"the Sundays" by Darren Ressler
"In our world things don't often happen exactly the way that you want
them to and there's a lot in out songs about going out and coming home
again without anything necessarily happening," describes David Gavurin of
the intent behind the ambient pop fare on The Sundays' debut release,
"Reading, Writing & Arithmetic". The Sundays have just checked into their
hotel in Warwick, England and are moments away from going to the last
soundcheck of their first English tour as soon as Gavurin finishes this
phone interview emanating from New York. "They're not tales of glamour
like the stuff that you seem to hear on most songs which pretend to depict
real life but really don't."
Though only together since August 1988, The Sundays have been touted
as the next great English independent hope by practically every scribe in
the United Kingdom predicting success for the band on the same plateau as
The Smiths and Cocteau Twins sheerly on the merits of "Can't Be Sure",
their first single released last year which nearly broke into the Top 40
in England- something unheard of for a young indie band. "Reading, Writing
& Arithmetic" has so far lived up to the expectations of the single in
England selling 60,000 copies in the first two weeks and entering the
album charts at Number Four. While they appreciate the glowing praises,
The Sundays eagerly admit that their swift rise has been helped by being
at the right place at the right time.
The initial creative nucleus formed when David Gavurin met Harriet
Wheeler at college in Bristol four years ago. Together, they began
writing songs while Gavurin majored in French and Spanish and Wheeler
studied English Literature. After two years of experimenting with "simple
guitar and vocal songs" recorded on a four-track with Gavurin handling
guitar and bass, and Wheeler on vocals and a drum machine, they asked
their friends, Paul (bass) and Patch (drums), to join the band. Having
friends who played accompanying instruments spared The Sundays the
aggravation of advertising and try-out rehearsals for two additional members.
"An enormous amount of luck was involved. It seems that certain
bands have to play around a circuit for years before anyone will take
notice of them," reflects Gavurin after telling that everything external
to the music such as the name of the album and the band is insignificant.
"Harriet and I had been writing for so long that we never imagined being
in a a postition of traipsing around desperately trying to get people
interested. It seemed that we had to start somewhere so we started
looking around for gigs to play with the original idea to play a whole
series of gigs, get experience playing live and to then make some sort of
demo tape. We didn't have a clue what to do because we didn't have, and
still don't have, any management. So, we sent off a whole load of tapes
to get gigs."
Oddly, only one notoriously trendy venue answered their query and it
was that gig at the Folklorn in London as the opening act on a bill of
three which was what they needed to get started. Critics from all three
English music weeklies arrived unusually early that evening resulting in
three positively glowing reviews the next week championing the group as
the heirs to England's throne of the next big thing. When news of their
gig spread, offers from record companies began rolling in just on the
press' reaction to the show.
Are The Sundays surprised at their achievements to date? "It's
always a difficult question to answer," Gavurin philosophizes. "I suppose
that if you say that you're surprised then that might mean that you don't
think that your music is any good or you're lacking in confidence. We are
surprised that it all has happened so quickly because it wasn't too long
ago that we did that first gig in London when nobody even knew who we were."
Their American label, Geffen, plans to bring The Sundays to the
States this summer. Whether or not they will be received as they have
been at home remains to be seen. They're excited to tour the mythic
nation they watch on ther teles nightly but are consciously avoiding the
pitfalls of pressuring themselves to bowl over the American audience in
one fell swoop. Says Gavurin, "If we don't enjoy what we're doing it
doesn't matter if it's doing well. The main thing is that we're doing
what we want to do in the way that we want to do it, and that has nothing
to do with the desperate pursuit of fame- we enjoy writing, recording,
performing music and want the chance to perform all over the world."
Taken from New Route magazine, Issue IX for April/May 1990, page 9.
Transcribed by:
* __ ,__ ' _|_ | ,_ _. __ _|_ ' __ Cynthia C. Y. Tsao / Tatara *
* '__| | ' | | |--. | Y | /__) | | / ' Univ. of CA at Bezerkeley *
* (__| l l l_ l | l | l \__, l_ l \__, Dept. of Civil Engineering *
* The E-Mail List that discusses The SUNDAYS ccytsao@uclink.berkeley.edu *