An Interview with Lord Sonny The Unifier

An album release from Lord Sonny The Unifier manages to bring out an incredible amount of rock-based influences, rolling them all into one fat record, and this thing brings out everything from heavy to psychedelic-rock, along with experimental and outside the box approaches, theatrical undertones, and tons of drive where it needs it.

One of the biggest elements of the YOU WERE BORN TO SAVE YOUR LIFE album is the character behind it all. This thing is packed and oozing with personality, along with this outstanding infusion of rock soundscapes.

That combination alone is enough to keep your attention, but this record actually demands it.

Let's just start from the beginning.

The first track is called "I'm Out" and works as an outstanding introduction to the record because there are quite a few Staples on this song that you will hear throughout the album itself.

There are thriving organs, inventive and catchy guitar riffs, animated and again, sort of theatrical, in-your-face style vocals, and just the perfect amount of drive.

This song shows the sort of looseness that blends color and edginess so well throughout this record, and it also delivers this semi-quirky approach that helps shape this record as a whole.

Then there are songs like "Keep The Fierce", which starts out as a synth-driven track and builds out into this almost cinematic and lush soundscape that still has a bit of swagger in those vocals and loads of attitude in the entire sound itself.

This track has a lot of edginess to it, and I like when they push that aspect of their sound, but it's also an example of a track that is combining genres. It's a genre-bending song that is built with fewer boundaries than you may be used to.

I can say the same for the entire record in actuality.

There were very few walls built around this record, and when I say that, I mean that it wasn't really made with any kind of social or genre norms in mind. They were just doing what they felt like doing at the time, and it came out with this set of bangers that really showcase different aspects of the songwriting technique and bring a slew of influences to the table with each new song.

There are songs where that synth work is a main part of the hook or at least the aesthetic of what you're hearing. Songs like "The Destination" are a perfect example of exactly that.

The song is ultra fun, danceable, still has that edginess which packs a great punch, and has this since that runs in the background throughout it, and it's a sharp one, but it's colorful as well, and it adds this great layer of texture to the song.

I feel like there was a lot of attention paid to the details when it came to recording and tracking this record because everything is so well balanced dynamically, but still has this almost rambunctious undertone to it that feels loose and ready to go.

I love records like this because they do boast that particular wildness that looks just beneath the surface of very well-written songs that still provide that swagger and attitude I mentioned earlier, but have this element of pop-coating to them that makes them welcoming and catchy.

Super cool and slightly outside-the-box styles of songwriting throughout this whole record, and it definitely boasts plenty of surprises around its corners.

This is the kind of record you listen to as a whole. Checking out one or two songs may give you some of those staples you can expect to hear throughout the record, but it will not give you the full spectrum of what the album has to offer as a whole.

Listening to this record from start to finish is more of an experience than anything else. It pulls you away from wherever you are and whatever you're doing, it puts you in an amazing place that is fantastical in one sense but also real in another.

I definitely dig where this record took me and how it was able to deliver so much sentiment, character, story, energy, and color all wrapped up in this blending of sonic presence and rock approaches.

A very well-built record from beginning to end.

With the release of this album, we got to speak with Sonny himself, who has always been at the helm of this band, of course, and found out a lot more about the band's history and where this record came from, along with what's coming next.

Here's what went down.

Buzz Slayers: Let's talk about the You Were Born To Save Your Life album! This was such a great set of classic heavy rock songs with hints of punk, alt, and more!  Where did this record come from?

The only inspiration I’ve ever needed was to hear a great song, and there are many. I hear a great song and I am so moved by it that I become compelled to write, because I love that song so much, I Want to be a PART of that song and that community of great writers.  I don’t know what else  to do with this feeling. Music  moves my Spirit the most in all my  life and so that is my pursuit. My process to get to  a completed album is to work as much as you can, writing as much as you can and keeping the best songs. For my first release as Lord Sonny The Unifier,  I wrote 120 songs and  11 made it  on the album.  The lyrics are what gives that group of songs its’ coherence  and that's what usually defines the times of that album. The musical journey is a never ending process,  hopefully a progress. There is an aspect of becoming wise to the muses  demands and massaging her in the right way to aid the process, to plead, silent or aloud to her for mercy. We do “overcome” the conquest   temporarily I suppose by finally writing a good one, but then we wake up the next day and hear, “I Gotta Right” again and go damn, ain't there just yet am I?  Writing isn’t  difficult, it’s mysterious and incomprehensible. Dylan said, any idiot can write a song, it’s the songs that have meaning and lasting effect that are written by the few. 

Buzz Slayers: I'm hearing a few different approaches on this album! Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

It would take too long to  explain how much I love all genres of music from  everywhere, all over the world. I really love everything. Every genre has great music. Some have a lot of great music and some not as much but they are there. Even Polkas have killer tunes. My go to music is of course the Classic Rockers from the 50’s 60’s 70’s because they teach me how the great timeless songs were created and I can relate to them most of all because of  my heritage growing up in Brooklyn and New York . Early Deep Purple and BOC, Iggy, and Lemmy, The Stranglers, Bowie, The Clash,  The Music Machine, The Sonics, Creation, The Ramones and Sex Pistols, My new favorite band is Viagra Boys from Sweden (and San Fransisco) 

Buzz Slayers: Are you guys performing live right now? Any touring in support of this release?

At the moment I am putting together a live band. The guys I record with are too busy to play live gigs so I am undertaking this new challenge at the moment. It’s very time consuming as you can imagine and sometimes not very fruitful financially of course the cost of maintaining a band is astronomical and its no mystery to the world that unless you’re a major “star” with one of the three labels left its quite a battle. But it;s a battle that must be fought.

