Transcribed by Ambrose
Vocalist Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin - the guiding force behind the Sunday - share too much: music, love, family life.
The only bonds they have avoided are of the matrimony variety. "It's really never been an issue with us, " Wheeler says. Gavurin adds, "My mum once tried to get us married by saying 'David, think of all the presents you might get!' Our accountant tried to get us married as well, for some sort of tax reason. We held out. I don't see it happening in the near future. It seems too daunting."
Also daunting is the prospect of taking their 2 and 1/2 year-old daughter Billie on tour for the first time.
"God knows what that's going to be like," Gavurin says. "We are somewhat concerned. We don't want her being the archetypal rock'n'roll child who hangs out with adults all the time. We like the fact that, in her normal life, she sees other kids."
The Sundays, who perform at the Fillmore Monday night, are touring to promote their third album, "Static and Silence." Their songwriting is evidence of how much in sync Wheeler and Gavurin are.
"We communicate very well," Wheeler says. "We have a similar aesthetic sense. But that can be true of songwriting teams that don't live together. Lennon and McCartney didn't do too badly."
Gavurin says there are pluses and minuses to working with one's significant other.
"We almost never argue about things like which chord we want to go to next. But, when you're under pressure, you can take it out on each other. At such moments, you think, 'Wouldn't it be great if you could just come home to someone who had not been part of your world at all?'
"At the same time," he adds, "it's been absolutely brilliant to eel that, as a result of our combined effort, we've created music that people want to listen to."
They never had to struggle to get people to listen. In 1988, Wheeler and Gavurin moved from Bristol to London. There they got together with bassist Paul Brindley and drummer Patrick Hannan. Thus the Sundays were born. After their first gig, before they'd recorded anything, tons of positive press built anticipation. Wheeler recalls, "I said to a photographer, 'We're nobodies. This is all going so fast.' He said, ' The balls started rolling. You can't stop it now, so you might as well just go with it.' There was so much hype. It felt ominous and out of control."
In 1989, "Cant' Be Sure" became a big hit. Then their debut album, "reading, writing and arithmetic," gained the band even more success. Still, Wheeler and Gavurin managed to maintain a healthy attitude.
"We didn't imagine for a second that the position we were in at that time guaranteed us lifetime success," Gavurin says.
After the band's second album, "Blind," - which did not garner as much critical acclaim or album success as did "Reading"- Gavurin and Wheeler took some much-needed time off. Besides reviving their dormant social life and having the baby, they put together their own studio. That's where they wrote and recorded most of "Static and Silence." The title of the album, which is a line in their song, "Monochrome," was inspired by recollections of watching the moon landings when they were children.
The new album should succeed. With sweet vocals, lilting guitar licks and gently swirling melodies, the songs seem perfectly in tune with today's music climate. The Sundays do not, however, make any conscious attempt to keep up with the mercurial British pop scene. Gavurin says, "We just want to sound like ourselves. if, quite by chance, it fits the latest fashion, that's great."
by Paul Freeman
(times correspondent)