Localized: Seeking the Sun

The great Salt Lake City just keeps on rocking with the lineup for November’s edition of SLUG Localized! With alt-rock riffs from opener CAMO and heavy-hitting chords from both Seeking The Sun and Chausie, it’s a night you don’t want to miss! Be at Kilby Court on Nov. 18 to experience the truest form of local rock. Sponsored by Riso-Geist, the show costs just $5 for entry. Get your tickets here!

Joseph McDaniel and Juniper Wolf met in a high school music class. They began playing music together around that time, and then moved to Colorado and formed Seeking the Sun during the COVID-19 pandemic around 2021. They admit to having struggled initially, saying that they made bad music because they hadn’t yet found comfort in their sound. But now, split between New York and Salt Lake, Seeking the Sun is creating expansive, groovy and layered tracks that may cause listeners to shift between veils of various realities. This is due to the expressive vocals from the group’s vocalist Juniper Wolf, potent compositions and tight basslines coming from Joseph McDaniel, slick guitar work from Max Pecora and superb rhythm sections from drummer Sean McDaniel. Seeking the Sun describes their genre as “terror funk” with heavy influences of ‘90s metal.

“When we’re tracking in the studio, we approach recording as if we are playing a live show.”

When I ask about specific musical influences, the group references a wide range including Devo, Korn, Black Midi and former frontman Geordie Greep’s excellent solo record The New Sound. McDaniel sums up this spread of influences: “A lot of groove-heavy bands.”

Following this, I say, “Fill in the blank: Seeking the Sun is a band for fans of blank. If you’re a fan of this mainstream artist, you should check out Seeking the Sun.” The band came to the conclusion that listeners of Primus and Talking Heads would enjoy the blend of psych, noise and experimental rock that Seeking the Sun has released so far. The band also shouted out SLUG Managing Editor Asha Pruitt’s comparison that “Seeking the Sun = Mannequin Pussy + Lip Critic.”

The group currently has six singles currently available on streaming services and is deep in the process of crafting their first full-length release. I asked if, during the writing process or recording sessions, the band envisioned how tracks would be performed live. How do they expect the audience to respond to songs that are so emotive and grandiose, with an almost mystical quality about them? “My writing is mainly focused on live performance,” McDaniel says. “When we’re tracking in the studio, we approach recording as if we are playing a live show. There’s always consideration for overdubs and mixing, but when I’m writing, the priority is always the energy that we want to convey. There is nothing worse than a boring show, and my hope when writing is that the translation to a concert setting is engaging and interesting for the audience.”

“There is nothing worse than a boring show, and my hope when writing is that the translation to a concert setting is engaging and interesting for the audience.”

I follow this up by asking about each band member’s favorite songs, or if they had any recommendations for new listeners from what’s been released so far. Pecora responds with the band’s latest single “Lobotomy,” released on Oct. 2. He says that being a member of the group has been symbiotic, allowing him to display existing guitar skills as well as enabling growth and development in the creative process and the additional task of playing new work. Lead singer Wolf adds that a standout track for her is “Dan’s Song,” which is unlike anything else in the group’s discography — its lyrics are from a poem written by Dan Fields, the group’s producer and recording engineer.

Seeking the Sun gave shoutouts to their producer Fields, as well as former members Casmali Lopez, an “amazing drummer,” Leo Paterniti, a “great musician” who released an EP earlier this year and finally a CO band known as S.W.A.G. — an acronym for Sewage Waste And Girls.

Catch Seeking the Sun live in Salt Lake City on Nov. 18 at Kilby Court, or in New York City on Oct. 18 at Alphaville. Find the band on Instagram at @seek.ingthesun as well as their website seekingthesun.org to find out more about additional dates.

Read about more SLUG Localized bands:
Localized: Alghoul
Localized: dj tyrinha