EMQ’s with SUN CROW

EMQ’s with SUN CROW

Hi everyone! Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview, with Seattle, Pacific Northwest based Heavy Doom Rock band, Sun Crow. Huge thanks to guitarist Ben Nechanicky, for taking part.

What is your name, what do you play, and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?

I’m Ben Nechanicky, I do guitar in Sun Crow. In a way, things kind of started off a few years ago for us after a fire. We’d known each other a while, Keith and I go way back, and we decided to play some Sabbath tunes in local taverns for pleasure…that’s pure fun. Cathartic. One thing led to another, and we kind of got goaded into developing what we were doing by an old guy in a bar in Tacoma who said he was affiliated with the legendary Sonics. That kick in the ass left a permanent mark.

How did you come up with your band name?

Sun Crow appeared in the mind as a kind of strange word picture. We have lots of crows here in the Northwest, they’re like little shadow people. Everyone’s got a crow story. Later on, we found there were ancient stories about a mythological Sun Crow. The stories are weird and very old, they aren’t well understood anymore, or maybe they are translated into something we can’t grasp, or have yet to learn. The name suits us well.

What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?

We are based in Seattle, in the Pacific Northwest of the US. Under Canada, west of Montana on the wet side of the mountains. There’s a long and deep history here with bands that hit hard and are a little off-centre.

Things are ramping up after a devastating year and half of pandemic. A surprising number of venues and bands have survived intact, and things are really coming back up. We feel very lucky for that. Some didn’t make it, and those losses have been tough. The city is under tremendous financial pressures from the technology industries driving up rents and cost of living. Spaces with live music have it very tough. Entire blocks that once held venues just get “developed” right out of existence. Yet, in the face of a pandemic and financial brutality, there are so many good talented people making great sounds out here it’s an embarrassment of riches.

What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)

Our debut album “Quest For Oblivion” is out on Ripple Music. They are damn fine people, and we are really stoked to be on deck working with them.

‘Black it Out’ (Visualizer Video)

Who have been your greatest influences?

That’s a long list. More like a cosmos of influences really. Tony Iommi for sure. I have a navigational compass, when I map my influences, he’s always north. I find the constellations easiest to find once I establish that.

I think I’ve been turned on to the greatest talents and minds by my friends and family. So, the people closest to me come first as influences. Friends have directed me to musicians and albums that completely changed everything I was experiencing in music. The profound stuff is almost always a referral.

What first got you into music?

I’ve heard it my whole life. When I was a really little kid, I used to jump around to my dad’s old 78’s on his hand-cranked Victrola. Marching music or old jazz mostly. Then I found I really wanted to be a demon bat spaceman with a guitar. With lots of blood and fire. I played cello for little while as a kid. I eventually discovered more of the harder edged sounds that were closer in line with what the creature conjured in my imagination. Sabbath, Purple, Zeppelin, Nazareth, stuff like that. Definitely early Kiss in there, of course.

There were these older guys that played hard rock in a basement up the street. We’d sit there and peer through a little window and watch them, and they’d eventually invite us kids to come in and listen. It was the coolest thing. Sometime later, we moved far away and social isolation had me fixed to radio and records for a connection to something. A guitar appeared over at a neighbour’s house, I just kept going over there and I think my parents must have had to put one in our house to get me to come back home. It’s still the best way to keep me in a room.

If you could collaborate with a current band or musician, who would it be?

Gary Mula… but luckily, we are doing that now. So, then it’d have to be Kent and Wo Fat. That would be stellar…no, interstellar!

If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?

We’d love to see a big gathering of the heshers with Ripple and Doomed and Stoned rise up here in the Northwest.

What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?

Maybe it’s not all that weird, but we did get a surprise bag of weed that was almost the size of a pillowcase once. We were loading out from a show, this dude walks up and says “Do you guys smoke? Want some?” We said “sure!”, expecting a joint or a little nugget or something. He used two hands to hand this whole giant thing over and says “thanks for the tunes!” We thought it was way too much kindness, then he pushes it back at us and says “no, take it all!” That was a hell of a compliment. Maybe it’s the weedest gift.

If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?

Share music with each other. You could be hearing something right now that your neighbour hasn’t…turn it up!

If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?

Lemmy.

What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?

The best part of playing music is that whatever kind of thing has happened on any day that gets to me, when I reach out and grab my guitar just under the headstock, that stuff begins to melt away as I lift it up. When we get to turn up the sound together as a band, that power is multiplied. That’s the best. It’s physical, maybe spiritual, not very rational. I know the world’s still spinning around and shit will keep coming up. During those moments absorbed in sound, everything is all right, despite what sonically comes out that might make you question that sentiment. Maybe it’s like an exorcism. What sucks the most is anything that gets in the way of playing music together. Seriously, I think that makes me more uptight than anything. I really try not to hate, there’s way too much of that going around. It ain’t easy sometimes…we gotta try.

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

I’d like to see more folks going out to the live shows around the corner from where they live. The big spectacles draw huge crowds, and that’s cool, but sometimes I wonder if they know what is happening down in the trenches. When you go to a local venue to see a smaller cap show, that is tapping into the source of the thing. It’s where all the really good stuff comes from. There’s a lot of touches from a lot of dedicated people that have been made for that couple of hours of up close and intimate face melting. There’s a lot of power in that.

Name one of your all-time favourite albums?

“Sad Wings Of Destiny” – Judas Priest.

What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?

Vinyl is most rewarding, there is just something special about flipping one down on to the mat, but all the formats are great. You know, CD’s for driving, downloads or streaming for running around, and cassettes are getting kind of romantic. A playlist is cool, but does not quite get the same eyes a good mixtape does.

What’s the best gig that you have played to date?

A campground secret kind of party way out in the woods. Playing under the big trees is just really cool. It was loud, ran late, and was shut down by police. That always makes you feel like you did something right.

If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?

It’s inconceivable at this point. I’ve tried to quit it, but that guitar just bit into my leg and made me drag it all the way to the plains of oblivion.

Seriously, musicians have to do all kinds of things. Maybe I’d say I haven’t found anything I’d rather do than play music. There are a lot of great things out there, but there’s just no substitute.

Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?

Keith, Brian, Todd, Gary, and whoever is buying us dinner.

What’s next for the band?

We are doing regional shows, planning for some further out engagements, and primarily working on a substantial follow-up to “Quest For Oblivion”. Our current vocalist Todd has some moves that we are excited to lock into. They stretch us a bit into some familiar but fresh territory. There is also tons of material to sift through and develop that backlogged during the lockdowns. Hole up guitarists in small rooms and the results are predictable…

What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?

BandCamp, Facebook, Instagram.

SUN CROW LINKS:
www.suncrow.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/theSunCrow
www.instagram.com/sun.crow.rock.heavy
www.open.spotify.com/artist/5RsGTkPrSGRTERy7ZPONB0

RIPPLE MUSIC LINKS:
www.ripple-music.com
www.ripplemusic.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/theripplemusic
www.instagram.com/ripplemusic

Jaffa Cakes! Are they a cake or a biscuit?

They can be anything! But…I don’t understand why they are on the shelf next to the tissues in the ads. That is confusing. Maybe a little twisted even.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?

All of us in Sun Crow are stoked about the support we’ve received for “Quest For Oblivion”. We’d like to say thanks to old friends and new, we are truly humbled. We’d also like to thank our friends at Ripple for the inspiration and support.

Go out and see a local neighbourhood show, bang your head, stay late, and tip your bartender!

Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.