Sarah and the Sundays have finally hit their stride; during the pandemic, the band found themselves hitting a beat that consistently yielded the creative results they’ve been searching for: music that resonates with them and their core audience. Consisting of members Miles, Declan, Quinn, Liam, and Brendan, the Austin-based band has managed to garner support from the likes of acclaimed actress Drew Barrymore, who shared a Tik-Tok of herself jamming out to one of their songs, and the rock band Smash Mouth who included Sarah and the Sunday’s song, “Take your
While their Half Way Home EP signified the band’s ability to write and construct relatable songs with grooves that’ll either make you move or move you to tears, their latest single “Vices” is a track that melds both of these concepts together into one emotionally charged effort that challenges the band vocally and instrumentally as they exit their comfort zone—a clear signal of great things to come from their upcoming album, The Living End.
In anticipation of the rising indie band’s upcoming album releasing on October 15th, I got a chance to sit down with the guys and talk about everything from their humble beginnings as the Sundays to the meaning of their upcoming album’s title.
This was the conversation.
MARC: You guys are called Sarah and the Sundays, right, and a guy like me would ask the question of “so, why aren’t you all called Sarah and the Saturdays? What? No love for the other six weekdays?” Take me through the mindset and creation of your band’s name.
MILES: Originally we were the Sundays because we practiced every Sunday but then we found out that there was already a British band from the ’80s called the Sundays—which made some people really upset because they felt we just stole their name—so at our first show my sister Sarah was there and we took a picture with her after the show, captioning the picture as “Sarah and the Sundays.” So, when it came time to look for a new name, we saw that caption and thought it kind of felt right.
MARC: Fire, fire, I honestly thought it
DECLAN: I’ll take this one; Miles and I have been friends since we were one year old—our moms met at a pregnant yoga class when they were pregnant with us, basically been friends our whole lives. So the four of us, excluding Brendan, we’re all from Connecticut, and Miles and I met Liam in a guitar class in our sophomore year of high school, and Liam was like, “I’ll play bass in your band,” and we basically did that for a bit. From there, we started asking everyone literally to be in our band, and that resulted in about thirty people being in our band, which didn’t work, so then quickly it became just me, Miles, and Liam left. We then asked Quinn to be our drummer, and he said “no” because he was drumming in the school’s jazz band and doing other scholarly things, but we asked him again shortly after that, and he said he’d join. Liam and I went to college in Boulder, and Liam roomed with Brendan, who is from Austin, and so freshman year was the period where Liam and Brendan bonded, and we grew closer. We all dropped out of college, and we pitched the idea to Brendan that he is shouldering our band because he had already been playing guitar in some of our songs that we recorded in college, and Brendan said, “yeah, and you guys should move to Austin,” and we responded saying “sure, I mean we got nothing else better to do” (laughs), and that’s what it been, we been in Austin for a couple of years now.
MARC: Wow, and from there, what was the first project or single you guys released that inspired you all to keep going?
Liam: That’s an interesting question, and I’m actually kind of embarrassed to talk about this, but we released an EP as the Sundays…which we really need to take down (laughs).
Brendan: Yeah (laughs), some of those songs rip, actually Miles and I were listening to those songs on the road trip.
L: (laughs) Yeah, but that project didn’t get a lot of reception, but we did keep going anyway just because we loved it. Our first Sarah and the Sundays project was I Don’t Know Yet, which is taken down now due to the sound of that project being kind of outdated at this point, but it got a decent reception, so that was very encouraging, there were a couple of songs that people really liked from that one. By taking that project down, we felt we would have more room to grow with this newer project that we’re about to release, so it kind of needed to be done.
MARC: Did I Don’t Know Yet inspire you guys, or maybe another project like Half Way Home convinced you guys that you were headed in the right direction creatively due to the reception from your fans? Anything of that nature happened to you guys at all?
L: Our song “Moving On” was the first time we saw actual numbers with fans coming in at consistent rates. Because we used to get so stoked about hitting a thousand plays, things after “Moving On” just grew to a point where yeah, we still get excited about those amount of plays, but it’s different now. “Moving On” was the catalyst for building our core audience.
Quinn: I agree; we wouldn’t be where we are right now if we didn’t have “Moving On.”
MARC: And what project is “Moving On” from just so the lovely people at home can get a little context.
L: Right. “Moving On” was released as a single, and then we put it on a project we did called So You’re Mad About The Cups
MARC: (laughs) that title is really good; at first glance, you would think it’s a very misleading title, but you realize it makes all the sense when you dive into your music. Still tho, super funny (all the guys laugh). But I sort of mentioned your project Half Way Home EP; a lot of the songs on their sort of deal with the mundaneness of quarantine; the world was locked down due to the pandemic. What was the recording process like during this period, and how did it differ from your usual recording process?
