Sunshine Faces
Behind the flannel with Sunshine Faces’ Noah Rawlings; press photo.
In our continued coverage of Sunshine Faces we are proud to present the singles “more than science” & “party dresses” accompanied with a reflective piece written by the artist Noah Rawlings himself. The feelings of following thought trails and the source of nostalgic feelings makes up “more than science” that seeks a kind of musical explanation for everything that science, religion & academia can’t afford. The wistful keys & chords sway with strums that lead to scuzzy patches that bring the sentiment all the way home. That similar dream-state progression carries over on “party dresses” that romanticizes of fashionable textiles & wishful fantasies of intimate moments shared after hanging out with a special somebody at the disco.
Sunshine Faces’ own Noah Rawlings provided us with the following introduction for his new singles with word of a new upcoming album:
Both tracks were recorded in my bedroom in Carrboro, NC, in a house I have since moved out of.
“More Than Science” was written while I was depressed! But I don’t want to talk too much about depression—not because it’s an unimportant issue, but because it often, even if it’s real, becomes some sort of artistic self-indulgence. It’s common to see a musician say in an interview, “I recorded this album in the midst of a tumultuous time,” or something along those lines, and—to my mind—it seems easy for artists to let their sadness to inflate their ego. I don’t know if that makes sense. This is confusing to talk about, because on one hand if I’m being honest; emotions, memories, and new experiences I don’t know how to deal with often end up fueling my recording and writing. But I try to prevent myself from thinking my problems are cosmic or epic or unique. I want to marry sentimentality, romanticism, mysticism, self-awareness, humor, seriousness. A big wedding of paradoxical values and mindsets.
“More Than Science” was the result of a depersonalized dysphoria I often find myself in, in which emotions seemed trivial, and mathematical facts/efficiency/whatever seems the only worthwhile thing. I was trying to acknowledge both the validity and the limits of emotionalism. The second verse of the song, with references to weed/Pavement, is more tongue and cheek than the first—the experiences I’m describing are dually meaningless & meaningful abstractions of a possible experience; they aren’t exact experiences I exactly had, or would want to have.
[laughts] It seems very silly to talk about pop music in such a specific way. Of course the way I’m describing these ideas and songs sounds much more calculated than writing and recording them actually was. The idea and sounds I’m working with are conceived very thoughtlessly—it’s only after they’re recorded that I really understand where they’re coming from.
I wrote lyrics for “Party Dresses” in the silly location of a library. I was re-reading Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal and a little bit of Mallarme and I wanted to both satirize and indulge in some elegant language.
Both these songs are from an album coming out in like a week or so, called Quorum. Here is the artwork.
Erin Morris made it.
Listen to the new Sunshine Faces’ singles via Bandcamp.
