based on the book Norweigan Wood. And then I just took a lot of the themes that were involved in those and tried to elaborate on them for the rest of the stuff. I wanted to make something really cohesive. I started taking the moon and the night as the main reference points.

WUTK: You can hear that on the album. It sounds a little dreamy.
SA: Yeah, I like for it to be very mysterious. Something you can really immerse yourself in.

WUTK: You’re going to be at the Pitchfork festival. Were you excited to be one of the first bands announced.
SA: That was definitely a surprise to us, as much as anybody else. I’ve always wanted to go, but never had a real excuse. This year it’s on and I can’t wait.

WUTK: You’ve done a lot of remixes for Here We Go Magic and Caribou. Can we expect more of these?
SA: Probably a couple more, but I’m definitely going to be slowing down on those.

WUTK: Anything else you’re working on?
SA: I am doing something awesome for a charity that’s benefiting kids in Southern India. It’s made from a library of samples of those kids singing. There are a lot of other really cool artists involved. Other than that I guess I’ll just focus on my own stuff for a bit.

WUTK: The last album you said took you two years. Do you think that next one is going to take as long?
SA: I would really like for it to take a lot less time. But it’s hard to say. It depends on how much free time I get.

WUTK: What bands are you really into right now?
SA: I got a recent EP of Zola Jesus that is really good. Also, the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart. I also listen to a lot of electronic and dance music from the past 10 years. I’m really excited for the new Cass McCombs and Dirty Beaches, too.

WUTK: Is there a band you are really hoping to see, perhaps at Pitchfork when you are there?
SA: I’m psyched to see Fleet Foxes.

Cider House goes old school

On Friday night, the Cider House was warped back to a time when music required talent and singers relied on their vocal ability—not an auto tuner. Three bands came out to woo the audience and prove that they were worthy of the stage: Johnny Astro and the Big Bang, Jonathon Sexton and the Big Love Choir, and The Black Cadillacs. Judging by their performances, it appeared that each band was aware that a new era had begun. By the end of the night, it was clear that gone are the times when big record labels suddenly swoop in, throw money at a band, and make them an overnight sensation. Now there is a new standard, and that is the performance.If a band is primed for success, they must enthrall the audience. The rules of a live show are simple for a band—they must leave it all out there on the stage and (most importantly) they need to successfully solidify themselves in the hearts of the audience.

Johnny Astro and the Big Bang took the stage at around 9:45, charged with the difficult task of unifying each group throughout the club, while helping them shed away the burdens of the daily grind.

Johnny Astro began their set with the song “Black Blade” and, immediately, the crowd began to gravitate towards the stage. The band played with full-bravado as if they were playing not to a crowd of roughly 100 people, but to a stadium full of adoring fans. After the first song ended, the crowd barely applauded in manner that is usually reserved for church services. Instead of being discouraged, the band went straight into the second song with even more energy than the first—this got heads bobbing.

Johnny Astro played a set that was both surprising and refreshing. Though the band consisted of four young University of Tennessee students, the complexity of their music and maturity of its lyrics made it crystal clear that these guys mirror old souls. Their songs are reminiscent of a time when music was a poor man’s therapist and an outlet through which one released his demons.

Paul Wakefield, lead vocals and guitar, sang with passion and acted as a conductor between the enthusiastic energy of bassist Mike Carroll and the laid back mellow groove of lead guitarist Jackson Collier. The group's drums are hammered on by Zach Gilleran whose whole body keeps time with the music’s rhythm. Johnny Astro's performance did not leave the crowd wanting and, in the end, caused the apprehensive crowd to warm up.

Up next was Jonathon Sexton and the Big Love Choir—this is a band where shoes are optional but entertainment is not. Prior to going on stage, Jonathon could be found hobbling around on a cane and thanking audience members for attending. Normally this would be a bad omen, but Jonathon Sexton proved otherwise.

Sexton took the stage looking like Willy Wonka’s rock and roll brother. But, unlike Wonka, Sexton took you on a journey into yourself, and depending on who you are, the journey would most likely not end with you being carted away by malicious little orange men.

The band began their set with upbeat songs to lift the spirits of the crowd and the crowd responded with a form of dancing that mirrored a hybrid between Ska dancing and a good old fashion hoedown two-step. Between each song Sexton interacted with the crowd, telling quick stories and drawing into his web. By the fifth song. the journey took a turn toward something a little more serious. The song “Anybody” combated the rather personal subject of the feelings that everyone has that disconnect us from our peers, and leave us feeling alone.

