Let the Sunshine (Brothers) in
by Jody Jenkins
There’s nothing more liberating than leaving it all behind. And when Jake Weissman needed to find a way back to himself, to the bare ground of his identity both as an individual and as an artist, the road seemed the perfect way to do it. Amid the unspooling of miles down the East Coast to Atlanta, then on to Florida, peeling away the layers across to Austin and the Grand Canyon and West to the Pacific, he was searching for inspiration and renewal in the lyricism of the landscape, hoping to rekindle the possibilities by throwing himself headlong into a vast America unimagined.
“I needed a bit of a reset artistically…,” he wrote from from the road, talking about his inspirations and the need to find again and listen to that quiet, introspective place that feeds his imagination. “Being away from the scene allows me to appreciate a lot of music I once loved but grew away from, and a lot of new music as well. It sort of becomes this more personal experience with music, which is where I am most inspired, as opposed to a sort of collective mindset towards music that sort of naturally arises when you’re part of a bigger scene and are thinking of fans and all of that.”
“I needed a bit of a reset artistically … Being away from the scene allows me to appreciate a lot of music I once loved but grew away from and a lot of new music as well. It sort of becomes this more personal experience with music … as opposed to a sort of collective mindset towards music that sorts of naturally arises when you’re part of a bigger scene …” — Jake Weissman
Sunshine Brothers Inc. have been together three years. Jake formed the group as a duo with his original bassist Tony Trinchini in early 2016. He met John DiSabito, the drummer, as a freshman at UMass and they played a few gigs and things just clicked. Jake was looking to create a sound that emanated from the things he had been listening to and loving in high school like Makeout Videotape, Jackson Scott, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffitti, Connan Mockasin and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. (He had even skipped his high school prom to see the UMO.) Something of a self-described loner then, he spent a lot of time in his deaf grandmother’s attic, thinking and recording. He had been struggling with his own personal demons and the music “sort of saved me in ways…. I recognized myself in the music I listened to and put myself into the music I made.”
Keyboardist Charles Vadala and Jake had played together by chance on their first day at UMass and about six months after the band formed, he started playing some of their live gigs. Later bassist Niall McCarthy replaced Tony. Through it all, Jake fed the urge to make “weird pop music with a little bit of angst.” While Sunshine Brothers Inc. bill themselves as “East Coast Surf Synth Sunshine Pop,” that’s underselling something that can’t quite be pigeonholed. Those demons Jake wrestled with in high school reveal themselves not only in the pop themes of longing for love, but in long, unwinding and sometimes agonizing (in the best sense) guitar interludes much more nuanced than the normal surf fare. There’s a bit of the shark in the water with the Sunshine Brothers Inc. that cuts across styles and genres to create something unique and still evolving. Beneath the Beach Boys facade, there’s a subterranean Hendrix lurking.
The music “sort of saved me in ways…. I recognized myself in the music I listened to and put myself into the music I made.” — Jake Weissman
Case in point: Their song “I’ve Been Falling Apart” is an uptempo nostalgic riff spilling over with the cashmere melancholy of Britpop, but with big hall reverb and more of a mod edge, weaving between dreamy falsettos and bittersweet harmonies. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Gerry & The Pacemakers’ “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” and Peter & Gordon’s “World Without Love.” But the song is working on different levels, in the same way that falling apart shreds life into different realities: Two-thirds of the way through, the music exits into a slow, complex, almost jazzy dissolution that sounds like the wheels coming off, swept along by Charles’ floating organ keyboards and John’s crashing cymbals and Jake’s soaring, writhing guitar riffs. The song devolves into a complex compulsion to scratch the painted-over windows of reality with a nail to see what the hell’s really in there. At their best, the Sunshine Brothers Inc. create a deeply alluring blend of dark nostalgia laced with unexpected turns and tempo changes. It’s surprising and, at moments, deeply moving.
As a whole, their music contains elements of 80s pop, funk with fat bottomed baselines, surf and boy band melodies. Throw in some bleeding psychedelic synth and there’s a range of things to sample. Space Dance opens with an organ-driven beat box rhythm that shape shifts into Jake’s short, chopping guitar riffs. I don’t know if it’s the kiss of death these days to call a band’s music ‘danceable,’ but the Sunshine Brothers Inc. know what a good groove is. “In Your Dreams” is reminiscent of Hall and Oats in their more soul-driven incarnation and its racked up a quarter million streams, so someone likes what they’re hearing.
“In Your Dreams” is reminiscent of Hall and Oats in their more soul-driven incarnation, and its racked up a quarter million streams, so someone likes what they’re hearing.
Live Nation touted the band as a “Ones To Watch” pick with the release of “Jerry,” which reveals a more mature Sunshine Brothers Inc., with more complex writing and more nuanced music, a vein Jake’s hoping to mine out there on the road.
“I guess I’m hoping to be able to dig a little deeper into my lyricism and draw from other sources of inspiration now that I’m away from all of that,” Jake wrote. “I think in high school I was better at writing about things outside of those generic pop themes because I was a little bit more of a loner and it took being in that super personal space to be able to create something inspired by things outside of those other pop themes.”
In “Jerry, Out On The Water,” Jake couches his restlessness for the inspiration of new horizons in a surf-song melody that predicts the future he’s now experiencing.
Jerry, out on the water
I’ve got to talk
to you
About leaving this place behind …
They say that because of the changes life brings, you can never go home again. With Sunshine Brothers Inc.’s growing following and recognition and all that lay ahead, it seems that for Jake- with all of his stories and insights and newfound lyricism from his voyages- that’s exactly where all roads ultimately lead.
Jody Jenkins is a writer and filmmaker from Northampton. He is the editor of The Collective.
