By Staff Writer
Until The Sun is a female-fronted alt-blues/rock quartet whose newest release, A Night At The Rhythm Room, has received great reviews. Blues Blast writes, “The Arizona-based band, Until the Sun, is anything but predictable. Brandon Teskey’s skillful and emotive guitar work does an excellent job of alternating between rousing rock riffs and slow, moving blues solos. Alyssa Swartz’s vocals are equally flexible. At times she can sound sweet and ethereal, such as in “The 4th Turning”. But her effortless, yet incredibly powerful vocals adopt a wonderful sultry rasp in many other songs. There are few singers who can meet the challenge presented by covering Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” (especially after Beth Hart offered such a memorable interpretation of it) or attempt to cover ‘At Last’. However, Swartz is one of the few who can meet those high-set bars.”
Blues-E-News recently got to interview the quartet (also consisting of Jay Zarecki on bass and Chris Tex on drums) for their 5 Quick Questions series. Here’s how it went.
BEN: What’s the very latest and greatest news as far as Until The Sun is concerned, include discussing your latest release? What are some of the topics of your songs?
Brandon: First off, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. Last year we released our live album, A Night at the Rhythm Room. The album consisted mostly of new material and the performance we captured we felt was strong and a good representation of our live sound. We are doing some shows in California next month as well as playing the Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival in Lake Havasu City on March 25th. We have written another new album, a psychedelic blues rock album that we are going to start recording at the end of March and early April. As far as what our songs are about, both Alyssa and I are avid songwriters. Regarding the songs on which we collaborate together, on some of them she brings the lyrics in and we’ll work out the music until everything comes together. And some of the songs, I’ll bring in. I can’t speak for Alyssa, but for my own songs, I view them as snapshots of the human experience, the beautiful and the ugly, love, passion, hate and suffering. Sometimes I write from my own perspective, sometimes through someone else’s point of view. Sometimes my lyrics are literal and sometimes they are purposely abstract so the listener can figure out and ascribe their own meaning to the song.
Alyssa: Ya! I think our music is growing and changing into our own unique sound, which I am proud of. Brandon and I do a lot of collaboration, and a lot of the stuff that I write is from my own perspective and experiences. While these are my own experiences, I feel that other people deal with those situations, and can relate to the music.
BEN: Just learned that your band was just booked to perform at the 2023 Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival in Lake Havasu City, congratulations. How did that come to happen?
Brandon:That came about through our publicist, Doug Deutsch, who does publicity for the Woodystock Blues & Brews Festival. Initially we had contacted them a little late in the game but a band dropped out, and Doug was able to pull some strings and get us on the lineup.
Alyssa: Yeah! And we are so ready and excited for the opportunity to get everyone up dancing!
BEN: Let’s dig deep here into Until The Sun’s overall sound., How would you describe it to someone who’s never heard you before? Also, mention some of the artists that have influenced your band?
Brandon:I would describe our music as Contemporary Blues that crosses over into other genres like alternative rock, sixties psychedelic rock and even a little jazz, but the foundation of our sound is modern blues rock. We all come from different musical backgrounds which is something that I think makes us unique. My influences on guitar range from Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Scott Henderson, Clapton, Jeff Beck, SRV, Eric Johnson, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Wes Montgomery, Peter Green and too many others to mention. For songwriters, I’m influenced by Hendrix again. I think he’s a very underappreciated poetic lyricist. I’m also influenced by Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, BB King, Willy Dixon, The Beatles, Pink Floyd. I also like some of the harder rock guys like Corey Tayler.
Alyssa:I didn’t really listen to a lot of blues music growing up, so I don’t have a lot of blues influences. I grew up listening to hip-hop and R&B, and a lot of eighties rock, thanks to my parents, which is why I have a broad range in my vocals I loved, listening to Mariah Carey growing up, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Destiny’s Child, Steven Tyler, Journey, the Eagles, REO Speedwagon, Don Mclean, Stevie Nicks and many others.
Chris:I agree with Brandon. Our sound is contemporary blues, yet we each bring various genres to the music. Being trained as a jazz musician, my drumming influences include Brian Blade, Tony Williams, Keith Carlock, Mic Fleetwood, and Elvin Jones. I also enjoy other genres as well such as electronic, alternative, and metal. Some of my favorite bands are The Cars, Pet Shop Boys, Third Eye Blind, and Alice in Chains. Some of my drumming influences from these genres include Raymond Herrera, Sean Kinney, and Brad Hargreaves.
Jay: Since I’m the new guy, I’m not sure who influenced the band, but I would guess along the lines of what Brandon just said. I don’t have any blues influences at all, except for Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and of course, the Blues Brothers. I have played blues a few times before, but none of which I would say influence my sound at all.
BEN: Here’s a tough one: Would you rather record in studio, or perform live, and why?
Alyssa:I like recording in the studio and singing live. They both have a different feeling. In a studio, you can make things as clean and as perfect as you want, but when you’re singing live, you get to interact with the audience, which pulls all the passion out of me. I think the audience can feel it and it just makes it so much better with it the passion.
Chris: I like recording in the studio, as well as performing live. While each has benefits and limitations, I personally love playing live shows, especially outside festivals. I feel that my drums sound amazing at outside venues. Also, I love interacting with the people at the shows, especially when they are smiling and having a nice time. Feeling the energy of the crowd makes me realize that we are doing something right!
Jay: Doesn’t matter to me. Each have their own pros and cons. Live you can connect with the crowd more and you can FEEL the subs below your feet. Studios have room to maybe rewrite your part, and if you do that live on the fly, you better be right, or at least not make a face when you mess it up. The studio also can be quick and fun, or take months — depending on budget and who you’re playing with and who the producer is, and what they’re trying to get out of the band.
Brandon: I love both, for different reasons. Playing live when the audience feels it, and you feed off that and the band’s energy feeds back into the audience and everyone is locked on and connected with one another is very magical experience, and one of the greatest feelings you can have. Playing in the studio at times can be arduous, especially when you are a perfectionist and pushing yourself to be greater, but it’s pure creation. You are creating something new that didn’t exist before and ideally, something timeless and lasting.
BEN: Do you have a five-year plan, where you’d like to see Until The Sun several years from now, overall?
Brandon: I’d like to see us expand our fan base so we can reach more people. I’d like to play more festivals, go on some longer tours, and maybe do a couple tours in Europe. We have a new album that we will be recording soon, and Alyssa and I are writing more songs for the one after that, too. We were discussing the possibility of doing an acoustic album down the line as well.
Chris:Overall, I feel that continuing to attract more people to our music will allow us to effectively connect with the fans so that we can play additional shows, festivals, and tours. Having more of a social media presence can help us with that. I would also like to release an acoustic album since we’ve never tried that before.
Alyssa:I agree with Chris and Brandon. I want to keep growing as a band and keep building our audience, which would be awesome. As Brandon said, I would like to do more festivals and expand out to Europe; that would be awesome, too!
More on Until The Sun at https://untilthesun.com/bio; https://www.facebook.com/UntilTheSunBand/; https://www.instagram.com/untilthesunband/.
