Four-piece indie-rockers Sundried Whales released their self-titled EP about heartbreak, toxic relationships, and learning to love yourself a little more.
Hamiltonian indie-rockers Sundried Whales released their debut project in late 2022, a self-titled EP with five tracks exploring, mainly, toxic relationships. The four/five-piece are made up of; lead vocalist and guitarist Emman Alavata, who is "extremely allergic" to cats despite having two, Cache Kadlec-Smith, who plays guitar and sings on the song "Always," Mohawk College jazz student Curtis Heintzman on drums, Alex Tessier on the bass, who is filling in for Brendan Armstrong, the band's regular bassist who moved to Sudbury for school.
The four-piece describe themselves as "noisy pop-music," and bring to mind fellow Canadian acts like Alvvays, with the edginess and Stefan Babcock cadence of PUP.
"We have a huge array of musical influences," said Alavata. "But the artists that consistently stay in our loop are Wilco, Pavement, PUP, and Jeff Rosenstock."
The band started working on their self-titled EP at the beginning of COVID-19, and assembling the project took almost three years to complete.
"It was a running joke that we would never finish the EP and only play live shows," said Alavata. "But we actually got it done!"
The first song on the band's self-titled EP is "Guac-" a track about learning to take dating slow after a bad breakup, where the second, "I'm So Tired," is a song about being belittled and gaslit in a toxic relationship, but still wanting love and affection.
"The third track, "Streetlights," comes across as a love song, but it’s about being too different and disconnected from my ex," said Alavata. "And "Always", according to Cache, is about dealing with the feeling of people who matter most to you being far away."
The final track's meaning is more up in the air, according to Alavata.
"Honestly, I have no idea what "Tea in Japan" really means," said Alavata. "But for me, it is kind of a celebration of the good and the bad of the relationship I was in when we wrote it."
The band worked with fellow Hamiltonian musician Nim Agalawatte of Basement Revolver, who worked on recording and preliminary mixes.
"Trevor Cooke completed the mixing," said Alavata. "The two of them have done sound for us plenty of times at The Casbah- to finish the EP, we got Vince Soliveri to master it."
Through COVID-19 lockdowns, many vocal takes, and other ups and downs- the EP was finally completed after three years.
"When we started seeing the progress we’d made by the time Trev was halfway done mixing, we felt really good about what was accomplished," said Alavata. "Although it almost took us three years to finish this EP, we’re all very happy and can’t wait to start recording again."
The main message of the album? Treat yourself with more kindness, says Sundried Whales.
"Be kind to others and most importantly, yourself." said Alavata.
You can help support Sundried Whales by following their socials below, purchasing their work on Bandcamp and by streaming their music.
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