New Single Interview: The Sun Harmonic Chat About Glory Days

Interview with Kaleb Hikele of The Sun Harmonic.  

What inspired the creation of this single?

Hey! This is Kaleb Hikele from The Sun Harmonic, I'll take the reigns on the interview and speak on behalf of the band. So, this song was first written by me in a furniture delivery van, quite a few years ago, working a manual labour job and daydreaming about the glory days. I wrote it in my head while I was driving (which has happening numerous times with a bunch of my personal favourite songs) and I think I recorded a clip on my phone to not forget it. Brought it home and wrote it on the 6th fret of an acoustic guitar, as a slow sad quiet folk song. It wasn't until I formed The Sun Harmonic as a rock band in 2018-ish that I took the capo off, rewrote it much faster in E Minor (E flat minor because I'm half a step down still, due to my 14 year old Emo inside) and the rest is history... 

What story or message does the song convey?

Glory Days is a driving anthemic rock and roll song about the struggles and triumphs of life, whether your best days are behind you or happening right now. It touches on having nothing to lose, depression, death, being alive, making mistakes, feeling empty, binary code, booze, and how your glory days are here right now (or behind you, or ahead of you!) But the message is, of course, they're always slipping away. Grasp on to it and don't let go! Every time I sing this song, I think "this is my glory days" and then it's gone. 

Can you tell us about the creative process?

This song transformed from a quiet folk ballad in to a loud and fast hard rock song but that process took a few years. We started to work on the band version of this song before the pandemic, played it at many of our first band trio shows circa 2018-2019, little parts of the song kept progressing and tightening up arrangement wise. The bridge and the ending of the song weren't settled until all the sudden they were perfect. By the time we hit the studio in 2021 it was 100% concrete and that's what led to us being able to capture lightning in a bottle with Take 9 (that story is carried on below!)  

 How does this song differ from your previous releases?

This may be one of the loudest and most Rock And Roll songs I've ever released to my name, personally. But Dave comes from sitting behind the kit for a skater pop-punk rock band, Sixteen Scandals, so it's more in his wheelhouse! That's why his drum fills get to shine through so much on this track. From the beginning of putting this song on the album I've been so proud to steer The Sun Harmonic in this direction, it's a bit of foreshadowing too of what genres and tone we have coming on the next album. It's not like I haven't released rock songs before (google King Snake Crawl, or the SH release The Eight of Hearts) but the tone of this song is much more grunge and punk than what I've released in many years. I am so proud of it because it's one of my favourite genres and earliest influences. The Pop elements of a hard rock songs are always my favourite, a good sing along in a loud rock song is the best thing ever (takes me back to my mosh pit days as a teen). I'm old and frail now, LOL, but I'm always in the mosh pit at heart. 

What challenges did you face while writing or recording?

Writing it came easily. When we finally got to recording it at The Chalet, we played this song together in a room like an old school rock band in the studio. No multitracking, just a click track and three musicians following each other through a full performance front to back. We played 5 takes and it wasn't coming to life, so I asked the control room to "cut the click". So we had no metronome, we followed each other's cues and played it a few more times. We reached the 9th take. I leaned over to Dave to tell him something (remember, we're in the same room, no division or sound barriers, open sight lines to communicate as we recorded the album live-off-the-floor). All I said to Dave at the drum kit was "Hey, play it a bit faster"...

That was it. That's all I had to say! After 8 takes and a defeated "We're never going to get it" feeling, Take # 9 just took off like a jet engine and didn't land until we got to the finish of the song. I had GOOSEBUMPS by the bridge of the song because it was electric. On guitar I was just trying not to make any mistakes whatsoever, so that the drums and bass would keep it cool and not lose the energy either. Then Dave did this fucking amazing improvised doom metal hit coming into the last chorus, when I sing a freeform "GLORY DAYS KEEP SLIPPIN' AWAY"... Dave and Ian both hit a "BOOM" together and kicked into the sped up rhythm back into the last chorus. I almost shit my pants (haha sorry Mom) I was so excited. He had never played that before, not once in a show or in the studio, but something about trying to make magic happen, and being 9 takes into recording, the magic happened.

