Formula Indie Sessions – Interview with Sudden Merganzer
What is your earliest memory connected to music?
When I was really young, maybe about 7 years old, my Mom would cruise my siblings and I around in her old Pontiac Transport and we’d listen to this radio station we have here in Detroit called 89X. They would spin all the grunge and alternative rock hits from the early and mid 90’s. Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and The Smashing Pumpkins were my musical foundation and their songs are my earliest musical memories.
How did your passion for creating music begin?
I inherited my Uncle’s record collection when I was about 13 or 14 and I was really intrigued by all the Classic Rock he had amassed. I remember listening to the Yes album first and I thought that was freaking awesome, but what really sparked my desire to create music was when I put on the vinyl copy of Electric Lady Land for the first time. Jimi Hendrix is undoubtedly responsible for so many people picking up the guitar and I’m certainly one of those people. All these years later, I’m still blown away by what he could do with a guitar and how he could do it in such a powerful and exciting way.
What’s the story behind your current music project?
‘Anemones for Aphrodite’ is the current project in the works and it’s an homage to all the fun I’ve had in and around the water. Being from Michigan, I’m very much in my element when a trip to the beach is part of the day’s plans. When I started Sudden Merganzer, a lot of our early songs weren’t particularly motivated by a single driving force. It was moreso just the age old “what can we come up with” approach. Eventually I recognized that I needed to start writing about something deeply meaningful to me and the universal solvent was a no brainer. It’s conceptual, sure, but only by nature… quite literally, in fact.
How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard your music before?
It kind of depends on the individual I’m describing my music to, but I typically like to throw out the genre bending term “surf-funk” to describe our sound. I’ll also toss “psychedelic soft-rock” around here and there, but if somebody is still scratching their heads, I’ll usually say “we sound like “x” band mixed with a little bit of “y” band, with subtle influences from “z” band.”
What is one thing you’ve learned that completely changed the way you make music?
I remember my brother gifted me a loop pedal sometime around 2020 and when I learned how to peg down a well timed stanza on that thing and layered in another guitar part or bass part over top of that, my mind started swirling. That was kind of the earliest form of multi-tracking that I had done up to that point and it was such an eye opening moment. So many songs ended up getting finished because of that loop pedal. Nowadays I do all the multitracking “in the box,” but back before I had a lot of exposure to DAWs the loop pedal was king.
What tools, instruments, or software are essential in your creative process?
Instrument-wise, I gotta have a guitar I’ve bonded with, a bass that seems to almost write it’s own riffs, a set of keys that makes me sound better at piano than I actually am and a halfway decent drum kit that has a snare and hi-hat combo that gives me a smile every time I play it. Software-wise, I predominantly use Ableton-native devices, but Valhalla, Waves, Fine Classics and Izotope are all incorporated into my work flow as well. As for tools, I’d say that a matched pair of condenser mics and any number or combination of dynamic mics ran through a nice outboard pre-amp will get me pretty close to “my sound.”
Which indie artist or song are you loving right now?
‘L’Eclair,’ a funk/disco band from Switzerland has been floating my boat for a while now, but I listen to them on the regular all the time. ‘My Friend Peter,’ from Austria has also been in rotation for a long time, but they’re like one of my go to’s. There’s also ‘Vinyl Williams’ … I listen to that stuff a lot these days. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my obsession with the song “Afterthought” by Tame Impala… must’ve listened to that song 100 times by now.
How have your personal experiences influenced your music and artistic vision?
I think a lot of my experiences, both positive and negative, have actually forced their way into influencing my music. They’ve also been a huge reason as to why I make music in the first place. On one hand my music-making inspiration is often drawn from the clarity music provides after having a bad experience, but on the other hand a good time will often make me want to write something that carries a similar caliber to those feelings the good time provided.
What emotions or messages do you hope listeners take from your work?
I think; optimistically-relaxed, is the overall emotion I want listeners to experience while taking in songs from ‘Anemones for Aphrodite.’ The overall message for the album can be as simple as just cherishing the environment you hold most near and dear.
What’s the most important lesson music has taught you so far?
It’s cheesy sounding for sure, but the most important lesson music has taught me is that there’s still magic left in this world. The escapism alone that music provides feels mythical and unrivaled, but when you couple that with all the “happy accidents” that I’ve encountered composing and writing songs … there’s this undeniable feeling that there’s another “channel” out there that’s on tap.
What is a dream venue or festival you would love to perform at?
I think Electric Forest would be such a fun festival to perform at. I know that it’s a bit more EDM focused, but the festival’s been known to host bunches of jam bands and rockers. Even if Sudden Merganzer was like sandwiched between two super wubba-dubby sounding EDM acts, I’d still feel right at home.
If you could collaborate with any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
Kevin Parker. I spent so much time utterly captivated by Tame Impala that I’d be silly not to name him as why numero uno wish list collab.
Where can our listeners follow and support your music? (Website,Spotify, IG, links)
Find our music on Bandcamp, Tidal, Deezer, Youtube, Amazon Music or use our linktree to find our socials and booking info! https://linktr.ee/Suddenmerganzer
Looking toward the future, what’s your dream for the next chapter of your musical journey?
In the short term, I’m looking forward to collaborating with a number of local artists in my area to write a few singles and provide a space to get some folks’ ideas off the ground and into the airwaves. I’m also going on a side quest and taking a crack at composing some darker/grimey almost hiphop based instrumentals, but in a fully analog instrument format… Think El Michaels Affair, meets the Buddos Band, meets Mobb Deep. In the long term, I’m going to try and stay consistent with the style I’ve conjured during the ‘Anemones for Aphrodite’ album and write more fun and uplifting elemental based music… just maybe a little more complex.
What do you hope listeners will discover about you along the way?
I hope listeners will discover that I’m a beach bum. There’s no denying it. The whole time I was writing these silly little songs I was thinking about how to make them more appropriate for like the backing track to a windsurfing promo vid or something like that.
