It was a brisk evening in late October when I met up with Lucinda Germer and Ed Otto of The Sun-Ups at Queen Anne's always-inviting Uptown Espresso. Over coffee and tea, we talked about the origins of their promising pop-rock combo and goals for the future.
Germer, art director of this paper in her non-musicmaking hours, supplies vocals and guitar. She's originally from New Hampshire; Otto (guitar, backing vocals), whose day job is in the pro-audio business, is a hometown boy who grew up on Vashon Island and spent a few years in Bellingham before resettling in Seattle. Both are enthusiastic about the local music scene, with which they've been involved for quite some time in a variety of permutations - including Dirty Bomb for Germer and Suitcase for Otto - and which we all agreed has seemed brighter than ever these days. Germer cited such groups as the Long Winters and such labels as Barsuk (Death Cab for Cutie), for putting Seattle back on the musical map and making them prouder than ever to be a part of it.
Since playing their first show this summer and finalizing their lineup this fall, the band has been putting all their energies into completing a full-length record. "We've got a good 12 songs down right now," Otto noted, with a mixture of pride and surprise. And they'll be ready to release it, "probably by April of next year."
"I think that's doable," Germer agreed.
Are they planning to self-release?
"Well," Otto paused, "if we can get someone else to support it, that would be awesome. The recording will definitely be 'homebrew,' but the duplication and distribution - it would be nice to have someone else handle that." (Just a little hint for any of you label moguls out there.)
Incidentally, this isn't the first time that members of the Sun-Ups have been involved with the sometimes arduous, sometimes exhilarating task of creating a record album. Prior to their current incarnation, Germer and bassist Arthur Hagman played in Luna Park, described by the Three Imaginary Girls Web site as just about "the nicest band in Seattle."
Not being familiar with their work, I asked if Germer could tell me a bit about their history. "We were together as Luna Park," she estimated, "for two and a half years." Did they release anything? "We released a CD right before we broke up [in early 2003]. It's called 'Excuses to Save the Day'."
Was she the lead singer?
"I sang the lead on a couple of songs, but I mostly sang backup." (The Luna Park Web site notes that a gent named Shane Thompson was the lead singer.)
The timing could have been better. Since Luna Park broke up shortly afterwards, they weren't able to give the album the support it - and every album, really - needs. But I have a feeling the Sun-Ups' debut will not meet with the same fate. Germer and Otto are clearly in it for the long haul and had nothing but kind words for their bandmates. Although drummer Rey Guajardo, for example, is a recent Sun-Up (they located him through an ad in The Stranger), it's clear he's been fitting right in, and both Germer and Otto proclaimed his drumming "perfect."
Before I met with them, Germer set me up with a demo that bodes well for the Sun-Ups' upcoming long-player. The songs are "Futility," "White and Yellow" and "Genius." Recorded as a quartet, the band became a quintet with the addition of Brandy Foltz on backing vocals. (Jeremy Hill, who was also in Luna Park, now in the Fading Collection, plays drums on the demo.)
For my money, each track is a winner, and collectively they bring to mind such groups as Blondie, the (lamentably short-lived) Primitives and even Nirvana (in their poppier moments). In other words, the Sun-Ups are dishing up power-pop with a little rock 'n' roll kick, and Germer's strong, clear vocals are a definite plus. (I like Otto's backing vocals on the demo, too.)
I asked Germer what the strongest of the three, "White and Yellow," was about. Otto laughed. "I've always wanted to know that, too," he admitted. "We've [only] been playing the song for four months now."
It is, according to Germer, about "feeling something new and letting yourself feel it. It's about how that changes you.
"[The colors] are like lighting," she added. "Seeing yourself in a new light, exposing yourself a little bit, letting yourself be exposed." She joked, though, that the band does sometimes refer to it as the "scrambled egg" song, although that particular image was certainly not her original intent.
"White and Yellow" also opens up acoustically, leading me to ask if the Sun-Ups have ever played or recorded any of their songs acoustically (they've got the chops for it). Otto said they haven't, but that it's something they've been talking about. Germer said she liked the idea of putting together an acoustic set and performing it live. "I come from that," she said. "I've done that a lot, solo, in college [at the University of New Hampshire]," she added. "I had a weekly gig, going out with just my guitar. So, I did that for a long time and then I moved to Seattle." Forming a band just happened to be one of the reasons for her move across the country.
At the time we spoke, The Sun-Ups didn't have any gigs lined up, but I would expect that to change shortly. Otto explained that they've just been starting to make inquiries, now that they have a full complement of well-rehearsed material to perform.
"So who are your dream people to play with," I asked, "just off the top of your head?"
"Pie-in-the-sky dream bands?" Otto asked. "I don't know. I listen to all kinds of different crazy stuff, from indie rock to metal to everything else like that." He thought for a few seconds, then: "The Flaming Lips, J. Mascis [Dinosaur Jr.], Mike Watt [The Minutemen, fIREHOSE]." Lucinda agreed with those choices.
"When you see him [Watt] play live," Otto enthused, "he's just down to it, he's just like really excited."
So we also talked about the artists they've been listening to lately. Lucinda mentioned Nada Surf, Idlewild and the Stars, while Otto professed a particular fondness of late for alternative stalwarts such as the Smiths and R.E.M., and classic rockers like the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
Shortly after that, the tape in my recorder ran out, but that didn't stop us from talking about music until it was time to go.
Kathy Fennessy is a freelance writer for the All Music Guide (www.allmusic.com), Amazon and Tablet.[[In-content Ad]]
