By luck, the members of And the Sun Went Out happened to be exiting their previous bands, and in a quirk of fate, they met while working the overnight shift for Abercrombie & Fitch. But that does not mean these guys are frat-enthused pretty boys out to make disco-rock.
And the Sun Went Out intends to cover as much ground as possible with their music until they create a slit-your-throat-in-a-field-of-daisies sound. To put it in less poetic terms, this band ranges from melodic crooning to enraged screams over menacing riffs, all in the span of one song.
Guitarist Ben Schreiber described the transitions in their songs as rocking a baby, then jumping into a fight, but returning to that baby before throwing the next punch.
The five-piece formed a year ago after networking on the job and talking to one another at their bands' shows. And the Sun Went Out began with Alex Weinhardt on bass, Samer Al-madani on drums and Schreiber and Matt Peters on guitars.
But the quartet still needed a singer to complement their sound. Eventually they decided on Beau Clark to be their vocalist, choosing him after just one recording session.
We tried out a couple of singers and tried to sing ourselves
but it was just so bad Weinhardt said.
The band considers its most unique aspect to be its songwriting process, which exaggerates attention to detail to create precision in every transition. Each song is collectively written in an open forum. The members said they have four songs set in stone, while the rest remain amorphous.
We are continuously rewriting songs Weinhardt said. The last show we played
we dropped an entire end of the song 'Educated Silence' and rewrote it. Everybody loved it.
Even though the band is constantly reworking songs, the members do not want to be confused as a jam band. Nor are they out to write a pop song. And the Sun Went Out boasts songs that spit in the face of the traditional verse
chorus
verse
chorus formula.
It is hard for us to do and not have a complete jumbled mess where the people in the crowd can't get into it
Schreiber said. Once we get the song where we want it -it doesn't change
Peters added.
Despite the band's plans to take their music to the highest levels and to make a living out of music, its members still intend to make their mothers proud with a stay-in-school mentality.
We're in school now
and we're not going to jeopardize school to do anything drastic
Schreiber said.
