I featured Sugarmoon on the blog last year when they released the lead track from their previous EP, The Only One. Like the other two tracks on the EP, it was a lovely thing; full of charm, joy, and it displayed a real gift for bittersweet melody. To give you an idea of the kind of ballpark they operate in, I described them at the time as sounding “kind of like Belle and Sebastian dressed as the Mamas and the Papas, playing a Brian Wilson song in a Ritchie Blackmore dream.”
Naturally when I saw that the Bristol five-piece were gearing up to release new material I was excited to see what else they had in store. Judging by their excellent new single Autumn Leaves, the answer is more of the same – which is in no way a bad thing at all. I am, after all, writing this about a band who take their inspiration from an eclectic range of sources and have a knack of sounding different with every track. And so Autumn Leaves continues their run of quietly confident, melancholic, warm, vintage pop – this time with some slinky Rhodes and a truly wonderful lead vocal from Sophie Jones thrown into the mix. I think I love this band.
As with The Only One, the new single is accompanied by a gorgeous video constructed from Super 8 footage. Writing on their Instagram, the band have said of the video:
In this second film, we enlisted Bristol animator and all round talent @stopmoharriett to look through the hours of footage we had, and craft a new tale that flowed hand-in-hand with Autumn Leaves. The result is a bittersweet snapshot of two people reflecting on good times they shared. We love the idea that this footage, when seen through new eyes, can be retold into something completely new.
A conversation with Ryan McMurtry and Sophie Jones from Sugarmoon
• I really enjoyed your last EP. One thing I did think was great was the variation across the three tracks, and that you don’t seem limited to one particular style. It’s the same with fashion or the idea of what’s ‘cool’ or not; in the nicest possible sense I think you stand out a little from a lot of bands. Do you think much about a certain sound or style when you write?
Ryan: Firstly, thanks so much! I think as a group, we have a wide range of different things we like but we bond musically mostly over classic folk, blues, jazz and pop sounds. We don’t actively try to pursue any particular style, so it tends to be anything goes with song ideas, but by the time we have all chipped in and moulded something it usually comes out with some resemblance to those four genres in some way.
• How do you work as a band when it comes to writing material. Do you chip away at songs as a group, or are you bringing in individual ideas and arranging them together?
Ryan: Usually, we come up with ideas at home on our own, it might be a full song or just a chorus or a riff or whatever, then we bring that to practice and everyone just says what they like or don’t like, suggests changes etc and we do that until we’re happy with it!
Sophie: I think they also evolve over time, as we play them and some things work and others don’t. Ryan is a bit of a songwriting machine – he often comes with three or four complete songs, that we then work out harmonies and instrumental bits around. We’re never short of new material and I think it keeps everyone inspired!
• How did you get together as a band?
Ryan: So I worked with Sophie outside of music, and she played in a band with our keys player Joe. The three of us got together to jam, just covers for fun, and found we had great chemistry as musicians. So we found Dave (bass) and Ollie (drums) through Gumtree! We got really lucky with it because they are both awesome and have fitted us so well.
• Autumn Leaves is a beautiful track. I was wondering whether you could talk a little about A) what it’s about, but also B) the process of recording? I’m guessing because of the restrictions this last year it’s been a different experience…
Ryan: Thank you! And sure, so:
A) It’s kind of about when you feel a change coming in your life, and it feels sad and bittersweet at the time. We talk about love in the song but change of any kind can be hard in life. But it usually works out for the best!
B) The recording was indeed very different for it. It started as a fun project to keep us all busy during lockdown and a chance just to learn some new recording skills, but the song began taking shape and we thought it sounded great, so we decided to release properly.
It’s actually different to how we played it live before lockdown. It was in a different key and I sang it, but I lost my voice completely during lockdown 1, so we changed key and Sophie tried singing it, and it blew us all away, so we kept it like that!
Sophie: I really love singing this song! Ryan used to sing it at his solo gigs and it was always one of my favourites, so I feel very smug being able to steal it away! I think of it as being about the end of a relationship – not a loud dramatic one, but just one that’s naturally closing but you don’t want to let go just yet.
We also made a really beautiful video to go with it (well, we basically forced Ryan’s girlfriend Harriet to do it!) which looks like a cool, French film with subtitles. It’s actually made from real cine footage of my grandparents on holiday in the 70s in Europe. I never knew either of them, but I have their piano, so for me, the song is kind of connected with them now too – how sweet it is to be able to see them on film, and how sad that I never got to play music with them.
• Has the last year changed the way you approach music in general?
Ryan: We were definitely more of a ‘live’ band before lockdown. We played regularly and really thrive of live performance and sound, so it’s been strange without that. We have just focused instead on getting better at recording at home and taking time to create cool art to accompany our music, like videos etc. We can’t wait for live shows to return though!
Sophie: Definitely – we realised quite early on that if we didn’t record during lockdown periods, we would end up not playing as a band at all. It’s actually made us think about how we structure songs too, what works recorded vs live, and the satisfaction of having a few takes at something til you get it right. But I’m dying to get back to playing live!
• I get a sense from your socials that you’re itching to play in front of people again, but what would this year ideally look like for you?
Ryan: You’re right, playing in front of people again is what we’d really hope for, but who knows if that will happen this year! If not, then we’ll focus on staying close as a group, sharing new and weird ideas with each other, and being creative at home with new songs / recordings.
Sophie: Exactly – and just in case we’re faced with another year of musically twiddling our thumbs, we have some cool non-gig stuff in the pipeline. We’ve got more singles coming out and an animated video, which we’re super excited about!
You can find Sugarmoon on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Autumn Leaves is available to purchase via Bandcamp.
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