Sunsmasher
From: Glasgow, UK
Lazy Equation: The howl at the end of history X big, f**k-off amplifiers
URL: Sunsmasher on Facebook.com // MySpace.com/Sunsmasher

Thrash Hits Verdict:
Being a bunch of soft lady-faced southerners, we sometimes get caught up in our ridiculous London bubble – you know, watching shit hipster hardcore bands where every band-member’s first tattoo was some ugly neck piece. You know what the perfect antidote to such limp malaise is? Turning our Future Hits-attentions northwards, where we come across the likes of Glasgow’s Sunsmasher. They make us weep just thinking about how much time we’ve spent not listening to their nasty, evil-sounding, unrepentingly loud metal. We caught up with Paul (the band don’t “do” surnames) from Sunsmasher inbetween bouts of cowardly sobbing.
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Describe your sound in 3 words.
Mammothian/Loud/Cult.

How did you meet?
Neil (guitar) and I (guitar) used to play in hardcore and crust bands and played a few gigs with each other but we didn’t really know one another apart from seeing each other’s bands. We both crossed each other’s paths when I was starting a black metal band in the vein of Sarcófago and Revenge. He joined as guitarist and then that band split. I then started Sunsmasher with a drummer I got on the ‘net, asked Neil to play guitar in it and then got Phil (bass) from an ad on the ‘net. The original drummer left and Neil got his mate Nick in to play drums.

What made you want to start a band?
A few things, I wanted a way to express political opinions as music had had such an influence on my views I felt like I wanted to do that too. Music really can make a difference I think, and if one person sees a band like us releasing a demo which has two feminist songs on it and it makes them think and question their views then job done! It was also a way to get out of the east end of Glasgow and expand my horizons a bit. Finally it was a way to express myself artistically. I find if I’m not making music I get depressed. I need to have that creative vent in my life.

Where did the name come from?
Our old drummer always put smasher into names we when we were trying to think of one and one day I suggested Sunsmasher as it seemed to be a bit better than the other ideas, like Yetismasher – ha ha! There’s a guitar effects company called Dwarfcraft who make amazing effects that was going to call a pedal “Suncrusher”, so that’s where the original idea came from. Surely there’s nothing more doom than smashing the sun, also there’s nothing more anarcho than smashing The Sun newspaper, so it suits me. Ha!

How did growing up in the east end of Glasgow affect your music?
It’s not a nice place to grow up and it’s affected my entire life, not just my music. I suppose musically I always gravitated to bands who lyrically had something to say to me growing up in a place like that and that meant punk bands. Bands like Crass, Antisect and Oi Polloi offered answers as to why the area I lived in was so bad and I agreed with them. Once you start becoming politicised, it is difficult for it not to affect your music. It affects all aspects of the music, from lyrics to the feel of the songs. If it sounds doomy and depressing that’s because we come from a doomy depressing place.

What are your non-musical influences?
Glasgow is quite an intense place to live sometimes. For me personally I have been hugely influenced by the Class War movement and Ian Bone, the man who started the Class War newspaper, in particular. I also am greatly influenced by an Anarchist Feminist called Lucy Parsons. We have a song based on one of her quotes which is “Oh, Misery I have drunk thy cup of sorrow to it’s dregs, but I’am still a rebel.”. To me it says that as hard as it is to rebel against things that are huge, like Capitalism or the mass slaughter of animals, it is still the right thing to do and by rebelling against these things and standing up to them you can make a massive difference.

So far, what has been the best thing about being in a band?
I enjoy playing live. We’re not great at practising. We barely ever do – ha ha!

With which band would your dream tour be?
I’d love to play with My Bloody Valentine, Bardo Pond or Vomir. That would be a great bill to play on if it was all those bands on one night. People’s ears would be melted by the end of that – ha ha!

What bands do you consider as part of your scene or as your peers?
I’m not personally a big “scene” guy. I’ve always tried to avoid being part of anything like that but bands that have been cool to us and helped us out have been folks like Citizens, Conan, Wraiths, and Jackal-Headed Guard Of The Dead.

What marks you out as different to other bands around at the moment?
I think the fact we do some different sounding stuff than just doom riffs. We like to combine noise parts, psychedelia, shoegaze and noise rock sections into the sound if we can, and there’s gonna be lots more of that type of stuff in the future. We did a Shellac cover at one of our early shows – I suppose you won’t get many doom bands doing that.

Watch Sunsmasher play ‘Daemonologie’ live:

What have been the funniest show you’ve played?
Funniest was playing a show with a really shit punk band who were trying really, really hard to shock and irritate everyone by jumping in peoples faces and running around with no top on (shock horror!!!!). The funny part was that our guitarist Neil had had a few too many shandys and fell asleep right in front of them while they were making a real effort to get everyone’s attention. That’s what you get when you come to Glasgow and try to be ‘wacky’. We just fall asleep in front of you.

What have you got planned for the future?
We’re in the process of writing a new track which is going to be around an hour in length. Hopefully we can get that released then do some more gigs with good bands.

What other band should everyone find out about?
Wraiths. Amazing droning noise from Edinburgh. Nightmarish soundscapes.

Tell us a joke.
How many meat eaters does it take to change a lightbulb? None, they would rather stay in the dark about things!

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Paul asked us to make it clear that the views expressed in this interview are his, and do not necessarily represent those of the other members of Sunsmasher. If you like what you’ve heard and read so far, why not bust on over to the band’s official Bandcamp and Facebook pages?