Washington D.C.’s Sansyou breaks down each introspective track on their latest EP, and the tools they used to create the sound
Sansyou, a true musical phenomenon, has a way of creating euphoric and immersive tracks, each with their own unique feel and mood.
Spaces In Between, their latest EP, is yet another beautiful offering of Sansyou’s artistry and enigmatic sonics, with six tracks that take you on a sunny, atmospheric journey.
Sansyou sat down with Happy to let us in on the intricacy of each track, breaking down the creative and collaborative process.
So chuck Spaces In Between on your speaker and have a read below.
Spaces In Between
I knew pretty quickly after writing this one that a female vocal was necessary to complete it. It set the ball rolling for more vocal songs that followed soon after and made this record a big step forward.
Kelli Miyahira gave a great performance here and it was fun to write the lyrics together.
My Moving Parts
One way to unlock fresh ideas is just shift into a totally different key using a capo. I positioned one at the fourth fret and found the chord changes falling into place easily.
For the bridge I did the sustained octave reverb sounds live on the fly with a Strymon Cloudburst pedal. I thought for sure it would be a punch-in but my foot made it in time.
After writing the chord parts on electric, it seemed better to strum them out on acoustic and I’m glad we did that. It’s been ages since I played acoustic on a Sansyou record and would like to do more in the future.
Due South Pacific
Another one that made it clear that vocals had to be added. I wrote this while the recording sessions were already underway with songs that were arranged and done.
It was fun to keep working on this in the evening after recording during the day to see if it would come together. Kelli did another beautiful vocal and captured the rain and chirping birds outside her home studio in Hawaii since remote sessions are so easy to do now.
Every Rung
The drums really lift this one; Kelli Scott did fantastic work here. This was originally much more sparse and minimalist but Jarrett Nicolay pushed me to write some more chord parts that added a lot of dynamics that feel like climbing.
The title comes from a song my late mother used to sing to me at night; Jacob’s Ladder. Maybe that’s what I was feeling in the outro where everything slowly drifted away.
The Undertow
When this one came together, I knew it had to be about floating underwater and the colors you only see there. Kelli had lots of local inspiration to draw on in Hawaii which made this a very easy song to write and finish quickly.
I tend not to labor over things too long and usually the first pass on an idea is the one we keep. There’s heavy modulated reverb on the lead guitar that flirts with nostalgic sounds but that’s as far as I want to go with it.
Keeping the natural clean tone of the guitars was a goal throughout this whole record but this song we indulged in some extra frosting courtesy the Catalinbread Soft Focus Reverb.
Play What You Want To Hear
Last December I lost a dear friend and inspiration to my playing; Geordie Walker of Killing Joke passed away far too soon. When we first met, I asked about his writing and the title of this song was his answer.
The outro uses a chord progression that I watched him play nonchalantly on one of my guitars when he was in DC. Later, I visited him and played the same progression on his guitar which totally surprised and amused him to no end.
One of many cherished memories, so I wanted to honor him permanently with this song.
Listen to the EP in full here.
