INTERVIEW: Matthieu Kirby & John Fine – The Sunday Sadness

Dark pop isn’t just for Sundays, it’s for life. Ever wondered what Gerard Way would sound like if he spent a week on a K-pop and synthwave binge? Ahead of their debut eponymous EP, we grabbed vocalist Matthieu Kirby and drummer John Fine from Bordeaux electro-pop outfit THE SUNDAY SADNESS to say a few words about their influences, the future of a dark emo band on the brink of a bright future.

How did you guys first meet?

Matthieu: That’s a long and twisted story! We’ve had many different lineups already but for the remaining members, I started the band. I started looking for members on Facebook and I asked my friends if they knew of a good drummer in our area, then I found this guy called John Fine who became our drummer, but he’s now a vocalist like me. We met for the very first time on our first music video shoot and we became best friends. As for Chris Laurent and Matt Cutt, we knew each other from a long time ago as we’re all from the same town, plus I used to be in a band with Chris.

What’s the scene like in Bordeaux?

Matthieu: The scene is pretty weak, we don’t have many rock or scene bands so there’s no scene whatsoever. We haven’t even played in our hometown yet! We’ve only played one show in Paris with ASKING ALEXANDRIA.

What was that experience like?

Matthieu: We were so very well welcomed that day, the event was fantastic and we really couldn’t imagine that our first gig would be with such a big band. John, Chris and I all grew up with ASKING ALEXANDRIA and I’d seen them live twice before, but we never could have imagined supporting them.

Which bands inspired you growing up?

Matthieu: For me, the first band that inspired me was GOOD CHARLOTTE, they were the very first band I ever listened to. From there, my biggest influences have been MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, THE 1975 and MOTIONLESS IN WHITE for their clean vocals. Most recently, CHASE ATLANTIC have inspired me the most. I’ve recently discovered K-pop music too, especially for their outfits, so all of us in THE SUNDAY SADNESS have been inspired by K-pop individuals. John and I are the main writers for the band, John writes the instrumental parts really naturally, plus he’s been writing many vocal parts for us so that’s why he changed position and became a vocalist too.

John: I’m a huge fan of LINKIN PARK, plus many artists in the vaporwave electronic movement have inspired me. When we started, the band was a lot more emo, then I came in with all my vaporwave influences and injected them into it.

Matthieu: We started as an emo, pop-punk and metalcore band, but John came in and suggested trying something new, we could still keep those influences but reshape them into something new to bring to the table. So we went away to take things from the vaporwave and synthwave moments that John was particularly into and it worked really well.

How was 2018 for you?

Matthieu: We’ve written our first EP which is released in February, we’ve released three music videos that got a lot of attention and we’ve managed to build a great fanbase already. It’s not huge but we’ve brought in followers and subscribers on pretty much every social network and streaming platform. There are already some fan pages here and there too! We know many people are already enjoying our music, which is cool even though we haven’t toured yet. We’ve put a lot of time into our videos and this EP, we’re shooting a new one soon that will be out in February too. We have a manager already who’s already talking to some pretty big independent labels that seem interested in the EP and are keen to hear our first full-length so we’re working on it!

How long has the writing process for the EP taken?

Matthieu: It took forever! We’ve written so many songs and got rid of them along the way, it’s taken us two long years. To be honest, we started it so long ago and it took a long time to find the songs we wanted and to refine our work, so with this EP we’ve learned how to write our music our way. As soon as we finished with the EP, we started writing our first full-length album and that went much faster. It was worth all the EP’s effort because we managed to understand how we write, we didn’t want to seem unoriginal but we also didn’t want to make something too weird or alien. It took time but now we’re really happy and I think the EP sounds exactly like the band we want to be.

Which track means the most to you as a vocalist?

Matthieu: Someone is the song we always knew would be the single. It’s also the song that’s really hit the nail on the head with its hook – it doesn’t sound like any other hook you’ve ever heard before. It’s also the song we worked on the most too, plus the video took so long to shoot with so much preparation so it was very intense, it wasn’t easy at all!

How would you want kids to feel when they hold this EP for the first time?

Matthieu: I’d like them to think our sound is fresh and for it to bring them a sense of nostalgia and sadness, especially because the lyrics are mostly sad.

Which song’s lyrics are you most proud of?

Matthieu: I’m most proud of Someone because it doesn’t get old to me unlike the other songs because I can barely listen to them anymore. When you’ve heard it 100 times in recording sessions, we just don’t hear the songs like you hear them anymore. I still like them, I just need to take a break from it and come back to it later. The lyrics to Lost In The Crowd also mean a lot too, many fans send us messages saying they relate to them, those lyrics are very personal to us. Many people say it’s helped them in the past and that’s really uplifting and motivating.

What’s the nicest thing a fan has said to you so far?

Matthieu: When they say we’re their favourite band or one of our songs is their favourite, it’s so cool. When you start a band, you can’t imagine you’d ever be someone’s favourite band. Also when you’re writing a song, you think people will listen to it once or twice and show it to one or two friends. You never think they’ll listen to it every day for a certain time and our fans say that.

How’s 2019 looking for you so far?

Matthieu: The EP’s coming out on 15th February, and if it’s doing well, we’ll probably shoot a music video for The Hunger. Our manager is also the CEO of a big booking agency in France so when we have our EP released, he’ll be able to push us into some shows here and there. Hopefully we get to play some big shows because he was the one who got us supporting ASKING ALEXANDRIA. We started writing our first album so we think that will be ready during the summer. I’m not sure when it will be out, but one thing’s for sure, we’re going to send it to every single label that sounds interested. I hope we get signed with this album that we can release to a label!

The Sunday Sadness is out now via self-release. THE SUNDAY SADNESS are featured in our current digital issue of Distorted Sound. Subscribe to our Patreon Page to gain access. 

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