Beloved Canadian art rock outfit SUUNS is set to release their 6th album, The Breaks, on September 6. We chatted with guitarist/bassist Joseph Yarmush to learn more about it.
I want to start off with the album name and cover. Why did you call the record The Breaks? How does the collage aesthetic you have going on in the cover relate to it all?
Joseph Yarmush: Sometimes things play out of your control. That’s what ‘the breaks’ is on this one. And it was the title of the last song on the record. It was the way this album played out, that was the breaks. (laughs) There is also kind of a weird, illiterate association with brakes on a car, even though it’s spelled differently. There’s a bit of a car-driving road trip theme on this album with the lyrics and stuff. We also have long transitions with synths. There is not a very specific meaning, but a bit of a double meaning or a loose affiliation.
And the artwork is meant to be just different things you could possibly see. It’s kind of random. There are other little bit of tie-ins with the record, but a lot of it’s from traveling. Like, I took all those photos over 20-something years. I think very few are from Montreal. We worked on the cover for a long time, everyone was into the idea once I showed the visual. I don’t try to explain it too much sometimes, or not even know if I can explain it. It’s kind of on purpose, but also loose affiliation. A lot of times, we just go with the flow.
It’s the best to go with the flow.
You have to. Yeah.
I already knew that the album was forged during your road trips, but I didn’t expect the cover’s story to span 20 years. Maybe it also represents the band’s overall route itself, in a sense.
Of course, yeah. It’s all our perception of what we see on the road and our memories. There’s some abstract stuff too. It’s meant to celebrate movement, being on the road, or how we all kind of perceive what we see as we just either go through life, or even more simply just drive on a highway or whatever. We’ve seen some crazy shit, there’s no doubt. (laughs) Anyone who drives around all the time does. I’m sure the truck drivers have seen the craziest stuff on the planet, you know? It’s a homage to all that, or whatever you want to call it.
Would you consider yourself more of a road person or home person?
These days, it’s not the same. I have a pretty stable life. Look, I’m in a warehouse right now. (laughs) I love going on tour, but it’s also hard. You can’t do too much of it. I think nowadays it’s more at home than on the road, but I’m looking forward to going on tour because we don’t do it as much as we used to, so it’s more special when we get to go.
During the making process of the record, did you make use of almost every sound you created, or were there many sounds you left out from the final product?
I mean, when you start a record, it’s hard to know what you’re gonna do. And we started it in around 2022. So it’s not that long ago. We were still on tour. A lot of the early songs aren’t on the album. So it took us a little while to figure out what was the gel of the record. It takes us a long time now to make albums, because we’re kind of spread out a little bit. We had an anchor point with this one synthesizer sound. It’s called Spire. That gave us these guardrails to follow. We use that sound a lot on the record. And also a lot of the old tape echo stuff. It’s not anything complicated, it’s little things that we just kept using over and over. It’s not like we try to use all the sounds or try to stick to one little thing. But I think once we get really hyped up about something, then we try to dive into that as deep as we can. And I think that really happened on this album. Especially with the synth sounds. Any spacey echo sounds are usually from this one tape machine. It doesn’t even matter. Even if we use a different one, it would have been almost the same effect. It’s just that we happened to use that one. We don’t have unlimited amounts of gear. We find these things at a studio, or randomly someone finds this synth sound. So, yeah, it’s kind of a bit a mix of the two.
Among this batch of songs, which two do you were the easiest and the hardest to make?
One of the hardest ones, I think, is “Road Signs and Meanings,” which is like a long jam. It has two motifs within it. It’s has a psych rock, almost cliché beginning. And then it sort of turns a corner at one point and, to me, it doesn’t really go where one would think that it goes. That took a while. And we weren’t playing it like that at all. But Liam (O’Neill), who’s the drummer, came up with the idea of making it never kind of go back to the beginning. He kind of shaped the direction of that song. It took a long time to figure out how to make it sound good. Once those kind of songs are created or once the path is figured out, everything else is super easy because you just put in the cool sounds. (laughs) But that was probably the hardest song.
An easier song was probably “Doreen.” It could be played as an acoustic guitar song. I’m talking about the main part, because the ending is its own thing. We did everything in one day. Little synth, played an extra couple guitars… Sometimes it just kind of goes pretty easy.
I don’t know if it was actually easy or hard, because it all kind of just mixes together to me. This one only took a year to make, I guess. I can’t remember if it was one or two years. Jesus. I don’t know. I really don’t know. I have no memory. (laughs) Generally, it’s all very hard, I think. But it’s fun.
For me, it’s hard to keep track of time, because we live in very non-linear times.
Oh my God, yes. And I don’t know if it’s getting better or worse. I have more memories of exact timing of our early albums.
Considering the last couple of years, your dynamic as a band also shifted with Max (Henry) leaving band and Ben (Shemie) moving to Paris. Do you think that has affected how you work together?