Buzz Slayers: How did it all start for you as a band?

Lord Sonny The Unifier started as a band I put together in 2018. I changed all the members 3 times  for the first 3 albums but I am happy with who is in the band now. The last 3 albums have the same members...They do what I say. HA!  We all live in Brooklyn so it’s easy to work together. I also pay them well Ha!

Buzz Slayers: Some of these music videos are crazy! The "Keep the Fierce" video was a soiree of fire, rock, and stunts! How did you pull that off?

Yeah that one was a miracle, difficult to believe it got pulled together. I’d worked on some videos with the Producer Rick Sheill, who was also working on a documentary about a pyrotechnician named Dr Danger. Dr Danger is retiring as a stunt man but wants to get into directing so we asked him to direct a video for us which he could use in his documentary as a showcase of what his is now doing/capable of doing. And this is what he came up with!  He provided the drummer who as you saw lit himself on fire while playing the drums, as a driver drove over his and the bands heads crashing into a vertically placed school bus. That stunt driver was Chris Moreno who worked on The Fast and Furious films. We performed this while playing  in front of 6000 VERY happy fans! It was over quick tho 3and a half minutes…one take with that one!  9 camera though, so we made sure we got it from all angles. 3 drones in the air as well. very fun shoot! HA!

Buzz Slayers: Now that this is out, what's next?

I just got the Masters back last week on the following album called, The Escape Plan Handbook Pt 1  Hopefully that will come out in the following year and I'm currently writing a new one, maybe have 8 keepers so far,  won’t know that for a while- got to give them time to reveal whether they are good or not. Only release your best. Don't dilute your works, don't add to the song sewage overflowing the septic tanks at all the music platforms- it ruins things for everyone. John Fogarty said if I write 100 songs 10 will be good. Loretta Lynn said if I write 10 songs 3 will be good. Be like John and Loretta only release your best.  Elton John asked Billy Joel why he didnt write and release new music and he said he didnt want to dilute his catalogue, honorable Billy. I suppose if he wrote more great songs he wouldn’t be doing that but it’s a mystery and incomprehensible why and where they came from. BTW I am not a fan of any Billy Joel song, but that's not the point. 

Buzz Slayers: Who's in your headphones right now?

Most of the bands I mentioned above. I really like Viagra Boys as new artists. They're Punks with a surrealistic edge and a bit of poetry of the absurd. Just my style.

Buzz Slayers: Was writing and recording this track a big undertaking? How long did it take to finish this?

The songs develop with  me alone, literally anywhere with headphones on,  completely immersed and closed off from the world, creating a new world. I can only write alone like this. There is no way I can write with other people in the room. I need no distractions, no outside judgements. I started playing the guitar at age 8 and so I often write without a guitar now because my muscle memory is too strong and it works without my brain and Spirit  involved and I don't like this anymore. It has too many old habits and I need my Spirit there, not muscle memory.  Now I often write with a Keyboard, because I really can’t play it very well, this helps because I am now listening for the riff and the song itself and  not the "talent” in the music. Most of the music we love is actually quite simple and only when we add layers to it can it sound  complex (of course this is not the case for all genres of music but the one I am playing in yes) The Keyboard also offers interesting sounds we might not have come up with on the guitar,  which adds to our surprise and inspiration. I often take these keyboard parts and then play them on the guitar. In fact I don't even write my guitar solos on the guitar any more because they’ve become too predictable from many years of playing and this bores me.

So I write the guitar solos on a keyboard and then play them on the guitar. I am ready to find a vocal melody and sing only  once the song compels me to sing.  I will also know when there is enough instrumentation on the song   only when I am compelled to sing,  when the instrumentation lets me know where and what to sing. This is then the most important part of the song, the vocal melody.   If I am not compelled to sing when there is a lot of instrumentation then I don’t finish this song. Once this demo is written I send it to my band and they learn all the parts. They are so good that they can record the song in one take.  If  we want to have fun and find new ideas that  I hadn’t written down then  of course we do more takes. We actually don't spend much time in the studio with these guys- 4 days for an entire album, most of the parts and then 2 days for the keyboard overdubs which I mostly do not play but Gary plays. Of course I spend more time on the guitar parts and vocals alone later on-  because I am not a very good musician, but  they are Brooklyn’s Finest! The Albums usually take 2 years before they are released between the writing the recording the mixing , the mastering and then the release by the record label  2 years is quick actually. Ive got a 2 album backlog usually.

Buzz Slayers: What would you tell people they can expect on this release?

This new album’s music is a continuation, a part 2 of the last album America’s Newest Hitmaker in that there is a great variety of beats and not a fixed, conscious direction of an idea that I was driving at. I was keeping a very open mind to ANY musical idea that came to me. If it sounded like a psychedelic circus track that would be projected into the Freaks Tent I would pursue that.  If it sounded like  a Rockpile song on Acid  I would pursue that. An 80’s Goth Pop tune? going for that as well. All options were on the table without my directing them elsewhere. The next album to be released in a year or so called The Escape Plan Handbook Pt 1 Has  more of a focus on driving, pounding infectious beats first and foremost. All the better for the motivation when you get on your motorcycle to Escape the Plan

Buzz Slayers: Before we go, what would you like to express to fans of the music? 

“I gave my friend a song to play the other day, he said, “hey, we don't do that kind of thing around here no more”  (lyrics from “While We Were Dozing” from FINAL NOTICE the first Lord Sonny The Unifier album) Don’t be like my friend.

Buzz Slayers: Thanks Sonny! 

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