Line Up:
Bruno Neves On Lead Vocals
Joe Martignetti On Guitars
David Joy On Bass
Ted Maclnnes On Drums
Well,Friends Of Aristocracy!
We speak again of our newsroom, where in a little while, we will have, in all its emotions, the interview 160 of the Aristocracy.Today, we talk to a band that has been on the road since 2008. In addition, it mixes the classic Heavy with a strong progressive aspect. We are talking about Sunrunner. They show us their fifth album entitled Sacred Arts of Navigation. Remembering that before them they were made the albums Eyes of the Master in 2011, Time In Stone in 2013, Heliodromus in 2015 and the previous one that was made in 2018 called Ancient Arts of Survival.Let's go now to our interview with them and exclusively for the Brazilian press. Before that, let's go to a song by them and a thank you to the whole band and the Polish producer Solid Rock PR for showing us this spectacular band.
A1:Talking about the composition work in Sacred Arts of Navigation?
Sunrunner:It starts with unfinished songs that I write. I take the songs when they are half complete, or just a few riffs, or sometimes just missing an intro or whatever, and present them to Ted. For a drummer, Ted is very well versed in music training and very skilled at composition.So wherever, I get stuck writing a song, I show it to him.He helps me overcome whatever the issue is. Maybe, it is just missing a bridge, maybe the outro is too long, maybe the riff needs to move to another key, maybe there needs to be a modulation,there are many variations. And sometimes he tells me a certain part just sucks hahaha! I like this way of writing because it starts of as an individual idea, but becomes a group effort in the end. Sometimes Dave adds a few things too.
A2:What apocalyptic future band put in this album?
Sunrunner:Well, the lyrics are all different.The only song that is definitely about the apocalyptic future is just the last track ‘Navigating the Apocalypse’.But,there are a few other songs that are vague that kind of fit with that theme.The first track could be a personal apocalypse. ‘Invisible Demon of Ideology’ is a bit political, open to debate, but could be the pathway to an apocalypse, since no one can get along about that stuff. I don’t want to spell out all the songs, but they all fit.
A3:How to marry similar songs and a non-concept album?
Sunrunner:Well, it’s hard to explain. I have ideas for songs. But when I know there will be a theme for an album, some songs will wait until the next album if they have absolutely nothing in common. I have a few songs for the next album, and even a couple more ideas for songs two albums from now. And so on. I want to have the songs not be obviously connected either. That would be too much. It has to stay a little vague to maintain a little mystery. Every song can’t be about navigation, primitive skills and the apocalypse!Take the love ballad ‘Last Night In Tulum’. I had the idea to do that song for years. It has nothing to do with this primitive skills stuff, or navigation. But the story takes place on the coast of a small fishing town in Mexico. The common theme here is the ocean. ‘Dragonship’, although instrumental, the title should evoke an image of Vikings (totally original). It’s an instrumental song, so your imagination can take it wherever you like. But I wrote it imaging the first voyage from Greenland to what they called “Vinland”, which is located in modern day Nova Scotia, Canada. Not very far from where I live in the U.S.A. So that song is a navigational song.The first track ‘Promise Of Gold’ is an adventurous song. Maybe it takes place on the ocean, or maybe that is just an analogy? ‘Faraway Worlds’ is another type of journey. It involves death and space and other planets and weird things. ‘Where Is My Home’ is a longing type of journey. The last track, the epic of the album, is about a possible apocalypse and also takes place on the sea. So there are connections in the songs and they are married to the album. But the songs are individual and do not create one big story. They are all separate.
A4:Some literature or film inspire the band?