It affected a lot. All of that is huge. Just on a practical level, it’s a lot easier to work as three people if you’re used to working as four. I bet if you’re used to working as three, it would be easy to work as two or whatever, but yeah, it’s just one less person. It’s kind of good. We used to figure out all the songs in a live setting before we would go in the studio, and that we haven’t done that for a couple albums. That has changed because Ben has to fly to Montreal, it’s a very limited time and it’s a bit of a rush. We go hardcore and then stop and wait a long time. It’s just what it is. I don’t know if it’s good or bad or worse, but it’s definitely been a different experience. We’re already trying to write a new album. We’re all in Montreal right now.
Great.
Yeah, you have to take advantage of the time. You have to work extra hard to get together and do it when it’s possible.
It’s cool to chase the spark whenever you feel it.
Yeah, totally. You got to ride and go as hard as you can, for as long as you can. I feel like if you stop working on it, it goes away. I don’t know, we try not to stop working on it.
Stylistically speaking, you have always been a bold band not afraid to try out new things. Surely that must have helped you throughout the last couple of years.
Absolutely. We don’t have a thing that people know us for. We don’t fit into a window of whatever genre. It’s not like we have that much to lose, ever. (laughs) We don’t make a lot of money, so it doesn’t matter in a way. It’s really just about making cool music for ourselves, so there’s nothing more at stake for us. We’re not going to ruin our reputation or anything. Even if we do, it doesn’t matter.
How can you ruin your reputation anyway?
Exactly. It’s impossible.
Would you ever consider making another collaborative album like you did with Jerusalem in My Heart? And if so, which artist or band would be at the top of your list?
Good question. Of course we consider doing it. We’ve tried to make another one with Jerusalem in my Heart, It just was so hard to even make our own albums. Who would we collaborate? I don’t know. I don’t really have anyone specific really, to be honest. I like the Jerusalem my Heart one because it’s a different style of music, and obviously there is singing in Arabic and stuff. It was just a new, cool thing. New rhythms and weird, sick time stuff.
I don’t have anyone specific, and I wish we had more free time to do stuff like that. If I throw someone out, it’d be something super odd. I think it would be cool to work with a singer who sang in a different language or came from a different musical background. I think it’d be cool to take someone from the pop world, and bring them into SUUNS’ world, like what The Flaming Lips did with Miley Cyrus. I love that stuff. I think it’s so cool.
I agree.
That’s amazing. And her voice is so cool. I love The Flaming Lips, and that whole trash, f.cked up sounds with her was so great. It made me think of her in a different way. I would love to do something like that, with someone who’s in the pop world. Even like Orville Peck, who’s in a cowboy kind of genre. It’d be cool to get him out of the fake country or whatever the hell is going on there, he has such a great voice. Someone like that seems interesting to me.
I’m blanking on her name, but who’s that girl who is from LA and that the record Ultraviolence?
Lana Del Rey.
Yeah! That would be amazing. Yeah.
That would be so cool. It would be so unexpected.
That would be sick. I’m a huge fan. I think her vibe, her voice, and her albums are so good. Yeah, that’s my official answer.
Her music is only getting better and better with the years, too.
Totally, man. I dig that. She is also caring less and less about a pop star, you know? She is just making cool music, that’s great.
Your answer reminds me of the time I interviewed A Place to Bury Strangers. When I interviewed Oliver on who would he like to collaborate with, he chose Harry Styles just for the shock value.
Yeah. The only problem being that I don’t want people coming with 20 bodyguards or whatever to the studio. (both laugh)
Looking at your streaming platform’s search history, can you name the last three things you streamed?
There’s a band from Burlington, Vermont called Robber Robber with their song “Sea or War.” They just put out an album.
I don’t know how to pronounce it, but Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim put out an album. It’s bossa nova. I can’t pronounce any of these songs. (laughs) The one I listened to is called “Só Tinha de Ser com Você”.
Finally, there is Stone Temple Pilots with “Big Empty.”
I love the eclectic nature of these songs.
When I drive around, I just put it on shuffle. But these ones I downloaded. I bought the Robber Robber one. So I was listening to that last night, and I saw a clip on Instagram about the Jobim one. I was checking that album out. Then something reminded me of the Stone Temple Pilots.
Let’s imagine we’re at a Musicians Theme Park 100 years from now, where every artist or band featured have their own memorial stone with a certain lyric by them written on it. Which one of the lyrics would you like to see written on Suuns’ stone?
Trying to remember the lyrics. What was that song called? (laughs) I think I’m losing my mind.
Oh yeah, the song is “Sunspot,” and the lyric is “You see the sun… the sky / Let’s get on!”
Good one. Thanks for this interview, and if you have something to add, Joe, please do.
Hopefully see you in Turkey soon.
Yeah, please come along.
It’s been a few years, and I love it there. Are you in Istanbul?
Yeah.
Last time we were there, we had stayed up 24 hours to catch the flight, and then played the show. It was cool. And then I didn’t sleep because we had to leave at 1 am, so I was up for like two or three days, in and out. It’s a torture to fly into Istanbul and to leave right away. I had stayed there for five or six days before, and it was great. We will meet again one day.
You can check out SUUNS’ Bandcamp profile here.