Throughout the show, each song was unexpected. You never knew if it would be upbeat and carefree,or if it would rip away your carefully constructed barricade. In the acoustic song “Take These Days,” emotions were raw as Sexton sang about the inevitable time in everyone’s life where the pains of adulthood collide with the inadequacy of youthful wisdom.

During the set, the band made a smart move by playing two cover songs. This allowed newcomers of the band and old fans to unite. The covers got the audience involved and enhanced the shared experience of all. Finally, the time that the entire crowd had been waiting for when Sexton announced that he would play the crowd favorite “Babylon.”

The entire performance that Sexton and company delivered was energetic and passionate. The music swelled around and surrounded the audience like an embrace from an old friend. The lyrics were poignant and the songs marked a specific time in someone’s life. The music from Jonathon Sexton and the Big Love Choir that mirrors the human existence’s joys and woes. And the fact that, while you never know what tomorrow will bring—the band will entertain you.

The night ended with the Black Cadillacs, who played a two-hour long set. The crowd began at the stage and rocked along with them for the entire set. The band successfully mixed together the sounds of old school rock ’n roll and old-fashioned blues. Providing a perfect end to the night, the crowd danced and enjoyed the band's unique sound. The group featured songs from their first CD, as well as songs like “Run Run,” from their soon to be released second CD.

The entire evening was filled with good tunes and good times. The bands displayed their A games and enticed the crowd.

WUTK SXSW Recap

"So...will I see you in Austin?!" No.
....
"Hey Carey, wanna meet up in Austin and grab a drink?" Nope.
....
"Dude, I'm so excited about the SXSW tUnE-yArDs show." I'M NOT GOING TO SXSW DAMNIT!!!
....
The week before SXSW is always bitter-sweet at WUTK. After spending countless hours chatting with promoters about the ins and outs of the festival, it becomes borderline impossible not to slam down the phone and hook-up a makeshift IV of margaritas to ease the pain brought on by the fact that WUTK completely lacks funding from the University and therefor, our staff is left sloshing through the streets of Knoxville half-drowning in a pool of lukewarm PBR's instead of taking in the sights and sounds of the fabled festival.

But even though the festival is over and all is back to normal, the videos of Austin's best performances continue to pop-up. So, if even if you were lucky enough to make it to Texas but can't quite piece together where Starfucker began and Middle Brother ended...check out some of WUTK's favorites below.

Wild Flag

 tUnE-yArDs

Starfucker

Tennis

-Carey

My Pact with Music

First song on first mix tape received - Bikini Kill, "This is Not a Test"

I can not think of a major moment in my life -- past the age of 12 -- where music was bereft from the background noise. When I was 10 years old the present wrapped in gold was a Sony boombox (with tape and CD player). I don't really consider this the same keystone event as my first tape Walkman due mostly to the fact that the first CDs I owned (Spin Doctors Pocket Full of Kryptonite; Paula Abdul Greatest Hits) were not indicative of my musical taste two years later.

First break-up album - 1996 - Modest Mouse This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About

The day I bought my first tapes and broke out of the hand-me-down music that I borrowed from my parents (James Taylor; Carley Simon; Cat Stevens; Indigo Girls; Strength in Numbers) was the day that I never wanted my life to be without music ever again. Ownership Hole's Pretty On the Inside, Miss World, and Nine Inch Nails's Pretty Hate Machine were the single personal-political events that served as my justification in declaring war on silence. As I lay in my bed that night, headphones on and volume maxed out, I thrashed violently on a twin-sized water bed while clumsily playing air guitar to "Credit in the Straight World" in the darkness.

First slow dance and kiss - 1994 - Grant Lee Buffalo, "Mockingbirds"

When 1998 rolled around, I was in 8th grade. Farragut Middle School took a band-wide trip to Washington D.C. -- the whole ride there I blasted Sebadoh's Bakesale and various Smashing Pumpkins albums. My close friend Lauren Anderson sat next to me and we traded tapes back and forth. On the drive back to Knoxville, Disney movies playing on the televisions and streetlights passing in a way that made shadows on the bus appear as sundials fast-forwarding, I listened to my first Sleater-Kinney albums (Sleater-Kinney, Call the Doctor, Dig Me Out) and followed up with Bikini Kill's The C.D. Version of the First Two Records. Within a week I was digging through the network that would later coagulate into the file-sharing application, Napster -- listening to Team Dresch and trying to rationalize singing along to lesbian Queercore lyrics as a pubescent male.

