This spring, local Indie Rock stalwarts Automagik released Fluorescent Nights, a danceably logical extension of their magnificent 2018 album, Goldmine.
In conversation prior to Fluorescent Nights’ release, guitarist/vocalist Zach Evans mentioned his work on two projects under the musical identity Sunfiend while quarantined in his newly purchased home. Evans was vague about the projects, saying they would come out eventually.
That might stand as the understatement of an overstated year. One week before the release of Fluorescent Nights, Evans posted his solo debut, Staycation, on his Sunfiend Bandcamp page.
“I’d been making music independently for years but had never put a name to it,” says Evans via phone from his Newport home. “I wanted to call it something that wasn’t my name, not to distance my identity from it but to make it more about the music. That’s how I landed with Sunfiend.”
Staycation was a gentle escapist fantasy created in the early shadow of the COVID-19 lockdown. It was also Evans’ songwriting challenge project.
“I did a song a day for 10 days, just for my own sanity, to occupy my days with something. I figured music was the best outlet I’ve got,” Evans says. “I actually bought myself a ukelele. I didn’t think about what I was doing or what was good enough.”
Three months later, Evans posted Reflector, Sunfiend’s sophomore album. Reflector was more atypically typical of Automagik’s smart Indie Pop Rock — cleverly humorous nudge/wink lyrics, rhythmic music rooted in New Wave and ‘80s Dance Pop, equally comfortable in settings both anthemic and balladic — and showcased Evans’ impressive home studio abilities.
Parts of Reflector dated to when Evans was writing new Automagik music, resulting in ideas he set aside as being not-quite-right for the band. In transforming those music shards into songs, he envisioned a second conceptual set; Staycation represented Evans picturing himself on a Hawaiian beach, and Reflector became his musings on interpersonal connections.
“The theme of Staycation was escapism; the Reflector was purely emotional,” says Evans. “It was a reflection on relationship experiences of mine and my friends, things I’ve witnessed in love and entanglements. I got into a sentimental mindset and let that take me where it would.”
Evans completed his unintentional quarantine trilogy with the effervescent and slightly skewed Funky Butter, which may stand as the best of the three. The new Funky Butter is the most pandemically focused of the trio, as Evans portrays an off-world spectator with a ringside seat to a world held hostage by viral terror.
“This one is about feeling alienated in crazy times and this year’s extreme tensions,” Evans says. “It’s me feeling like I don’t have a place in this world but staying positive. At times, I’ve felt like I wanted to be a little too happy to compensate, or maybe a little too bummed out about how heavy things are. I leaned into the character of this almost alien being on the sidelines of society who’s writing about and reacting to it, not really with an opinion, just commentary. But I think, whether I like it or not, my opinion makes its way into these songs.”
Funky Butter’s conceptual framework is immediately evident. The album is bookended by the Foxy-Shazam-meets-Bootsy-Collins ebullience of “Everybody’s at the Party” and the boozy, laconic regret of “Everybody’s Left the Party.” Everything in between is ostensibly “the party,” but there’s an unnerving queasiness leading to the inevitable conclusion that, even when the mood is lightened, things are pointedly wrong, as though the partygoers are dancing while the world burns.
“That’s really it. I’ve felt very confused this year — like everybody — so the record itself is a little confusing,” Evans says. “Even making it, I was breaking my own rules, experimenting with my tendencies and preferences for what music should and shouldn’t sound like. There are moments where I intentionally made bad decisions. I had my fiancee Audrey do a verse on ‘Human Zoo.’ She doesn’t sing, she’s not musical, I just wanted her to be involved because it was funny. I was like, ‘Say, I’m a funky bunny bear.’ We improvised the entire verse from there.”
While Staycation and Reflector were performed solely by Evans, Funky Butter features several cameos: the aforementioned Audrey Moore; Evans’ workmate, Kara Henry, who provided vocals on “The Man;” former Automagik drummer Teddy Aitkins, who sings and drums on “Everybody’s at the Party;” and current Automagik drummer Andy Cluxton, who plays on “My Name in Lights.”
Evans had more ambitious plans for Funky Butter, but they never came to fruition.
“The first two were done in a vacuum and Funky Butter was my effort to shake that because I was getting bored,” Evans says with a laugh. “I initially intended to bring in as many people as I could for guest vocals. It was going to be this big cameo/collaborative record, but nope, that didn’t happen because of the pandemic. The worst time ever to decide to make a collaborative album.”
Evans also credits his friend and photographer Tyler Isaacs for influencing all three projects with the impactful images he contributed to the process.
“Tyler’s photography captured the spirit I was trying to evoke with each release,” Evans says. “The art definitely inspired some of the music choices. That was one way I was able to collaborate on these releases outside of the music.”
Sunfiend’s sound isn’t dramatically different from Automagik’s sonic fingerprint, as it all represents Evans’ long-standing spectrum of influences and his translation/incorporation methodology. The main departure is that Sunfiend is Evans’ creative id unbound.
“The solo stuff is more free in terms of rules, which can be total chaos,” he says. “Me and Devin (Williams) have been writing together for so long, I feel like I have a built-in Devin voice in my head. But now I think maybe I just have multiple personalities. Funky Better is probably a good indication of that, song to song; there are a lot of characters I get into.
“Project to project, Automagik is really just me and Devin having fun. It’s like playing ping-pong with music. We keep the game going and it’s very back and forth. With Sunfiend, it’s playing ping-pong with myself. Hard to play, harder to win.”
Learn more about Sunfiend and listen at sunfiend.bandcamp.com.