Sunrunner:I’m sure there is plenty of film in my subconscious that helps to inspire the music. But I am not sure if movies really helped shape the ideas.Maybe Star Wars and Mad Max! What really inspired me were the writings of Tom Brown Jr.The previous album ‘Ancient Arts of Survival’ was very much inspired by his books and teachings of primitive skills and the need to learn the ways of Nature.His wisdom comes from an elder Apache Native American who took Tom under his wing in the 1950’s. Tom was taught all the ways to live with Earth. From building shelters, knowing your plants and trees and what food, medicine and or tools they can be used for. Learning fire by friction, how to hunt and fish with minimal tools. Pretty much, how to drop everything and go on the greatest adventure of your life by the skills you learned as opposed to knowing nothing and carrying a life line of tools from society. I imagine these skills will make the ultimate human warrior as well. It is quite military actually.But also is seeped with beautiful wisdom of the Native Americans.So I imagine a future with crazy technology. Like personal flying cars and 3d computers and laser guns. But I also imagine someone deep in the woods sitting around their primitive camp, they arrived by their little private space ship and they are cleaning their laser guns as a wild rabbit they just hunted is being roasted on the fire.On ‘Sacred Arts of Navigation’ some things I didn’t get to write about on the previous record are discussed. So there are similar topics, some new topics and a warm ocean vibe as opposed to the previous autumn woods vibe.
A5:What would the 2022 Sunrunner say about the 2008 Sunrunner?
Sunrunner:Guys, what did you do and what are you doing? But why? And by the way, that guy over in the corner is going quit in a couple years. Also, what is that smell?” No, I would say “dudes, don’t get too artsy, don’t forget about the rock and metal foundation!” Because that is what we did! We were very experimental in the early days. But that has led to our quest of balancing out the rock, the metal and the prog.
A6:What´s the idea behind artwork´s album?
Sunrunner:Well, the artist Jan Barlow had the idea to have the Native American warrior again. Actually, I wasn’t entirely sure if we should do a sort of part 2 to the previous record. Because it is not a part 2. It is more of a continuation, but also different. I told Jan about the ocean, navigation adventure and primitive skills continuation that was going on for the album. I sketched up a little something that has a couple ideas. He takes it to the next level. But I didn’t know the warrior would be on it again. So after seeing the cover, we thought we have to tie the two records together now. It was the final push to do so after being unsure about it. So we are very happy with the result! Jan spends like fifty hours making the paintings for our covers. In real life, the paintings are very big.
A7:How were the progressions made for this album?
Sunrunner:We tried to trim away some of the unnecessary musical exploration and tried to make better songs. The songs are more cohesive and less “proggy”. Although, there are still quite a lot of “proggy” things happening in the music. We wanted to make the odd time signatures and all the weird things we do more subtle. We like challenging ourselves. The past two records, we have been challenging ourselves to keep the songs from getting out of control. It may seem easy to write shorter songs and difficult to write longer ones. But the opposite is true for us. Maybe because I am a guitarist? I tend to let the songs I write go longer than they need to. It takes discipline for me to stop writing so many parts for one song. I am not saying we are writing pop songs now! No way. The songs still have many parts. I’m saying we just turned it down a couple notches. There is also still an epic song for example. But it is 12 minutes instead of 20. A little more to the point.
A8:Sounds like the fifth song is a question, but it's not. Was the goal to deceive the listener?
Sunrunner:Yes, sort of. Adding a question mark to ‘Where Is My Home’ seemed redundant. So it would have looked like this ‘Where Is My Home?’. That way seems too spot on. Without the “?” it seems more of a statement, but could also be a question in terms of context within the song. And as a statement instead of a question, it seems vague yet also more urgent. Can a question be a statement? I don’t know. But anything goes these days! At least there are no emoji’s in a song title…yet.
A9:How come emerged the invite to Frank Navarro?
Sunrunner:Frank has always been a part of the band since the beginning. Somewhere between ‘Time In Stone’ and “Heliodromus’, he decided he couldn’t play live shows and tour with us. Yet he continued writing little parts of music with us here and there for every album. He also draws all the little bits on the inside of the c.d. sleeves for all the albums. This time around, he actually rehearsed with us a few times on a couple songs. Dave was starting to get real busy in his life. So we all said, why not have Frank record on the songs he knows? So he did! He is very clever on the bass. Completely different than Dave’s Geezer Butler approach. Which is also great, but very different approach.
A10:What are the veins of the last few albums that helped bring this work to the fore?
