Sun Airway is easily my favorite new band in Philly. They rose from the ashes of The A-Sides with a beautiful new sound that some might call Postal Service-y or Animal Collective Lite–but those descriptions would be cheapening it. Their debut EP Oh, Naoko is made up of esoteric, yet seemingly personal songs dressed in lush vocals and ethereal soundscapes. In short, it’s spellbinding. I sat down with the two members of the band, Jon (vocals/arrangements) and Patrick (arrangements), to discuss their origins, their EP and more…

Tell me how you guys came to be Sun Airway.

Jon: Patrick and I were both in the and The A-Sides and we had just gotten back from a month long tour. Multiple people decided to quit for various reasons and we decided to do something new. We were trying to do less rock and roll band type stuff and thought this would would be a good opportunity to do new things.

Where does the name come from?

Jon: We have always had a hard time coming up with names (laughs). In the end, I got it from a really cool, old airline poster I had seen once for an airline called “Midnight Sun Airways”.

Patrick: Actually, a friend of mine was really offended by the name choice because he thought it didn’t mean anything…unlike the name The A-Sides. We came up with at a time when we were really into being pompous and considered all of songs to be hits.

I love really love the EP. Was it self-produced? What was the process like?

Patrick: Thanks! We recorded and produced it ourselves, but we took our time because it was the first time we had ever done it. We were both pretty new when it came to recording with ProTools type stuff. We had observed some techniques while recording previous band’s stuff with Brian McTear and we also went to him for some equipment recommendations. So we slowly built a makeshift studio within our practice space in Northeast Philly. Jon brought things he had started at home and we began flushing them out in the new studio. We started off by working on the song “Waiting On You” and it took about 3 months to record, because we were learning as we went. But once we had that song down, we were able to finish the other songs quickly.

{MP3} Sun Airway – “Waiting On You”

Jon: It has been a better process, definitely more affordable. After we finishing recording the songs, we took them to Brian McTear for a final mix.

Patrick: We really wanted Brian to have a listen to it and help us optimize it, since we were so new to the whole thing. we also used his analog console that has some really great pre-amps. So once we had a tight mix we took to Fat City, where almost all Philly bands go, to get it mastered. Those guys are also in a great Led Zeppelin tribute band called Get the Led Out.

Jon: Yea, they are really awesome!

Patrick: They did a great job with the mastering, we are really happy with it.

What were you listening to when you recorded the EP?

Jon: I always like listening to regular indie stuff. I was/am into downloading people’s old vinyl rips of super weird, foreign library records as well. That stuff helped shaped the Sun Airway stuff more than anything. The song “Your Moon” uses samples from this weird Russian sports-themed record about horse races (laughs).

(The waitress asks if we would like anything. Patrick orders a spinach salad. Jon orders a Jamison.)

Patrick: I have been listening to a lot of old rock and roll like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, but that doesn’t relate at all to what we are doing I suppose. (laughs)

Jon: As for new indie stuff we both always stuff like Animal Collective. At the moment I am really into the new Dirty Projectors album.

Why did you decide to give your EP away for free? Do you plan on moving forward without a label?

Jon: Well, we put this one out for free because trying to find a label to put out a record takes FOREVER. The A-Sides record we did wasn’t released until a year after it was recorded, which is really frustrating and by the time you go to promote it and tour behind it, you just don’t care as much. Another reason, we decided to release it for free was because we hardly spent any money to make it.

Patrick: Yea, aside from the mastering and buying equipment that we would’ve bought anyway, it cost next to nothing to make. On the other hand, labels are good because they put your ass to the flame to get things done and it’s nice to have deadlines sometimes. Plus having a physical copy of the record, vinyl or CD, is always cool.

(We are momentarily distracted by some drunken dude yelling out front, sounding as though he is ready to fight someone.)

Jon: Whoa, that was, uh, pretty neat (laughs). Speaking of which, yesterday I saw someone in a Santa hat and someone roller dancing in the Acme parking lot…but back to your question (laughs). We will probably shop the EP around, but since the first thing people tend to say when they hear the record is “Wow, that’s really cool…when are they playing New York” we are going to figure out a live setup first. In terms of the music being free, we are ok with that. We want people to be able to hear without having to buy it. They are essentially doing us a favor by taking a chance on something new…

When can we expect a full length and some live shows? What will they be like?

Jon: A lot of the album is done already. Most of the stuff on the EP will probably be rolled into the full-length, but we are working on a handful of new songs as well.

Patrick: It’s challenging to record in our studio in the summertime because we don’t have AC, we have industrial sized fans. The fans are loud so we have to turn them off while we record so it gets really really hot. In the winter we wear jackets while we record (laughs). In terms of live shows, we are still in the process of figuring that out because we want to finish the album first.

Who designed the EP cover? It’s really nice…

Jon: Thanks, that was me.

Who is Naoko?

Jon: Naoko is a character from the book Norwegian Wood by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. It’s one of the best love stories I have ever read, pretty tragic though. “Oh, Naoko” and “Waiting on You” are based on her. I heard they might be making it into a movie…

{MP3} Sun Airway – “Oh, Naoko”

Patrick: We should be on the soundtrack! (laughs)

Jon: Yea we should. I read a lot of Murakami’s books throughout the year and they all had very strong imagery relating to night and the moon, which what I had been writing about at the time as well. It really inspired me.

Which current or older artists do you admire?

Jon: We are both really excited about Kurt Vile. We are definitely looking forward to his new record on Matador (Kurt would be djing later that night at the POPE). We opened for him about 5 years ago and there was no one there…and we thought he was the most amazing thing ever. I actually remember asking myself, how is a band like Animal Collective popular and this dude isn’t? He is totally the real deal. If anyone deserves it, it’s him.

Do you plan on staying in Philly?

Jon: For the moment. What’s nice about what we are doing now is that we don’t have to be in any one place to do it.

Patrick: Yea, we could be in separate cities doing it…

What is your fondest music memory?

Jon: I’m not sure. I’ll have to get back to you on that. (laughs)

Patrick: I’m not sure if this is my fondest, but it’s definitely a chart-topper. During an A-Sides show, my Father played a cover of Springsteen’s “Backstreets” with us. He is a piano player who was in a band in the ’60s called Ox that put out one 45 and then split up. So he joined us on stage and did the piano parts because it’s such a piano-driven song. It was really awesome. It went over really well, and the crowd was freaking out.

Jon: Yea, that’s one of my favorites too.

Finally, my friend Krystle is a big fan of your music and would like to share cupcakes with you guys, her treat. Interested?

Jon: I would like to say that I love cupcakes more than anything. My favorite kind is Red Velvet. I just had one at Flying Monkey yesterday and it was SO good.

Patrick: I don’t know what my favorite cupcake is, but the idea of eating cupcakes with Krystle is my favorite cupcake. (laughs)

Thanks to Jon and Patrick for the interview. You can download Sun Airway’s excellent new EP, Oh, Naoko for FREE on their website. Highly recommended! Stay tuned for tour info and album details…