“When I wrote Dopeless Hope Fiend, I was drinking like a fish and was probably in the darkest point of my life,” Christian Steward told CL. He is talking about the new EP by his Tampa-based rock band, Sun Signs, which is emerging from a hiatus to play an Ybor City show on August 18. The band’s BOTB-winning self-titled 2015 full-length used astrological signs in song titles to make song meanings more ambiguous, but Stewart, 29, writes less about abstract ideas and more about the life he lives. “My music tends to be very personal, and in a way, it’s all for me. It’s something I don’t necessarily like about my style. But it is what it is.”
ALBUM REVIEW
Sun Signs delivers a fine LP that's been three years in the making
Recorded at the studio of Matt Reisinger, Dopeless Hope Fiend found Sun Signs leaning on the Tampa musician and engineer to help the band get out of its own way.
“We’ve known Matt since his Select Start days, and we wanted to work with a friend and someone local; it fit both those things,” bassist Jeff Dominguez says. “He just brought a supportiveness to try new ideas or stop us from doing a million takes, and I think that led to capturing some great performances as well as something a little more true to the sound in our heads.”
Stewart says the wellspring of equipment at Reisinger’s studio also helped Sun Signs add a sound and texture to the record that wouldn’t have been possible had Sun Signs decided to record again in its non-air-conditioned V.M. Ybor home studio. The mix on Dopeless Hope Fiend was a double bonus. “Matt has a great ear. He asked us for reference material for mixing it, which we never gave him. But I kind of just wanted to see what he would do, and I wasn’t disappointed,” Stewart says.
Dominguez, 29, says the songs, plain and simple, are about the ups and down of making through your 20s. They’re about being the bad guy and the good guy, and they’re about being lucky and unlucky at the very same time. Stewart adds that the EP doesn’t really have a general motif outside of being something he wrote when he was in and out of a particular relationship. If it’s anything like Sun Signs, then we can expect the sound to be as biting as the lyrics. Still, there was one cut that we won’t ever hear.
“There were six songs recorded but one didn’t make it [because] I felt [it] was personally attacking. It had some brutal humor in it. I’m glad I took the time not to release,” Stewart says. “It was simply gratuitous.”
Read our full Q&A and get more information on the show below.
The Bricks 8-Year Anniversary w/Radarmen/The Tim Version/Sun Signs/Bendy Straw/Louis Junior/Sam E Hues/Head High/Betty Dawl/DJ Knox. Sat. Aug. 18, 7 p.m. Free. The Bricks, 1327 E. 7th Ave., Ybor City. thebricksybor.com.
Sun Signs was always smart about not playing a ton of shows, but it’s safe to say that the band holed up over the last year, yes? If so, why the break?
Christian Stewart: Everyone has been focused on their own personal endeavors and the band took a hiatus, Jordan (our guitarist) bought a home with his Wife , and Jeff purchased a home with his girlfriend. Kelvin (our Drummer) got engaged, and I’m a whimsical degenerate. We like playing music, but at the end of the day you gotta live and make sure your bills are paid.
Jeff Dominguez: Part of the laying off playing locally as much came from wanting put finishing touches on new material. We were getting to a point where we were not able to write because we were just making sure our set was tight for whatever the next date was. Local promoters often ask that you don’t “oversaturate” which has led to us producing a lot of our own events. We really lost interest in the local bureaucracy that is the “hook up.” It started out pretty supportive but we developed what I have been told is a “high risk” factor. You never knew just how intense things were going to get. To us that’s rock n roll though. We aren’t trying to bring vapid art into the world, there’s enough of that out there. So in short we took a break to write then it turned into a just a break. We are back though, hope you missed us.
Did you record the EP in a place with air conditioning this time?
Jeff: Absolutely had air conditioning this record. Haha
Christian: We actually did have air conditioning this time. We recorded everything at Matt Reisinger’s home, fairly quickly. Then sat on the recording for a while because we didn’t know how we felt about it. Nothing Reisinger did, because it came out great. We’re just our own worst critics and sometimes we have to let things settle after we record them.
Did Matt work on all of Dopeless Hope Fiend? What do you think outside influences like Matt do for Sun Signs’ sound that it could not do on its own?
Jeff: We recorded with Matt Reisinger at his home in Seminole heights, we’ve known Matt since his Select Start days, and we wanted to work with a friend and someone local; it fit both those things. I would say he just brought a supportiveness to try new ideas or stop us from doing a million takes, and I think that led to capturing some great performances as well as something a little more true to the sound in our heads. We initially had this whole idea of recording to tape then it became digital but will run it through tape and at the end of the day we just took it as is. Really happy with how record came out.
Christian: Matt had so much equipment. The vintage bass amp he had with Jeff’s chorus pedal at the beginning of the title track “Dopeless Hopefiend” was instrumental (pun not intended, but kind of was). The 90’s Turbo Rat I used nn the back up guitars was just plain sexy. And Matt has a great ear. I loved his mix. He asked us for reference material for mixing it, which we never gave him. But I kind of just wanted to see what he would do, and I wasn’t disappointed.
I think the songs were getting mixed in October and being recorded since April, right? Could we talk about the process of writing, recording and mixing it — how long it took, etc.? Rancho Romano Studios again? How many songs are on it?
