Sun Araw Interview: SXSW 2010

Pack your bags, we're taking a trip. Cameron Stallones, the prolific prophet behind the sun-stroked psychedelic outfit Sun Araw will provide you, the traveler, with sinuous subtropical vibes to accompany your journey into mindspaces unknown. Spinner recently spoke with Stallones about inspiration, exploration, and resonation.

How would you describe your sound?

You turn over and the Lenticular Object is all rocking its end-of-history vibe next to you in bed. Whoa, are you new here? Yeah. Mind psalm, get on it. I haven't heard it yet, but its supposed to be good.

How did your band form?

I went out exploring zones for later travel with the heavy psych-rock band I'm in, Magic Lantern. Turns out they were solo zones, no one else could get in there. So I started straight lampin' in deep focus. Turned into fruit city.

What are your musical influences?

My friend William, my friend Phil, Parson Sound, Fela Kuti, Terry Riley, Popol Vuh, Pharoah Sanders, Hot 92.3. Drop in, drop out, hold on -- that sort of thing.

How did you come up with your band name?

A not-so-oblique reference to Sun Ra, a master of hyper-dimensional living. But Araw is a Tagalog word that means "sun" or "day." Sunday is a big influence -- sacred rest.

What's your biggest vice?

Are you kidding?

What's in your festival survival kit?

Open ears, open heart, living, loving, learning, laughing and Los Angeles.

Who was your first celeb crush?

I'm working on plugging so far in, that I actually assign all of my romantic emotions to animated gifs.

What's your musical guilty pleasure?

I try not to feel guilty about things I like. I have some pretty heavy thoughts about 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross. I'm not sure if I would say that I like it, but that song is a portal and a totem. There's some resonant forces colliding in there. It's like the musical equivalent of the Red Room in 'Twin Peaks.'

Beatles or Stones?

I can't decide if I like 'Abbey Revolver' or 'Dark Side of the Moon' more. The first time I met Rick Jagger of the Beatles I gave him this tape of my friend's band Dogwiper, and it turns out it was already his favorite song.

What's the craziest thing you've seen or experienced while on tour?

Oh man. There was a crazy fight in Toulouse where we almost got kicked out of the squat we were staying in. Also recently, an extremely inebriated gentleman followed the van to an abandoned gas station, then kept trying to climb in. He was putting off some super dark vibes. We bolted pretty severely.

How do you recreate all the layers in your music in a live setting? Can you tell me a little about the instrumentation and effects you use?

There's been a few strategies. I used to use a bunch of cassette players. Lately I'm voyaging completely solo, just wrapping layers live with a looping machine. I'm not big on sampling outside of beat music, so I steer clear. I'm pretty content to allow live manifestations of the jams to be wildly different than the records, I try to explore them with maximum improvisation and a tuned in mindset.

Describe the ideal setting to hear your music.

Oh man, it completely depends on the record. The new record, 'On Patrol,' is for heavy-steamin' late nights in the city, inter-dimensional back alleys, ghost cabs and midnight sweat locker rooms. That's kind of a new one for me.

There seems to be a familial kind of spirit among the Not Not Fun bands. Do you think there was a shared perspective among the bands prior to joining Not Not Fun?

It depends. Many of those people are truly family to me and we pass a lot of the same records around, getting inspired in waves. That said, the inception of music in each individual zone is usually pretty insular. I actually recently parted ways with Pocahaunted as a member. Tour schedules were getting too hairball for me to coherently exist as Sun Araw and with those dudes. But I always love playing in bands -- it's a completely different dimension than a solo gig, but almost more rewarding most of the time. The Magic Lantern casts some high beams, no joke, opening glowing doors to other planes without fail. That can happen alone in the studio or onstage sometimes, but there's something special about having a brother or sister to walk through it with.

Your music is quite atmospheric, cinematic even. If you could add one of your songs to a scene in a film, what song and what film would you go with?

Oh man, I'm a total film geek and that just exploded my mind. I'm not sure if I can get it together to answer. Weirdly, I don't really contemplate that, maybe because I'm usually thinking in cinematic terms when I'm making the tracks. They have their own visualization. I definitely don't know about existing cinema, but if I could pick anyone to do a music video it would be Zed and Two Noughts-era Greenaway doing a single long-take. Or maybe William Klein for the budget version.

Who are the bands you'd like to check out at SXSW?

You know the only real lame thing about SXSW is that you never have much time to see anyone but the bands you're playing with. This year I didn't even make a list. That said, it's always a blast and there's some sweet gigs going down. I'm stoked as always to get lifted by Eternal Tapestry, stoked to jam with Headdress. Prince Rama -- those people are next level musically and personally. Can't wait to eyeball Teeth Mountain, Wet Hair, Sex Worker, Psychic Reality, the Not Not Fun showcase is gonna be straight bonkers this year.


Maggie Gryske is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.