Indie-folk quartet The Very Lazy Sundays make their 2019 debut with the release of their compassionate new single Sometimes A Broken Heart, out on now.
The single is filled with twinkling melodies and flawless harmonies from the offset. Front man Diyar Abdullah’s rich, warm vocal compliments his emotive storytelling charm effortlessly, creating a sound akin to the likes of Ryan Adams or Iron & Wine. Talking about the single Diyar elaborates, “one of us had recently gone through a messy breakup and the song is about accepting your heartache and giving yourself time.”
In this interview spotlight, I chat with The Very Lazy Sundays about the new project, challenges, technology and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
It’s just the music that comes out when we pick our instruments up. There’s nothing overly planned about it to be honest. I guess the common theme is we are telling everyday stories with a grooves and hooks to underpin them.
How long have you been creating and sharing your music with the public?
We’ve been together for nearly 2 years now and have previously recorded 2 Live EP’s “Live at Little” and “Love a Lot”. Sometimes a Broken Heart is our first studio effort.
Who or what influences your playing and/or writing? Also, what motivates you to keep going?
Those Goosebump moments, that joy of creating something together that you could never alone. The Buzz of hearing a song once it’s recorded or playing it live to an appreciative crowd. The kick you get when a melody starts taking shape or some lyrics present themselves. It’s all really addictive. We also get on great which does help!
Being based in Kent Diyar takes a lot of trains getting to and from practice and tends to write most of his songs when on trains! So I guess Network Rail is a big influence.
Other influences are pretty wide Diyar is in to his hip-hop, `George is a Beatles obsessive. Pete & Dunk bring Soul & Country to the table. It really is a mixed bag!
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
As a songwriters our aim was raw but up-lifting…we hope we got somewhere near that. As a recording it was virtually all recorded in one take with a few harmony overdubs. We wanted to create as close to a live sound as possible but with a little studio gloss to encourage Radio play 🙂
What was the last song you listened to?
Diyar- Prince- I wanna be your Lover
Dunk – Frank Zappa – Echidna’s Arf
George- Crosby Stills & Nash Demos Album- Chicago ‘1970 version
Pete- Will we talk- Sam Fender
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Vinyl- cause we’re releasing a special limited edition 45”single of Sometimes a Broken Heart, on coloured vinyl!!!
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
BandCamp feels the most transparent and supportive of unsigned/smaller Artists but we respect the audience reach of Spotify and Apple Music…all are good with us! We won’t bite any hand, even if it doesn’t feed us…we like hands!
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what are one or two of the biggest challenges you face when trying to attract listeners to your music?
Knowing who you’re trying to attract! Playing live can help in this regard as you start getting a feel for a “typical” person who enjoys your music. But even then we are regularly left floored by the most unlikely people being into our music. For example we’ve had a bona fide goth tell us how much he loves “Sometimes a Broken Heart”, and we’ve had a septuagenarian lady moshing to our gangsta song, “My Way”!
Do you gig, tour or perform? Do you ever live stream? Where can music lovers see you live?
We totally love performing, but don’t gig anywhere near as often as most bands do; we’re geographically scattered all over the place, have our own life hot-potatoes to juggle, so we have to be a little more selective about when and where we play. Our next big gig is at The David Evans Pendley Court Theatre in Tring on December 8th. If you want to come see us live this is the one to come to. We’re recording it as a Live Album and will have one-off versions of the songs – with bongos, keys, extra harmonies and other exciting bits…plus 2 other fantastic acts; In The Forest and Craig Joiner will be playing alongside us.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more of your music?
You can find us on all the major online channels. We suggest find us on Facebook first, give us a cheeky like and you can then link out to all our other online bits from there.
Any last thoughts? Shout outs? Words of wisdom?
Big shout out to all the folk who have encouraged, aided and shaped our Lazy butts.
Venues, Local Promoters, Radio Shows, Open Mic Organisers, Fellow Musicians you know who you are x! Also our 2 pennies for any songwriters out there collaborate and do loads of open mic’s 🙂