When it ended and the room went quiet, I shouted out "THAT'S THE ONE" and actually had to fade the song out quickly to cut that out, man, I was so excited. I felt the same feeling when we recorded Sign on the Road (2020) in that very same studio room. I had chills and goosebumps during the take we used in the final recording. I'm always chasing that feeling, especially with a song as special as Glory Days. We got it! The song, front to back, is that full live take, now with overdubs and studio tricks pasted overtop. But it's raw. Full of life. I love it. And I hope you do too! 

Did you experiment with any new instruments, techniques, or styles?

To reach the finish line, we brought on a mix engineer who was with us in the studio to track the record at The Chalet. CanCon rock and roll producer Brian Moncarz mixed the track from scratch (who's worked with Alice Cooper, The Tea Party, Our Lady Peace, The Trews, and my personal favourite credit being Moneen)! Which to be honest is the very first time in my entire 200+ recordings discography and music career that I've handed my work to someone else to mix entirely. But I knew this song was bigger than life so to speak, or bigger than me and what I could do with the mix on my own. And now I've brought it back to my home studio to inform how I drive the rest of the album to the finish line. I'll use some of it as a reference for mixing the rest of the album, I already have for Homesick (which itself is a very different folk-rock track!)... it'll be very interesting to see it all play out. And Glory Days is the leader, or a guiding light for the whole album. It's been written for almost a decade, fully mixed for a few years, mastered for a few months, and somehow is finally being released! Holy cow.  

Is there a personal connection or story tied to the lyrics?

You know, songs always change and find new meaning as time goes on. This song was written in 2016 (I believe?) as a folk song, more of a ballad or protest song of sorts. But ever since the pandemic happened, it's taken on a whole new life. When I first wrote the song, I was speaking from the perspective of someone in their 20's seeing the spark of their youth slip away, friends living their lives and leaving you to navigate your own future. In my life specifically I was faced with an injury that broke my life into pieces at the age of 25. My glory days were behind me, as far as I knew. I hadn't yet survived that stage of my life and found that some of my best years were ahead of me! Until... Global Pandemic. Everything fell apart again, for everyone. So now, every time I think of this song, I'm singing it (screaming it!) for those who feel like the pandemic has left our best years behind us. Not to mention, the daily news reels full of tyranny, racism, growing authoritarian regimes, judgement and discrimination, financial inequality; it's all fucked. We have to keep fighting! And a song like this, or punk rock music in general, is always my way to find life in this life, you know? 

Have you performed it live yet, and what was the audience’s reaction?

We've been playing this song live for years! It's always a hit even when the crowd doesn't know the track (except our friends and close fans). There is something special about the immediacy of the snare hit before it breaks into distorted guitar and four-to-the-floor rhythm that breaks out before the first verse kicks in. The chorus was built to invite the crowd to sing along, with the band guys joining in on the chant "Keep Slipping Away" strategically. Come to a show and join us. 

Is this single part of a larger project, like an album or EP?

It is the second single from the 7th studio album released as The Sun Harmonic. But it is the first album to come from the band! We had our studio recording debut in 2020 with the "It's All Okay" EP that was ultimately released one month into the global pandemic. We were fired up and ready to go into the studio in 2020 but shutdowns and quarantines and masking rules left us stranded to book studio time until later in 2021, when we finally visited The Chalet (in Claremont, Ontario) again in the fall of 2021. The upcoming album is full of louder rock songs, an upbeat country rock banger, a pseudo metal song, a slow dance ballad, and a roots/Americana closing track. I cannot wait to release it, defying all odds and obstacles that have gotten in the way. We have another album to get to! It's about time. 

Anything Else You'd Like Your Fans to Know.

Please, listen to it at least once, with the volume turned up to 11! And share it with a friend who loves rock music. Glory Days has been a pillar in our live set for years and we're so excited to finally share it with you as a studio recording that we're really proud of! This song is from our first studio album recorded as a band, with our trio lineup, and the louder hard rock sound of this song is a precursor to what's to come from the band. We're already writing our next album and it's full of rock, punk, hard loud upbeat music that we're inspired by from our earliest years as indie artists. Stay tuned.   

Find everything about The Sun Harmonic: The Sun Harmonic