Sonny & The Sunsets

Sonny & The Sunsets

Sonny & The Sunsets is a San Francisco group centred on Sonny Smith and Shayde Sartin. The project works across indie pop and rock with surf rock influences, and its lineup includes a shifting group of musicians rather than a fixed four-piece. Over time, the band includes figures such as Tim Cohen of The Fresh & Onlys, Tahlia Harbour of Citay and The Dry Spells, and Kelley Stoltz. Later lineups also include Ryan Browne, Tahlia Harbour and Kelley Stoltz.

Background

Sonny Smith begins performing as a pianist, playing Jimmy Yancey covers in mountain-town clubs in Colorado when he is 18. Those shows lead him to Denver and then to Central America, where he busks along the Telemanca Coast with friends in a band. During this period he also works on screenplays, and these eventually turn into songs built around characters, dialogue and narrative plots.

Before Sonny & The Sunsets, Smith records a number of solo releases, including This Is My Story, This Is My Song in 2002, Sordid Tales of Love and Woe the following year, and Sweet Lorraine, which features harmony vocals from Jolie Holland. He also writes and directs a short film, Kid Gus Man, in 2000.

Writing, theatre and collaborative work

Smith develops a wider body of work beyond music. In 2005 he receives a residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts to write and perform the play The Dangerous Stranger, and in 2006 he receives another residency from the LAB in San Francisco to produce the second part of the story, Stranger Danger!. He also writes the column “Steppin’ Out” for the New Mission Newspaper and publishes fiction and stories in literary magazines.

Also in 2005, Watchword Literary Magazine commissions One Act Plays, a CD project that features contributions from Edith Frost, Neko Case, Miranda July, Jolie Holland, Andy Cabic, Virgil Shaw, Mark Eitzel, John Dwyer and Rico Bell of the Mekons, among others. Smith later records Fruitvale with Wilco’s Leroy Bach and other Chicago musicians; the songs are written about his neighbourhood in Oakland.

Albums and releases

Sonny & The Sunsets release Tomorrow Is Alright in 2010 on Fat Possum, after an earlier version of the project appears in 2009 on Soft Abuse/Secret Seven. The album includes the single “Too Young to Burn”. The group follows it with Hit After Hit on Fat Possum in 2011. In 2012 they sign to Polyvinyl Records for Longtime Companion, also known as the band’s country album.

Other projects

In 2009 Smith acts in Robert Arnold’s short film All Animals. Around the same period he receives another Headlands Center for the Arts residency to begin “100 Records,” a project in which 100 artists create 7-inch record covers for fictional bands, with Smith providing the music. The exhibition begins at Gallery 16 in San Francisco, then travels to Okay Mnt Gallery in Austin and Cinders Gallery in New York, with artists including William Wiley, Alika Cooper, Chris Johansen, Alice Shaw, Paul Wackers and Rebecca Miller.