Sarah and the Sundays talks tour life

By: Amy Tang

777 Collective: How's it going? You guys wrapped up touring with The Happy Fits this past spring? How was that? 

Liam: Awesome. There were some big shows for us. We got to go to places we hadn't played before. Houston…New Orleans was awesome. We all had a pretty good time there.

Brendon: ––And reconnecting with them [The Happy Fits] since their last tour. And they were the first people who brought us out. Since then we've done a headlining tour and have grown a little bit in the touring world. So it feels good to come back and kind of show them how much we've developed.

L: Yeah, and it was fun because their show in Austin––like the shows that were postponed––we had tickets to their show in Austin, and then ended up paying to play it with them instead when it got there.

What were some of your biggest highlights from the tour?

Miles: Definitely getting to see The Happy Fits again at the very least, they’re a cool bunch of guys. 

Quinn: The type of travel that happens during tour is really specific because you get to go to all these cities, but you have things to do most of the time we were there, which was kind of cool because we'd get like an off day every once in a while to like see a city like Seattle, Asheville, or New Orleans. Yeah, so stuff like that's cool where you get to like be more involved in the city as opposed to just like touring and like sightseeing and doing that kind of stuff so yeah, and just getting to meet people and like be in cool places and get paid to do it like that was kind of crazy.

L: I think for me it was the cats of New Orleans, there were so many cats at the Airbnb. The street cats had awesome vibes. Yeah, there was a cat fight that had to be broken up. 

Q: I think New Orleans was a highlight for all of us because we'd never played there before. We got to go to Cafe Du Monde and get beignets.

So, have you guys picked up any pre-show rituals? 

L: We’ve had one that we’ve been doing for a long time. 

M: It’s kind of a controlled low volume chant that we do, it’s from Magic Mike…we do that. That's our main thing, kind of like, our checking thing we do it like two minutes before every show.

B: For the people in theater, we do like “calling the time” when you have four minutes till the show, you say “Four minutes”… it’s a classic for musical theater. 

What have you guys been listening to while on the road?

L: Leith Ross just released a new album and they are fantastic. And it's one of like–lyrically one of the best albums I've heard in a very long time. So I haven't listened to that like almost entirely on this tour specifically. 

M: Jessica Jalpert is pretty cool, an album Liam put me on. 

Q: Honestly, I have been sleeping too much in the van.

What's been the most surreal moment you guys have had in your musical career so far?

M: I would say getting a place in October. That was a really crazy thing for us because, like, ever since we got to Austin, that was kind of “it”, we were like “maybe someday we'll do that.” Brendon, I mean, has had that kind of more of his life because he's from there. But that was really crazy. And like the biggest amount of people we've ever played to in our first festival [Austin City Limits], so it's just like a really crazy mix of things that like…

L: Agreed. 

M: And I mean, we got to meet like, a lot of like, well not a lot but some of our like, our favorite artists who were kind of like backstage so and got to meet some of them. Cody Ko was there.

If you could travel back five years in time and say one thing to yourself, what would it be?

B: Don’t do it!

L: Wait, what was five years ago? 

Probably like 2018? 

Declan: I would say enjoy the next year and four months of the world.

Q: Maybe, stop spending so much money.

D: I feel like a lot of it would just be like, do the thing. Personally, at least I think around that time was kind of roughly like when we were getting ready to graduate high school and go to college. And I don't speak for everybody, but I definitely wanted to do music. But I didn't do music in middle school or high school or anything. So I didn't like––I mean like in a band or jazz. So doing music in college, it really didn’t seem like an option. So I kind of put it aside, but then went to college and had nothing to do, and realized I shouldn't be there so yeah. I think it's just kind of like, you kind of…you know. You kind of know, you know?Just do it

L: Just do it, and it really comes down to it every time. 

So what's next after The Living End? Have you guys been spending a lot of time in the studio? And when can we expect new music?

B: I think music is on the way.

D: We've got a bunch of new songs and we're working on it. We're in the process of getting them recorded.

L: We'll probably be playing shows before then where we play it live though.

D: Yeah, yeah. Definitely adding them to the rotation. But I think we're hoping to get them done later this year, hopefully and I don't think we have an exact date but hopefully.

L: We’re gonna get a single out by like…sometime in the fall and start to get the ball rolling. It's hard, just today we had a phone call with my manager about the producer we're working with and how we're going to get that going. So, we're gonna have a timeline soon. I don't think we do just yet. But it’s in the works yeah, sure.

Will you guys be playing anything new tonight? 

*Collective nods around the table*

I guess we’ll see? It’s going to be like Taylor Swift’s surprise songs.

B: Oh yeah, she’s coming I think. 

M: She’s in the greenroom. 

B: No one seems to have caught on that it’s her yet.

Just one last question: If you were a candy what kind of candy would you be?

D: Okay, but is this aspirational? Or…

It could be based on just vibes. 

Q: I’d probably be a candied ginger, yeah. I’d probably be that. 

B: I saw actually here in the Duck Room, one of those––I don’t know if you’ve had these––but the little toys that had a lollipop on it with one of those things that spun it for you? That’s what I am. I just think it’s really cool, it was a big flashback. 

D: Yeah, I’d probably be like…I don’t know, a peanut M&M. Cause you don't really know what you're seeing. 

Q: And there’s a peanut on the inside…and people who are allergic to you…will die. 

M: Snickers. 

B: Cause you’re not you when you’re hungry. 

M: That’s true, I’m terrible when I’m hungry. 

L: That's a really hard question. Because I love candy and I have two different things that I think I might be equal parts of. In the first one would be, you know, those like strawberry candies, like grandmas always have? Where did they get them? Maybe those, because I just really loved those. But I like that they're kind of elusive and mysterious, and I wish that I was more that way. And the other is, do you know those Laffy Taffy like…like sticks like long strings? I call them gay Slim Jims ‘cause I’m gay, I’m vegetarian, and I don't eat Slim Jims, but they're the same shape and so good.

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