Latest Review: Magic Lantern – High Beams

Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]

Sleepy Sun at The Echo this Tuesday; Interview with Brett Constantino

Well this was supposed to run in the new issue of LA Record, but got bumped when they ran out space covering the Los Angeles migration to Austin, TX next week for SXSW. Sleepy Sun who I have been a loud supporter of since first coming across the band last summer, are about to embark on a massive tour that kicks off Tuesday night at The Echo in Los Angeles and will take the band down to Austin for SXSW, up through the Midwest and on into Canada where they will take a 2 week break to record. From there they’ll hop a flight to the UK to play ATP and tour the rest of Europe with the Pink Mountaintops, during which time their debut album, Embrace, will finally see a proper release via All Tomorrows Parties Recordings.

You are putting Embrace out worldwide on May 26th on ATP/R (All Tomorrow’s Parties Recordings); which came first, the invitation to play the festival or the record deal?

Brett Constantino (vocals): I think they both came simultaneously. Todd our manager is good friends with Deborah and Barry who own the label and the festival. He sent them our record and they happened to really like it, and I think they brought both offers to the table simultaneously. We of course were eager to get it out after sitting on it for about a year since we recorded it. The timing seems to be perfect. And then mean while we are writing the next record, so everything will be lined up by the time it [Embrace] comes out in May, and we’ll have a second album recorded and on it’s way to the post-production process.

Following ATP, will you be doing any more touring in Europe?

Yeah, we’re doing a full European tour, playing a couple different festivals, Primavera Sound in Barcelona, and doing a handful of dates with Pink Mountaintops; the whole European deal, ten or eleven different countries. We’re also headlining our first show in London, which is pretty solid. It’s really exciting for all of us, we haven’t done much touring before, other than up and down the Pacific North Coast line. It’s going to be a journey. An intense one.

Yeah, your March 10th show at The Echo kicks off quite the tour, 6 weeks here in the U.S. and then off to the Europe.

Yeah, like I said, we’re recording for two weeks in Vancouver in between the US/Canadian tour and the European tour, so we we’re booked solid for three months.

Is that with Colin again?

Yes, Colin Stewart [produced in Embrace and has worked with Black Mountain, The Cave Singers, Pretty Girls Make Grave, Ladyhawk].

So you guys are relatively used to living in close quarters, don’t you all share a house together in San Francisco?

Yeah we all live together; we’ve lived together for the past two years, some of us even longer than that. We’re quite comfortable with each other.

Rachel is used to you guys by now?

Yeah, I actually share a room with Rachel. She’s been great. Rachel is the newest member, wait actually not, Jack’s the newest member, he’s our new bassist. But yeah, Rachel’s warming up to us. She’s also got her own solo project going, it’s called Birds Fled From Me.

You got your start in Santa Cruz, but made the move to San Francisco pretty recently, right?

Well it’s been about a year. We all graduated about a year and half ago from UC Santa Cruz, where we all met, with the exception of Jack and Rachel, though we did meet Rachel in Santa Cruz. After we graduated we decided to leave Santa Cruz, go record an album, move to San Francisco, and then try to do something with it.

Do you think that for a band in Santa Cruz to “take it to the next level”, you almost have to leave Santa Cruz?

I think so; I think it can definitely speed up the process if you leave a place like Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is great place, magical in a way. It’s a small community of artists and musicians that are perfectly content with staying in their house and smoking a doobie. And if you really want to get out there, you have to go more metropolitan where there is a larger network of artists and people who are interested in the same thing you are, which is to expand your trajectory.

Is it safe to say that Santa Cruz had quite a bit of influence on Sleepy Sun’s sound and your personal development and outlook on life?

Oh absolutely, Santa Cruz is where I finally started to grow up. I grew up in a really small town in the foothills and moving to Santa Cruz was extremely important to me in growing as a person, and as a musician I found out I wanted to do and my passion. As far as influencing the music, it had an effect as well naturally. Music is what brought us together. Talking about music, then one jam led to another jam, we started writing songs together, and then moved in together and became really good friends.

Ok, if you had to pick one, who would it be, Wayne or Garth?

Oh, that’s a hard one. Garth. Ah man, were all huge fans of Wayne’s World, it’s pretty much our life, we’re always joking about it. It’s my favorite movie.

Tuesday, March 10th: Sleepy Sun w/Foreign Born, Larkin Grimm @ The Echo (1822 Sunset Blvd) 8:30pm | $8 | 18+

Win tickets to the The Echo show from Radio Free Silver Lake.