Taking their name from the title of a Chemical Brothers’ song, The Sunshine Underground have been jamming together since their college days.
Finally receiving critical accalaim with the release of their debut album, Raise The Alarm, in August, the Leeds fourpiece have been entertaining the idea of success, but on their terms, for several years now.
“We’ve always played instruments together but it was when we went to college, straight after secondary school and we did a music course, the three of us, that’s when we met our singer, Craig. We only got together in 1999 or 2000,” Stuart Jones, their guitarist, explains.
In this time the band’s sound has changed and developed gradually, having distinctly Indie-rock leanings at the start. It was a shared love of the same style of music that really brought the group together. “We all kind of share the same taste, it’s pretty varied alright but we know when we hear something good,” Jones reflects.
The new electro dance element to the music occurred more recently. “As the band has gone on, the sound has kind of changed. We started out listening to loads of Blur and Radiohead when we were sixteen. Now we’re into a lot more electro. We still have our guitars but we’re trying to bring in a dance element as well.”
Headlining the fourth Heineken Green Sphere event, The Sunshine Underground are flying into Ireland for a special appearance in the Trinity Rooms, Limerick on November 29.
The Limerick show is one of the final gigs of what has been a long, chaotic and satisfying tour for the band, where the release of the album has caused a huge difference; “People seem to know the words of all the songs instead of just the two or three singles. The crowds are getting bigger and more enthusiastic. We feel like a proper band now!”