Charlie and Elena gives us a taste of what it means to be in Sunfruits and making their dreams of international stardom a reality.
With their first album One Degree released on April 28th of 2023, Sunfruits brought a unique blend of rock’n’roll that started in the direction of a 60s psych band, which eventually progressed to the addition of more 70s rock influences.
In just four months after the album’s release, an overwhelmingly positive reaction allowed the band to embark on a tour that began in Southampton, followed by a string of more gigs in the UK and Europe including places such as Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, France and a few others.
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The band members were thrown into the limelight at a relatively swift pace from the inception of their debut LP. We had the chance to speak to their bassist Elena and keyboardist Charlie about the project, the European tour and their plans for the band going forward.
“It was great. It kind of took us a few years to make,” says Elena. “We all got together in 2021 for 10 days working with a DIY home recording setup with our producer. It was amazing to have that amount of time just exercising freedom and doing whatever we wanted. The lockdown definitely delayed things, but we managed to still do our work digitally from a distance. If anything, the whole situation kind of inspired the songwriting process even more.”
“We didn’t expect it would take us to a European Tour,” She says with a chuckle. “Yeah, it’s crazy and definitely a dream come true.”
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Despite the hectic schedules that come with travelling between gigs, the band still keeps a positive work ethic when it comes to the songwriting process. Occasionally their impromptu creativity can even leak into the live performances themselves
“We still keep the process going,” says Elena. “Usually with voice memos and during sound-checks we like to jam a lot, so a lot of ideas are born from there too.” To which Charlie then adds, “Sometimes, we would even do jams during the live set itself. It’s really fun and puts a uniqueness to every gig we do that positively puts us out of our comfort zone.”
The band have always had a very attractive visual character from the colourful promo photos and cover art to how they dress on stage. These artistic values seem to be compounded by contributions from various sources, including each of the band member’s distinct personalities.
“The planning changes a lot as we work with different kinds of artists that we like,” Elena shares. “The fits are not coordinated, we somehow just manage to find a nice fusion. I think it’s because we hang out with each other a lot and kind of slowly absorb each other’s styles.”
To which Charlie then adds his point of view as the newest member of the group, “I thought about it a lot more when I first joined the band. “Like, ‘I have to dress up like the other guys in Sunfruits’ which I started out trying to do, but it just evolved from there. And as the music evolves too, I think the fashion does as well.”
“We’re also very lucky to have Evie in the band who is very passionate about the visuals,” He adds. “It’s kind of her side hustle. I found that being in Sunfruits, everyone is finding their own identity more and more through being in this space where you can just try out new stuff.”
Video premiere: Psych groovers Sunfruits celebrate their namesake song with a vibrant new clip
Despite what it seems, touring is not always a pleasant experience. A lot of time is spent sitting down on the road and sweaty venues. Both of them share how they deal with the uncomfortable parts of the experience and the activities they like to do when they are not killing it on the stage.
“I feel like whenever there is a chance to see a body of water like a beach or a swimming pool, we would go straight for that as a group,” Charlie responds.
“There were also a few shows where we were able to link up with some friends that happened to be in town. That was just so nice to be in this random place and spend it with our buddies.”
To which Elena then adds a surprisingly wholesome answer: “One of our favourite things is journaling. It was a big one for Europe. Me, Gene and Evie would share a room a lot and we would have journal time at the end of the day. We wouldn’t even talk to each other and just focus on doing the journals until it’s time to sleep.”
Their next European tour has them doing 32 shows across 14 countries including nine festivals, beginning on the 4th of May in Spain.
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“Yeah, we’re excited. There are a few places we want to visit,” Charlie says. “Eastern Europe is one, Latvia or Lithuania. Just places that we wouldn’t travel to otherwise. Would be nice to see some different scenery and meet new people.”
To which Elena adds, “The Eiffel Tower in particular is one we would like to see that we didn’t get the chance to before. I think we have a couple of nights in Bilbao before the show so I really wanna go to the Guggenheim museum.”
Charlie finishes the interview by vaguely teasing the band’s next move. “There’s things in the works, new material. We have been debuting a couple of newbies in our live sets that we are very excited to take on tour. It’s a good feeling around the air and there’s lots of things to look forward to.”
Keep yourself updated with Sunfruits and their upcoming tour here.