Sunrunner:It is all about the adventure my friend! We look at the previous record, decide if there are any things we don’t like about it and do that specific thing differently on the next record. That way, each record is going to be different. But our personalities which create the music never changes. So you will always get adventure from us as well as how we like to challenge ourselves on each record. I believe after we make a few more records, people will really see and hear all the subtle differences as well as big changes that have culminated over the years.
A11:How band arrive to Fastball Music?
Sunrunner:We worked with them during ‘Heliodromus’ in 2016 and 2017. I think we tried to do everything by ourselves with the help of our Brazilian friends Eliton and Susi at Som Do Darma. So we didn’t work with Fastball Music on ‘Ancient Arts of Survival’. But we reunited again last year. They are a really good company and help us a lot with European press. I think we actually met when I was looking for a booking agent. I sent out stuff to many European companies. They contacted us not for booking stuff, but they wanted to distribution and stuff. So we essentially worked with them and Som do Darma in Brazil.
A12:Is Tulum a land created by the band?
Sunrunner:Nope. We are not that creative! It is a real place in Southern Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. Near to Belize. It is a small town surrounded by fishing villages, Mayan temples, friendly people, delicious food and probably one of my favorite places in the world. It has a sense of romance and adventure and ancient history.
A13:I think it's great that the band has an affection for classic bands, I also have that. But, which current metal bands move you?
Sunrunner:Oh man. I’m an old dog. Old and salty. I love mostly the older stuff. Not sure if there are any newer bands I listen to. All the newest stuff that I love is from much older bands. Most recent albums include the newest Helloween album. It is a masterpiece, start to finish. Hearing Kiske, Andi and Kai singing together…what a treat.Also love ‘The Door To Doom’ from Candlemass. Actually, some of Leif Edling’s newer projects are amazing. I know he is not involved with Avatarium anymore, but they are great. They got a new one coming out. Is The Doomsday Kingdom still considered new? I think that masterpiece came out about five years ago.I like anything new by Ayreon and Star One. Sons of Apollo are pretty cool. The newest release by the Swiss band Poltergeist was awesome. The newest Rage ‘Resurrection Day’ is freakin awesome!!! Although my most favorite of the newer Rage stuff is the Refuge album ‘Solitary Men’. That’s probably about five years old now too. I’m sure I am forgetting all kinds of stuff. I can’t remember, I told you I’m old.
A14:What kind of subject don´t deserve a Sunrunner song?
Sunrunner:Nothing we don’t believe in! You only have so much time on this planet. Therefore there are only so many songs you can write about. I will never write about anything I don’t stand behind. Who knows what my mind will want to sing about in ten years. Maybe there will be a song about how I am watching my baby eat my Atheist ‘Unquestionable Presence’ c.d. after knocking over a stack of discs onto the floor at this very moment and I am trying to stop her while I do this interview! Or maybe about my dirty feet? I don’t know. Who knows? But what I do know for sure is if we are singing a song about it, we believe in it.
A15:Why the band have this name?
Sunrunner:It was an accident! We thought it was the name of a stray dog we found. Then when we found out that wasn’t its name. Its name was Sunshine or Sunspot or maybe it was Nuclear Space Furnace? I forget. Something about the sun though. Frank started calling it Sunrunner. But after a few beers, we thought “man, that’s a good name for a band”! Science fiction meets Native American. Perfect.
A16:How come emerged the invite to Marcus Jidell?
Sunrunner:I really liked his production on the newer Candlemass stuff. As well as his work in The Doomsday Kingdom and Avatarium. It was weird because my brother Jim mentioned to me we should work with Marcus Jidell. What was weird is that I was also thinking that! So after being like “woah, I was just thinking that too!”, I decided to write to him to see if he was available and wanted to do it. We sent him a couple older songs. He liked what he heard. So next thing, he flew over to Portland Maine to track the album. He flew back home to Sweden the same week Covid became a thing. A year later after some delays, he mixed it in Stockholm.
A17:What unites Sunrunner besides heavy metal?
Sunrunner:Family, adventure, learning, hard work and achieving goals. And after that, it’s beer time! But I try to remember, it’s not a party if its’ every day. So accomplishments first, rejoice later.
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