B: It was very different than before because it was our first experience in a studio and with Soren Hanson in Nashville, and he has a home studio there, so during COVID, we planned to go there and record. While we were there, we ended up recording an album along with the four songs from Half Way Home. But that process was super easy for us because those responsibilities of engineering were taking off of the laps of Liam and Declan. Recording everything was done by a super professional dude who knew the process inside and out; we came up with some music that sounds right.
MARC: And for the rest of you, what were you guys feeling during that whole process of recording with Soren Hanson? Any revelations you made about your creative process or your mental state that you hadn’t paid attention to before the start of the pandemic?
B: I can go again if you guys don’t mind. So, we were playing a lot, and when you hear the music, you’ll be able to tell from the way it sounds that we’ve grown closer as a band from all the time we’ve had to play with each other during quarantine. Especially because we live together, which is something that we talked about a lot during the recording process, too.
D: If I remember correctly, the only song from Half Way Home that we wrote post-COVID was “I’m So Bored”. The other three songs had already been hashed out a bit, and we had been playing them for a month, trying to figure out what was working and what wasn’t. So, to immediately make I’m So Bored right after this is definitely a confidence booster for us. I feel like that was a bit of a jumping-off point for our next album, as well as we began to record songs for that project during COVID.
MARC: And actually, while we’re on the topic of the recording process for you guys, I have to ask about the roles that everyone plays during the creation of your songs; who plays guitar, drums, etc.? Because honestly I was looking at everybody and I was trying to guess who does what, and I feel like I kind of have an idea but—
All the guys immediately around the same time and inaudibly: NoyeahIwanttohearitguesses.
MARC: Alright, challenge accepted (laughs), so Brendan, you are obviously the lead guitar, right?
B: (smirking with two sick guitars conjoined to his wall) Yes, you got me (laughs).
MARC: Liam, you’re the lead singer.
L: Uhm-hm
MARC: Boom. Declan, you’re the pseudo-engineer, and you play drums?
D: I am the pseudo-engineer, but I do not play drums (laughs); I play them but just not in the band, though.
MARC: Damn, alright
Q: Not that we know of (they laugh).
MARC: So, I have never had to make a harder decision in my life, honestly.
B: Yeah, man, there is a lot riding on this moment.
MARC: I’m going to say that it’s Miles…?!
Q: Nah (laughs), that would be me (all the guys laugh).
MARC: Damn (laughs), so, Miles, what do you play?
MILES: I play guitar and keyboard.
MARC: Dope, have you guys ever tried switching up the instrument duties for various songs, or is it more of an,
MILES: We mostly stay in our lanes, to be honest.
D: Yeah, the only thing that really gets passed around is the acoustic guitar during our shows.
MARC: Now that I know who plays what in the band, I wanted to get into the genetic makeup of your latest track, “Vices.” A beautiful track and I really took a liking to the build-up to the instrumentation coming in like a wave of emotion following the track’s revealing lyrical content. Who wrote that song, and what inspired those lyrics?
L: So, I wrote the bones of that song, the chorus, and the lyrics. It’s a difficult song to talk about because I put quite a bit of element into the making of it. I didn’t really stick to one general theme—which I have a tendency to do; I generally dump a lot of my thoughts into a song and just make it sound the way I want it to. But “Vices” in particular… it’s difficult to put a pin in it and talk about specific parts of it for that reason. For example, in the second chorus, there’s a lyric that starts, “you didn’t even let me say goodbye; was that really your decision?”
MARC: Super emotionally charged lyric, four sure. I felt the stress from a bad break up there.
L: Yeah, that whole part is about my mom giving away my pet lizard when I was not home, and she just gave it away, man (deadpan into the camera) just gave it away (the zoom squares are full of smiling musicians at this point, chuckling as if they heard this story before from Liam the frontman).
MARC: Okay, wait, wait, wait. (Holding back a laugh) Now hold on, I don’t want to be insensitive, so…hold on (all the guys begin laughing, except Liam, who is still, and I can’t stress this enough, incredibly deadpan). I imagine you really really cared about this lizard.
L: Yeah, I actually had that lizard for ten years.
MARC: I feel you, but when I heard that, I was like, “damn, now who done went ahead and broke this man’s heart? This is crazy” (laughter consumes the zoom call).
L: Yeah, I have a tendency to write love songs that, on closer inspection, are definitely not.