First disc trade - Marilyn Manson's Portrait of an American Family for Offspring's Smash

The years after this are a blur. Napster was a fine service if you knew what you wanted, felt the urge to fill out missing tracks in your collection, were looking for rare tracks from an artist, or if you felt like using wild card searches for documents that people had inadvertently shared ("pass*.*"; "*log.doc"). Around the halfway mark between Napster's first release and the first media faux pas it created -- another service popped up called AudioGalaxy. The novelty with AudioGalaxy was that the search and GUI portions of your browsing were inside of a browser: click a button next to the track on the web page and a program specific URL would queue the song for download in the stand-alone program. The nice part about this was that AudioGalaxy allowed for the option to sort by genre, pull up obscure genres, and then sort by download popularity -- a feature it also allowed when browsing by artist. This was during a pretty heavy Aphex Twin binge. I knew most major Aphex Twin releases and side projects (from Caustic Bubblebath/Joyrex to Mike and Rich) -- and that led to Boards of Canada, Plaid, and Squarepusher. The genres of music I paid the most
attention to were Illbiant and Downtempo.

Most valued artist find - 1999 - Nick Drake

There was a popular VW ad in 1999 called "Milky Way". This was one of the first major uses of solid non-mainstream music on a prime-time advertisement -- a far jump from the more common use of Iggy Pop's "Lust for Life" on Carnival Cruise commercials. In the commercial, a group of friends drives through a series of back roads between dusk and night -- making good use of the Cabriolet's retracting roof to admire the night sky while Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" played in the background. The car pulls up to their intended destination, a party with one drunk staggering back inside, the passengers look at one another -- and then continue to drive into the night. The next day I called VW to get the information on the song that played. Two years later, undergoing massive dental procedures that would later result in the removal of more than half my teeth in the slowest and most painful manner possible, I found myself on my couch -- drugged, sore, and depressed -- listening to the Pink Moon album. And then Five Leaves Left. And then Bryter Layter. And then old demos scrounged up from the Internet ("Been Smoking Too Long"). Someone else had felt this low before -- and knowing that helped me keep my level of self-pity below flood stages.

First album won - 1996 - 94.3 FM - Tripping Daisy I Am an Elastic Firecracker

I've made out to Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" sitting in a car at the entrance to a neighborhood in the pouring rain, walked into a bar to reconcile a fight with my father with "Hey Joe" playing on the jukebox, shared the first kiss of a relationship to the initial chord strike of "The Bends", and sat in the back of an Astro van -- my first golden retriever, unable to walk and with failing kidneys at 14-years-old, with his head in my lap -- listening to Smashing Pumpkin's "French Movie Theme" on repeat as we drove to the vet to put him to sleep. I have been pulled over three times for speeding to "Geek U.S.A." in Knoxville and one time to JUSTICE's "D.A.N.C.E. Pt. 2" on A Cross The Universe in Sydney, Ohio. I had the best cigarette of my young life sitting on top of my car at Bonnaroo after being lost and alone for roughly five hours -- blasting Jethro Tull's "Sweet Dreams" from my stereo at 6 in the morning. I've pulled up to the FHS marching band summer dance in 2000 in a black Jag convertible with Slint's "Breadcrumb Trail" pouring out of the speakers like an erupting volcano. A driver slammed into the car I was in going 50 MPH while New Order's "Temptation" played, I was T-boned to Presidents of the United States of America's "Mach 5", and the first song to play in my replacement car was Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues". I got violently ill and lost the contents of my stomach on Justin Timberlake's lawn in Georgia while a still-running car played Spacemen 3's "Losing Touch With My Mind".

Most played soundtrack - (tie) - The Crow (1994 - 1997) // Kids (1998 - 2002) // subUrbia (1996 - 2001)

When I was 12 years old I signed a pact with music in blood. My ears would forever ring as a testiment to my war on silence and every sound above the threshold of ringing would make the sound less noticeable. I reap the fruits from that contract on a daily basis.

First concert with a girlfriend - Moby

If cigarettes were numbered and I could name them like milestones -- "Oh, I remember #13,492. We were speeding through the back roads of Cumming and my girlfriend at the time had Ride the Lightening thundering in her car that she called Blitzkrieg" -- maybe this would have played out differently. Probably not. I only remember my bank account number due to the obsessive number of times I check it online. I'd just end up with a wallet full of faded papers with numbers on them and no recollection of why I felt the need to keep them -- much like the debit receipts from restaurants and bars currently.

Matthew Smollon (Spider Jerusalem) - Music Life Coach