Sonny Boy Sage
... is an experimental electronic musician and producer with an eclectic, colorful and often times cinematic style. Making use of found sounds, vocal samples (spoken and sung), synths, guitars, bass and drums, he fuses a wide range of styles that often times incorporate spiritual and philosophical narrative elements. The results are genre bending.
Sonny Boy Sage is..?
I guess you could classify me as an experimental composer dabbling in the electronic realm of soundscapes. I pull from a wide range of influences and try to create something that is new but vaguely familiar. I've played guitar in rock bands, drums in marching band, jazz tenor saxophone, and studied Western European classical music theory and classical piano in college. I even took a few months of sitar lessons. So in a way, everything I write to some degree is a reflection of my eclectic background. For over the last 10 years , I've been composing music for films which is something that I love to do.
In creating music, I have always collaborated with others to some degree. I love collaborating. Whether it was in a band, as a producer or film composer, there has always been someone else there with me along for the creative ride. Sonny Boy Sage is the first project that is non-collaborative. This is not to say that I won't collaborate in the future but my debut work is truly a solo endeavor. As a composer, I'm constantly searching for new sounds, textures and timbres; new ways to tell a story.
I love taking a sound and stretching it or manipulating it into oblivion until it becomes something totally new and unique. I also love combining two or more sounds or sentiments that are opposite and try to make them work together in order to paint a wider picture; in order to tell the whole story. Life experiences are never just one thing and we typically define things by what they are not: hot is hot because it isn't cold, darkness is darkness because it isn't light and death is death because it isn't life. You can't have one without the other. I think in some weird way, I try to represent this interconnectivity in my music.
Do you remember the first artist who impressed you?
I remember every artist that ever impressed me. In that moment of hearing a great sound, texture or song it's like time stops altogether. However, the first music that I remember hearing that blew my mind is Pink Floyd's The Wall. I was very young. I didn't even know what music was but I knew that there was something special in what I was hearing.
The first artist that inspired me that I must mention is Randy Rhodes. When I was 12, I heard Ozzy Osbourne/Randy Rhodes Tribute for the first time and I can remember it like it was yesterday. I immediately went home and told my parents I wanted guitar lessons. That was the true beginning. I was mildly obsessed with Randy Rhodes for a while. I've since outgrown that music but it has a special place in my heart,
"Dead Now March" sounds really great, what was your inspiration?
Thank you. Dead Now March is track 2 from my 5 song concept EP called Ecdysis. So it is just one part of a larger story. In September of 2018, I got hit with a rare debilitating illness which floored me. I won't go into too many details but I was unable to use my legs to walk for about 3 months. In early 2019, I started to heal a little bit and was able to begin walking again.
It was awkward and painful but I had to keep pushing through. It was as if part of me died and I had to rebuild and move on hence the title, Dead Now March. It's like : "you're dead now so get up and start moving". The sounds are awkward and somewhat clunky in the beginning but by the end they exude more confidence and strength when the clunky sounds are now being doubled by heavy distorted guitars. This music was born out of pain and suffering and the struggle to heal each and every day.
However, in full disclosure, when I started writing the music, I wasn't thinking about what I was doing. I was just expressing what I was going through and what I was feeling. The music came out quite quickly and quite intuitively because I was still in pain and discomfort when writing so I had to move fast. Some days I could only write for 20-30 mins. Other days I was able to do more. It was a day to day thing.
How much is in your opinion the impact of Mastering and Mixing in the end on a song?
There are two ways that I look at this. First, I am a firm believer in content is king. What I mean is that if the lyrics, melody and harmony of a song are great then a bad mix or master are to some degree excusable. There are plenty of songs that I can think of that have sub par mixes but because the song is so great I don't hear the mix as being bad, I just hear a great song.
That being said, mixing and mastering are an art form for which I have a deep and profound respect. Using the same example, if you take that same song as described above and give it to a great mixing engineer and then have it mastered by a great mastering engineer, the song will become exponentially better and take on a whole new life.
That's how important mixing and mastering are to me. I have been mixing and "mastering" my own music but I wish I didn't have to. I love it but it drives me mad. I do enjoy mixing but I am always second guessing myself and going back to make changes that in the end never needed to be made. I get better with each mix but it is a maddening process. Mastering is something that is worth spending money on. I had this EP and Dead Now March mastered by somebody else and it was one of the best decisions I made. I used Joe Lambert mastering and he did an incredible job. Mastering is not to be taken lightly or shrugged off as an afterthought.
What can our readers expect from your upcoming EP?
Ecdysis is a wild sonic spiritual journey that tells the story of a character going through a spiritual ecdysis. Each one of the songs presents a spiritual challenge to the character and by overcoming these challenges, the character is able to reach the other shore of understanding, enlightenment and freedom from suffering.
Now all this is not so obvious in listening to the music so I created a website for anyone who is interested to know a little more about what's actually going on in the songs (sonnyboysage.com). The story is "narrated" by the use of an ancient Buddhist scripture called The Heart Sutra, samples from an interview with a woman on LSD and other vocal samples that have been sitting on my hard drive. The instruments used on the record are: guitars, bass, drums, spoken word, vocal samples, trumpet, string quartet, synths and manipulated sounds. It is a colorful sonic exploration that at times is genre-bending.
Being Indie is ...?
Being Indie is freedom. It takes more focus, discipline and at times is extremely difficult running the show yourself but in the end, it is most rewarding.
What can we expect from you in the near future?
Well in the short term, I'd like to film another music video or two for songs off of Ecdysis. There is one for Dead Now March currently on Youtube. After the run of this EP, there will most definitely be more music.
I am already thinking of my follow up record and have a few song sketches sitting on the hard drive begging to be finished. I will continue to write film music under my birth name but as for Sonny Boy Sage, I will continue exploring ways to create sonic textures and stories that can transport the listener to another place and time.