Jeff: The time span seems long I agree but, we take our time generally we don’t have deadlines so we just plug away ‘til it’s ready. This can take time. Our sessions also became very spaced out as Reisinger’s schedule became a bit busier with his Fr33dback project and as well other artists he started working with amidst our time with him. This gave us time to really sit and think about our moves so we could just not be going through motions while laying tracks down. Rancho Romano sadly was not one of the stops on the journey that was making this record.
Who’s in the lineup these days?
Christian: The lineup is the same as when we started the band: Myself (Christian “Blind-Eye Stewie”) Jeff “Big Strings” Dominguez, Jordan “the Dungeon Master” Chronister, and Kelvin “Hampster” Hampton.
Your 2015 album had a built-in theme and concept considering the band’s name. Could you talk about whether or not Dopeless Hope Fiend has a central theme that listeners can try and lock into?
Christian: There were six songs recorded but one didn’t make it. These songs were super personal. There’s no general motif, just a number of songs I wrote in my mid-20s when I was in and out of a particular relationship. The song that didn’t make it I felt was personally attacking. Had some brutal humor in it, that I’m glad I took the time not to release. It was simply gratuitous.
Jeff: The songs on the new record share a feel but not a deliberate concept. It’s kind of funny the first record it feels like a lot of people felt the concept had some depth since it really was just us organizing those songs by deciding that hiding who they are about behind their signs could work. The name just kinda bubbled up in the process. The new EP titled Dopeless Hope Fiend is five tracks, and in my eyes the record is a collection of songs that reflect the ups and downs of the disillusionment that is making it through your 20s. In some songs your the good guy some songs you’re the bad guy. Some parts your lucky and also that luck turns. It’s life, it can be bullshit (insert picture of French guy with a cigarette).
Christian, how would you say you’ve grown as a lyricist since writing the songs for Sun Signs? What kinds of books, magazines or media do you consume and how does it inspire how you write?
Christian: Lyrics? They seem to escape me, lately. However, our first album, I was smoking a lot of the marijuana, dabbling in other psychedelics and being a 20-something fuck off. Jobless, I would sit around and listen to Spotify and just peruse similar artists I liked and would try to imitate them. Treefort music festival in Boise, Idaho would release their lineups and I would immerse myself in that catalog, as it were. And that’s something I haven’t stopped this day; However, I’m no longer jobless and I don’t do a lot of drugs. When I wrote Dopeless Hope Fiend, I was drinking like a fish and was probably in the darkest point of my life. My music tends to be very personal, and in a way, it’s all for me. It’s something I don’t necessarily like about my style. But it is what it is? I can ramble about this for hours because the accurate answer to your question will always escape me. But I feel like my best material comes out when I’m not sober.
So I’m having a hard time finding the origin story for the band, and general background on the members. How’d everyone meet and get together? I’m a little more familiar with Jeff’s other bands, but what other bands was Christian in?
Jeff: Sun Signs started on my front porch with me and Christian. He had written two songs that became “Capricorn” and “Aquarius” on the first record. The naming of those tunes kinda set the table for the concept . Me and Christian had met years ago and we formed a band called Ettison. That LP never saw the light of the day, it was great record — wish we could have shared it. There was some interest locally and some other labels that will remain nameless.
The whole thing kind of imploded, our drummer (Justin Lundy) is now a local hip-hop artist and the other guitarist (Matt Carter) is doing stand-up. Me and Christian, after Ettison, kinda re-sparked our creative flame when he joined Empire Cinema and we both wrote and performed on the first self-titled record. But as rock n roll does, rock n roll did. So with that Christian went onto focus a little more on Sun Signs. At this point Kelvin had joined the mix and the band was initially a three-piece. I played with Kelvin years ago in a local metalcore outfit around 2004 to 2008-ish called The Trojan Warfront. Me and him really cut our teeth at the Skatepark of Tampa’s Transistors Art Gallery.
Fast forward to 2012, I believe. At the time Kelvin and Christian were living together and the three of us really clicked. We worked out the initial six or so songs of the concept. This birthed itself as an EP that we were giving out at shows it was called the Chocolate Bear Sessions. This record actually had a different “Gemini” that was later replaced on the full-length release with another song. The new song went on to be a beautiful orchestrated piece with Tampa’s Same Day Delivery Orchestra. So we released that live session EP which we recorded with a lot of friends in the room. At that point we decided to bring Jordan into the fold; we felt he really added the icing to the cake. We had a summer of psychedelics, and it was pretty neat at the time. He actually learned the songs and overdubbed his parts as kind of a pleasant surprise.
When the haze cleared he was in the band. We spent the next two or so years working out the whole record demoing in the garage that became our infamous sweat box in V.M Ybor while still playing shows. We recorded the first record and then we did it again with nicer gear. To this day we debate which we prefer.we spent the next two years after the s/t release playing locally. And then we began the process again. How we write is very centered around Christian and filtered through the rest of us to create the sound that is Sun Signs. This band started as just friends wanting to make music with friends, we’ve all know each other over 10 years. We’re brothers.
This article appears in Aug 16-23, 2018.