D: “Moving On,” for example.
L: Yeah, that song is about not wanting to go to college.
MARC: Fair enough.
L: So, “Vices” I drew from that memory of mom giving away my lizard, and like I said this was a long time ago, but I remember writing down “but you didn’t even let me say goodbye” as a note in my phone, and I saw it when writing that track and felt that it could definitely fit in that song. I literally have thousands of notes in my phone that sit there until I need them for a song. Because of this process, that song is about a ton of different things, and then for the recording of the song, it was our very first time in the studio like Brendan mentioned earlier, and we met Soren for the first time. “Vices” was the song we made during that time, for free, and it was created in one day: an amazing experience and a dream for us to work with Soren.
D: I will say too after we recorded “Vices,” we went ahead and showed it to our managers and other people in that realm, and they were all so stoked! They said, “this is it!” And we were like “word.” When it came time to pick a producer for the album, we knew that we wanted to connect with Soren again; it was an obvious choice for us. You have to understand that we literally created that song in one day; we went from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the track was done. So we went back for two weeks, and we had a chance to re-record “Vices” and really flesh out some of the other songs—which was sick!
B: And for our album, that was still recorded in a “song-a-day” type of fashion, which was a really cool way to do it. We had already created a tracklist before we arrived at the studio, so the first day was the first song on the album and so on and so forth. The cool part is you’ll be able to hear that when you listen to the album because everything was made so tightly together. We still had the memory of the last song that we recorded, so the vibes were all still fresh in our minds. We were going hard on these ten to twelve-hour days.
MARC: Much like “Vices,” it clearly sounds like a lot of love and effort went into getting your upcoming album done. Tell me a little about your new album.
B: Yeah, so the new album is titled The Living End and—
MARC: Wait, wait, wait. (The guys begin laughing again). Is the title one of those lizard situations from earlier? Do I have to prepare myself for another misleading moment, or is it exactly what it means?
Q: it’s definitely a little of both.
MILES: Somewhere in the middle of what you were saying (laughs).
B: The meaning of The Living End means the best as in this is the living end, the prime of all life.
D: Honestly, a lot of the title came from a similar situation to “Vices” I wouldn’t call “Vices” an uplifting song, but it’s not definitely not sad, sonically speaking, it doesn’t make you cry. The lyrics are really sad—
MARC: But the vibe of it isn’t.
D: Right, and that’s ultimately our goal; we want to infuse some happy-sounding music with some really depressing lyrics. So, in the context of COVID, it feels like the world is ending; I feel like the living end is this cool phrase that, at face value, you’re like, it’s the end, but it actually means the best. It’s kind of like infusing both ideas and fusing them into one concept—that’s what this album, The Living End, actually is.
Q: Yeah, this upcoming album is a bunch of sad songs that you can jam out to (laughs).
MARC: Right, the apocalypse is coming but thank God we have Sarah and the Sundays, amirite? (laughter erupts). No, no, trust me, I’m catching on to the vibes. What can fans come to expect from your creative output on The Living End?
Q: People can definitely expect some fast, energetic songs.
L: Yeah, it’s definitely a danceable album for the most part. There are some surprises like this one song that fans may recognize if they have been listening to us long enough, but it’ll be new to them as well.
D: I think the main takeaway for this album is that in the past, prior to this album and the EP, most of the music-making as either been me or Liam; Liam writes and records a demo,
MARC: Is there anything else that you want the people reading this to know about your upcoming endeavors? Any scheduled tours on the horizon or music videos that we can look forward to from you guys?
B: Well, we just put out a music video for “Vices,” but that was the last thing that we worked towards.
Q: We also have a show at the Fonda on the 23rd…?
Quinn’s bandmates correcting him in unison: on the 22nd (laughs).
Q: Yes, on the 22nd (laughs).
D: We definitely want to do another music video for one of the songs that have not been shared yet. Not sure how or when that’s going to happen, but it’s definitely on our to-do list, and we have a pretty good video idea for that song. The concept is already fully fleshed out, so we just want to get that on cameras, but no official plans, just aspirations as of right now.
MARC: Fantastic. And that’s all I have, guys! Thank you so much for agreeing to do this, and thank you for being so chill; I appreciate y’all.
D: Yeah, you were great, thank you.
B: Yeah, thanks man, nice to meet you.
L: Appreciate you, thank you.
MILES: Sweet, See ya.
Q: Awesome, thanks so much, man.
Sarah and the Sundays’ electric latest single “Vices” can be streamed here.
The Living End releases October 15th.
