SUNKIN POUR OUT SOULFUL INDIE ROCK WITH THEIR DEBUT SINGLE AND MUSIC VIDEO: THE POND.
Best friends and fellow creatives, Joe Ferdinand and Hector Cottam have been making music together for six years, gaining wide recognition from their previous projects and musical exploits. SUNKIN is the culmination of two years spent writing and busking across Europe with third member, Declan Brown. Now, in 2020 the band have re-imagined and reintroduced themselves and their sound with their debut track, The Pond.
Maybe because of their formation, maybe coincidentally, SUNKIN harbour an organic but well-crafted soundscape full of musical nuances and thoughtful, musing lyricism. The Pond begins with almost church-like piano contrasted with subtle but defined percussive beats: it feels like someone has found an old, dusty gramophone recording and then remixed it. The musical content of the track feels simple, yet not simplistic, full of recurring harmony using motifs picked up in the mellow vocal lines from Joe. As the track progresses, guided by an instrumental break, The Pond builds into more rocky, anthemic style with pulsing electronic guitar riffs, interjections from harmonious strings and fluctuating drum beats from Hector. With the cries of “my love, i’ll fight” the song moves on from a captivating calm, to an infectious emotional energy before the texture empties to end the track as it started, with all ears on the deep vocal melodies.
Even with this debut release it is clear that SUNKIN know how to write music for a live audience, and how to make feel good songs without compromising on their musical integrity. The sound world of The Pond feels like Lewis Capaldi meets Hozier but with something intrinsically unique, and definitley SUNKIN about it.
The accompanying music video to The Pond starring actor Alex Mateo, was directed by Plum Stupple-Harris and brings the aesthetic of the track to life, a performance set in a slightly bleak, bare walled room except for the pop of colours that come from the pot plants. As within the music, the rustic open top keyboard is a key focus throughout the video. The music video occasionally steps away from the performance to interject with story telling, with a creative use of split screen as we watch the events unfold, although personally I found after a few uses it felt a little less impactful.
Overall, the band member’s experiences and the time spent honing their craft has clearly made SUNKIN’s debut release one that is mature and poignant, with a music video and sound that could easily be a band’s fiftieth release, not their first.
