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Things are looking sunny for NSW newbies Sun Sap with the release of their new single Mexico and it’s apt feel- good video clip. The 6 piece who hail from both Sydney, and just south, are surf rockers with a twist. Having played with compatriot garagers The Jones Rival, Sun Sap is an extension of a sound that has been in the mix for a while. The band speak of a great variety of influences that are set to characterize Sun Sap’s developing sound.
Pointing to artists such as The Growlers and Allah Lah’s, draws heavily on the influence of The Doors, The Stones and 60’s soul artists such as Ottis Redding in their quest to explore more deeply the “surfy, souly, sixties music that we love”. With an extra guitarist and keyboard player to go with their original 4 piece, Sun Sap are setting themselves up nicely to delve in to the richly diverse and iconic sounds they hold so dear.
Sun Sap channel all our inner yearnings in new single Mexico. Complete with banana suit, the lads bring the vibes to the youtube screen in true cinematic style.
As is the case with all surf rock, driven by a jangly repetitive guitar hook, Mexico is just the beginning for a band whose sound is evolving in the right way. The great thing about this style of surf rock is that it generally puts a great a big smile on your dile. Reverb heavy while retaining a distorted crispness, it’s hard to not move your head side to side while listening to Mexico. Of the single itself, band member Adam said that after the trying times that have befallen our Sydney lifestyle, Mexico the bands expression of retreat, if you like, to greener pastures influenced by his own travels in Mexico. The songs opening two verses “Ate the food and I, Drank my wine while I, Spent my money right Mexico, Getting high around, Visual eyes were bright, Love my life down in Mexico” really captures the essence of the song and the fun, free flowing mood that it creates.
The video clip of a deranged man wearing a banana suit terrorising a suburban park couldn’t be more fitting when considered with both the songs vibe and lyrical content. The clip is an expression of unrestricted energy that comes with being immersed in a carefree environment. It is also in a way, getting all up that metaphor sphere. The banana, which is often linked to serotonin production, or happiness, is the perfect attire for a person living happily and freely as is the tone of the song. The debauchery of the crazy banana man is perhaps an ode to a lifestyle desired by many an American teen on spring break in Mexico.
The climax of the banana man trying to nullify the authority of a Mexican bearing arms and thus disarming, in true Monty Python fashion, his assailant with a projectile banana could be perceived as happiness’ desperate attempt to allow the banana the freedom he is so thoroughly enjoying. It’s fitting that after being chased down and mobbed in his suit while still clinging on to the hope of his good times rolling on, he is crushed to nothing more than a smashed physical banana – paradise known, paradise lost. The shit, it does not get any deeper than this.
The band at this stage is in the process of recording a host of new material they’ll release in the coming months on the back of this strong first gifting. Adam has indicated that the band is constantly recording and with a string of live shows in line for audiences around Sydney it definitely appears Sun Sap is a band worth keeping an eye out for. Of a recent show played at Brighton Up Bar, Jesse Redwing of Ted’s Records wrote that Sun Sap had a “grooving shuffle going” and that “They should release the special edition of the debut LP in a VW camper van, with built-in beach fire and atmospheric sunset”. Sounds pretty damn good to us.
