Sonny Smith - Sonny & The Sunsets Interview

When and where were you born? What was your childhood like? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Were these things that were relevant growing up in your household? Do you have any siblings?

San Francisco 1972, my dad played banjo and his friends played fiddle and old time music so I grew up around that. My mother played piano. I took piano lessons at a young age and learned a lot of tv theme show songs like Cheers, Hill Street Blues and then some Billy Joel songs. Around 6th grade I got an electric guitar and took lessons and was learning AC/DC and that kind of stuff. I had a lot of musical phases in a short time. My first concert was U2 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco. Then we went to Tears For Fears, Thompson Twins and then Van Halen and concerts like that. It was the 80’s so everything was shiny and amazing and you could be into Michael Jackson, or Judas Priest. Then I was into breakdancing which led me to rap and weird music like Newcleus. After that my friends and I go into Beastie Boys, Fat Boys and early rap. THEN, we moved to thrash and stuff like that because we were all skate rats and that went along with skate culture. 

When and where did you play your very first gig and what was that experience like for you? Did you participate in any groups, or projects prior to S&TS? How did you guys initially meet and what led to first forming the band?

The first band I was in was in junior high, it was part of an early school of rock type thing where they put you in bands. I was put in a band with three girls. Everyone got to pick a song. One of them picked Take on Me by Ah Hah, I picked Back In Black by AC/DC. I don’t remember the other two songs. But my first professional gig was in college, I got a gig playing piano at a club, sort of like a lounge lizard gig, where you have a tip jar at the piano. I could just play rudimentary blues music. The bartender gave me a blues name, “Sonnyland Smith” based on old blues guys like Sonnyland Slim and such. So people started calling me Sonny. I would sing Memphis Slim songs, Jimmy Yancey and old blues like that.

You guys released your 2009 debut “Tomorrow Is Alright” on Soft Abuse/Secret Seven. What was the overall approach and vision for this album? Would you mind walking me through some of the songs that are featured on the album? How did the deal with those guys come about?

At that time I was writing a lot of song that felt like comic book tales. I was trying for something sort of like Robert Crumb. Little weird tales. That’s how songs like “Death Cream”, or “Planet Of Women” came about. These were short linear narratives that you could see as a comic book and they often contained dialogue. I was very influenced by 50’s and early 60’s rock n’ roll, very rudimentary music that has been rececylded by every generation. As far as a record deal, soft abuse originally released a 7’”. Then they began to release the full length, but I signed with Fat Possum and that superseded the original label. 

In 2011 you released your anticipated follow up “Hit After Hit”. Tell me about writing and recording this record and how you wanted to approach this material compared to your previous work. How did the deal with Fat Possum initially come about?

This record was being made at the same time “Tomorrow is Alright” was, it was all part of the same phase. It was just an expansion of a similar phase. Again, I was emulating a certain 60’s type of music which I love and looking for a more original lyrics on an old rock n’ roll archetype. “So She plays Yo Yo With My Mind” was getting back to old music, but keeping it personal and original lyrically. Fat Possum came around early on and signed me for “Tomorrow Is Alright” and “Hit after Hit”. 

I’d like to jump ahead a bit to the group’s most recent album “New Day With New Possibilities” that was released in 2021. Tell me about writing and recording this album as well as working with the RIYH Records. How much has the pandemic affected the band and in what ways did it influence this album?

This was a very pandemic record, I had a studio in the woods through an art residency and it was quiet and the pandemic had really created a solitary experience artistically for me. I was fine with it. I enjoyed being alone. I started writing some country songs and let the aloneness guide the songs. It’s a very sparse album, dark and solitary at times and jovial at times as well. I made it mostly by myself and just asking a few friends to be involved here and there. Rusty Miller played a lot of instruments. It didn’t take long to make. The title felt fitting for a time when no one really knew what was going to happen and humanity, or just individually we could make a pivot to something new. That’s what the pandemic created, a time of reflection for a lot of people. 

Anything going on this spring/summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers? 

This summer I am going to Greece to write songs on a bouzouki by the water.