Sunde Squad: J.E. Sunde's lush new album succeeds with teamwork
J.E. Sunde’s sophomore album finds lushness and strength in its collaborators
After many years of crafting and performing meticulously gorgeous folk music with The Daredevil Christopher Wright, the legendary local band called it quits, moved on toward other horizons, and singer/guitarist Jon Sunde was left feeling like he wanted to do more.
Thereafter, Sunde, a UW-Eau Claire grad, immersed himself into a new solo project, and released his stunning debut album, Shapes That Kiss The Lips Of God in the summer of 2014. On that first record, he shouldered a solid bulk of the instrumental parts and songwriting tasks himself, creating a whirlwind of layered sounds around the collection of down-to-earth folk songs.
“I want to have a more diverse creative ecosystem. I really love having an outlet where I can guide the ship – me exploring my own vision – but collaboration in other iterations is really exciting for me. It’s kind of a relief from doing all the heavy lifting on a project, and it’s a great way to learn: To see somebody else’s processes and get inside their vision a little bit.” – J.E. Sunde on the collaborative nature of his new album Now I Feel Adored
In the last 18 months or so since Shapes was released, Sunde has been steadily readying his sophomore release, a 12-song LP called Now I Feel Adored. The record, which releases to the world on March 3 via Iowa-based label Cartouche Records, finds Sunde relishing in his collaborations and busting out new kinds of sounds. It seems like more of a complete and clear vision than ever before.
When I caught up with Sunde to chat about the new record, the idea of seeking balance kept coming up during the conversation. In his relatively new solo experience, it’s been a precarious balancing act between writing, collaborating, touring, booking shows, recording, having a personal life – and trying to make all of that coalesce into some meaningful art.
“As time went on I felt really good about the first record and resolved that music is still a project that I want to put as much of myself into as I can,” he said. “I’m just realizing I have ambition to really grab this thing and grab the opportunities around it. That realization hit me.”
While some things will always be a constant in Sunde’s music – his signature tenor, his thoughtful lyrical prowess, his nylon-string guitar – Now I Feel Adored in many ways marks a departure from his previous way of doing stuff.
On the new record, Sunde’s now got a core trio made up of himself, Shane Leonard (Kalispell, Field Report) on drums, and Andrew Thoreen (Har-Di-Har) on bass. Elsewhere on the record, we hear the upright bass tones of Eau Claire native Pat Keen, the piano flourishes of Marty Breuggemann, guest vocals, live strings, woodwinds, and lots more instrumental experimentation. By inviting in this kind of collaboration, the record becomes much larger than the sum of its parts in ways both obvious and unforeseen.
“We were trying to ground it as a trio on the record, and I’m pleased with how it came out,” Sunde said. “There’s a sense of an in-the-room-together trio at its core. We tracked the trio live. It really captured a groove and the energy that comes with playing at the same time.”
Now I Feel Adored opens on a poignant note with a beautiful a cappella duet between Sunde and Monica Martin of the band PHOX called “I Will Smile When I Think Of You.” Inspired by the more vocal-centric work of Nina Simone, the tune is minimalism at its fullest – a phenomenon that permeates throughout the record with songs that are simple at their core, but grow incrementally more rich and complex when the full scale of the instrumentation kicks in.
“Capsize and Sink,” a slow-rolling ballad peppered with psychedelic swirling guitar tones, takes a jazzy turn near the end with jaunted time signature, layered vocals, and tremendous chords. The terrific “Color Your Nails” is a change-of-pace lounge-y piano ballad with bumps of earthy upright bass. And the album’s closer, “Wedding Song,” has enough gravity to pull in all the horns, drums, voices, piano notes, strings, and sounds that popped up over the course of the whole album for an epic ode to forever.
Elsewhere, Sunde has repurposed a few older unreleased cuts with sleek freshness. “My Attempts To Grow A Beard” is a gut-wrenchingly beautiful tune that dates all the way back to the early Daredevil days and has almost exclusively been enjoyed by folks who have either seen Sunde do a solo set sometime in the last 10 years, or sifted through the band’s old Daytrotter sessions. Here, it’ll thrive on wax forever bolstered by hushed woodwinds and ambient birdsong in the background.
All in all, Now I Feel Adored is a sharp success in bringing a singular vision to life with a few more hands than normal. These songs become something truly magical once the myriad of parts and ideas intertwine. Collaboration is the name of the game here, and it’s something Sunde wants to keep striving for, getting more voices in his own songs and contributing his to others.
“I want to have a more diverse creative ecosystem. I really love having an outlet where I can guide the ship – me exploring my own vision – but collaboration in other iterations is really exciting for me,” Sunde said. “It’s kind of a relief from doing all the heavy lifting on a project, and it’s a great way to learn: To see somebody else’s processes and get inside their vision a little bit.”
As Sunde gears up to do markedly more touring for this album than the last – yet another test of balance – he hinted at new and exciting team-ups in the works, but couldn’t elaborate quite yet on what form they might take. For now, Now I Feel Adored and the collaborative wonders within will be plenty enough to tide you over.
J.E. Sunde is doing two shows in Eau Claire to celebrate the release of Now I Feel Adored. On March 10, the full trio will play at the gallery in The Oxbow Hotel at 8:30pm, and on March 11, Sunde will do a solo set at The Cabin at UW-Eau Claire at 8pm.
