Sunny Day Encore's Rememberable New Record
Eric Geib, Chad Christison, Dahli Thompson and Justice Ausum
Nick Murray
Moose Jaw has always had quite an exciting music scene for such a small city. Lots of musicians trying to make it; lots of musicians who tried in the past and are still exercising their skills while engaged in the every day grind of sober reality and even a couple musicians doing exactly what it is they want to be doing with their lives and doing it for a living; making music. It's undeniable that Moose Jaw produces a disproportionate amount of talent in comparison with other similarly sized and populated cities.
It wasn't that long ago that a glut of cool indie-rock groups from right here in the city were playing festivals in parks here and recording their albums here. There was PandaCorn and Lords Kitchner; Tangean Wall and Johnny 2 Fingers. Friend Friend and the Faps.
But more recently, those groups all drifted in different directions; some started solo projects while others moved away to larger markets and some of the remains simply joined forces with the remains from other groups to create Moose Jaw's very own versions of supergroups.
The time had come for another group of talent to emerge and fill that void left behind from the great talent exodus. Enter Sunny Day Real Estate. A super influential post-punk/pre-emo group from Seattle, Washington... Wait...wrong band. Enter Sunny Day Encore, a shoe gaze-y dreamsicle consisting of four Moose Jaw kids: Justice Ausum, Chad Christison, Eric Geib and Dahli Thompson; four musicians with mad skills and the mad desire to create music that people want to listen to.
Their recent release Rememberable has an ethereal sound to it. Like My Bloody Valentine with an Ambien-enduced Julian Casablancas on the mic. Not something you would expect from guys who cite Nirvana and The Beatles as influences.
They've pumped out a couple DIY music videos, competed in Queen City Rocks and played a steady stream of live shows since and don't seem anywhere near slowing down.
I spoke with the band's duo of songwriters, Chad and Justice, about the birth of the band, putting Rememberable on wax, their clumsy bass player and plenty more.
Moose Jaw. Meet the next best thing.
Gimme the Sunny Day Encore origin story. How did you guys meet and how did the band start?
Justice: Chad and I just moved in together without actually knowing each other. My best pal Dahli joined on the kit. Eric originally joined as a synth player but he later moved to bass. We all played in a couple bands with and without each other over the years and we eventually just decided that since we all have the same goal we should just join as one and focus on what now is Sunny Day Encore.
For a lot of people, it's probably hard to pin down your sound. Gimme a three-song playlist of tracks that inspire SDE's sound.
Justice: I couldn’t make up my mind so here’s a four song playlist:
She Said She Said - The Beatles
Two Arrows - Real Estate
Schizophrenia - Sonic Youth
Earthboy - DIIV
Tell me about recording Rememberable: Where did you do it? Who was the producer? What was it like in the studio?
Chad: We actually recorded the album ourselves in our basement. You could say I was the producer, as I handled all the recording, mixing and mastering. We were stoked from the start and wanted people to hear what we were coming up with, but we also didn’t have a lot of money (still don’t). We’ve all been recording our own songs over the years but Justice liked some of the work I did and thought I should be the one to give it a shot. With our own home studio we had all the time in the world after our day-jobs to work on the album. So we would be writing new songs while recording ones that were just finished and just working on different parts whenever we had the time. Because of that it probably took way longer than it would have in a real studio, and granted, I’m not a professional and the album is pretty lo-fi, but I think we can all agree that we’re happy with how it turned out and that we did it on our own.
What have been the most Rememberable moments in your bands young music career?
Justice: There are definitely a couple memories that come to my mind that can’t be shared but I’ve got three that can. We played our first home town show sometime last September and we were literally on our last song of the set and our bass player Eric stoved and fell into my amp causing all of my gear to lose power, but instead of it ruining the ending, a chain reaction of chaos occurred. Dahli threw his drum kit and Chad made some wonderful feedback. Probably the most rock and roll thing we’ve done on stage, funny it was at the Mitsu café. Another memory that I hold dear to myself is the weekend we drove up to Edmonton to see one of our most influential bands; DIIV. We slept in the vehicle and awoke to an older lady staring angrily into the vehicle while walking her dog. The most “rememberable” moment so far has got to be the day we sat down in Chad’s Cadillac and listened to Rememberable for the first time as a band. It was such a surreal feeling. Truly one of most special moments I’ve ever had in my life and overall just grateful for this group of guys; a family.
You've already made a music video for a song that isn't on Rememberable: are you guys already at work on a new record?
Justice: The best part of being apart of something with these guys is the fact that we are always trying to grow and move forward so to answer your question, yes we are in the midst of putting together a new record but no timeline quite yet on when it’ll be finished or out.
Check out "Drained" right here
What are the band's plans for the summer?
Justice: We’re playing Night Shirt Fest in Saskatoon on June 16th with Shirley and The Pyramids. In talks for a couple other things but I believe our main focus is going to go towards a new record.
Check Sunny Day Encore out on Spotify or just listen to Rememberable in it's entirety on YouTube. Below is their video "Mondays".