Ready for Festival Season: Catching up with SunSquabi April 28, 2019 18:51

Spring time is without a doubt one of the most exciting, critical times of the year for any nationally touring act. Festival season is shifting into full gear, and countless artists are preparing to take the stage in the hopes of blowing the minds of their loyal fans and, hopefully, picking up some new followers along the way. Just over a week ago, many of my favorite acts gathered at Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park for the annual SweetWater 420 Festival. This year's lineup was as impressive and diverse as ever, and honestly, I'm still trying to digest everything that went down.

After several years of listening and watching from afar, I finally had a chance to catch one of my favorite electronic funk acts: SunSquabi. We actually sat down to discuss their latest tour, the new album (Instinct), festival season, and much more prior to their set. See below for the full conversation with Kevin Donohue (guitar/keys/production),  Josh Fairman (bass), and Chris Anderson (drums) and make sure to keep an eye out for these guys this summer!

Kevin: It's really been phenomenal, since all the way back to October. We've been traveling to different parts of the southeast. All up and down the northeast and over to the west coast. It's tough to say what the highlights would be. It's been a very consistent and strong tour all the way through. 

Josh: We played our first show in DC. It was a packed, sold out show, which was really cool. 

Chris: In Boston, we got to play with my little brother on violin. That was a big highlight for me. It's pretty special to get to play with family. 

Kevin: It was great getting back out to Seattle and northern California. We hadn't been up that way in about two years, so it was great seeing all of the fans in that area. We played Los Angeles for the first time: sold out. We played San Diego for the first time: sold out. It's crazy to see the growth and love. 

Josh: It was the best tour we've ever had. For sure. 

Kevin: I think the meat of it is really cool. We did a lot more live recording, which gives it a really unique sound. All three of us were able to play in the studio together and feed off of the improvisation we came up with on tour. These ideas would evolve night by night. We were able to come home and live record these ideas instead of writing them from scratch, which we had done more of in the past. A few of the songs still developed that way, but the meat of it had a really fresh feel to it. 

Josh: It's also the first full length record that I've played on.

Kevin: That's right. First full length with Josh. A lot more analog synths. Been doing a lot of production techniques that we're just learning this year. Using less mics and taking a more minimalistic approach with the electronic sounds as well. Just using what you need to get the juice out of certain sounds that you want. 

Chris: We did a lot of songs that came to us through improvisation. Everything evolved from there. We got a lot out of the entire process. It was a really fun recording experience. 

Kevin: Absolutely. It will be released as soon as we complete the finishing touches. We have some killer artwork that Mike Tallman did for us. I'm expecting that it will be released during mid to late May. We've been working on it for about a year and a half. We got the samples from Adam Dietch (drummer from Lettuce) a while back. He's a really good friend of ours in Denver. 

It's been one of those things where you're chipping away at this project for a while. It was essentially finished about a year ago. They asked us to hold off until the entire LP remix was finished. We decided we would play it live and keep making it doper. We've continued to add little things to it. It's a super crazy, psychedelic track. I think putting off the release was actually a blessing. It's given us another six months to refine it. 

Kevin: We're stoked to play three sets at Summer Camp this year. 

Chris: There's also Disc Jam up in New York. 

Kevin: I'm really excited about getting back to Summer Camp. I think we were there for six years in a row. Last year, we did Electric Forest instead, which was awesome. Summer Camp brings together a lot of our closest friends. 

Chris: It was one of the first festivals we ever played back in...2012?

Kevin: There's a little bit of a different feel with not playing there last year. We're coming back this time around, and we get to play three sets. 

Josh: I'm also really excited for ARISE Music Festival. It's basically the highest we've ever been billed on a festival. It's right at home in Colorado, so that's our big summer play for the hometown people. 

Chris: We're playing The Werk Out Festival in Ohio. That's gonna be a really fun one. There are a couple more announcements coming as well. 

Kevin: Honestly, it's different every single time. We've had a pretty crazy 24 hours getting down here. We'll take this whirlwind of energy and channel it directly into the music. Take that energy and turn it into something constructive for everyone. I think we're gonna play pretty loud, fast, and hardcore today. We're a little pissed off (laughs). You know what I mean? We will probably write the setlist shortly after we finish this interview. 

For the late night set, we won't really worry about that until we get there. We're gonna play what we want to play today. No repeats ever, obviously. Even though, it's a much smaller club. There are going to be a lot more people here. We try not to let too many outside factors play into the set. Just play what we're feeling at the moment. That feels like the most genuine approach, when you're put on a platform of a festival. Be yourself.

Josh: With the late nights, we tend to have more sit-ins and experimental jams.

Are there any confirmed guests for the Aisle 5 show tonight? 

Kevin: We've talked to a few people. [Michael] Menert is in town, so I think he's gonna stop by and do some free styling. We've been doing that with him for years. It's crazy. The late nights are always fun. We tend to get pretty loose. We've been looking forward to this day for a while now.