Join The Cult by Sunburns
Join The Cult sounds like a 60s record that’s somehow found its way into a modern bedroom studio. There’s plenty of that era in the songwriting and guitar tones, but it’s all wrapped up in a much more modern lo-fi sound, and the combination works brilliantly.
The guitars are loose and full of character, the percussion is kept nice and simple, and that leaves loads of room for the vocals to do the heavy lifting. I’m always a sucker for music that wanders off into slightly strange territory, so the fantastical lyrics were right up my street from the off, but there are some surprisingly poignant moments tucked away in there too.
Then there’s the chorus, which is ridiculously infectious. Both the melody and the repeated invitation to “join the cult” lodge themselves in your head almost immediately, and there’s something wonderfully odd about finding yourself walking around later in the day singing it to yourself. (Probably exactly how a cult gets you, come to think of it...)
When Jethro first sent the track over for mastering, he mentioned The Rolling Stones’ Wild Horses as a reference point for the kind of production sound he loved. He wasn’t looking to copy it, but I could definitely hear what he meant in that loose, organic character and the way the track was allowed to breathe.
One thing he was particularly keen to preserve was the lift when those choruses arrive, which was something I wanted to be careful with during mastering. There would have been no point squeezing the life out of a track like this just for the sake of making everything sit at the same level, so the job was really about giving it the weight and finish of a master while hanging onto all of that movement and character.
That approach suited Sunburns down to the ground. There’s a homemade quality to what they’re doing, but crucially it never feels like something that needs fixing. The rougher edges are part of the fun.
In fact, their own description of Sunburns probably sums them up better than I could: “Just two mates having a laugh and playing some guitar.”
Which is admirably modest, because Join The Cult is a cracking little record. It’s strange, catchy, occasionally poignant and absolutely rammed with character, and once that chorus gets into your head you may find you’ve joined the cult whether you intended to or not, I know I did...
Listen to ‘Join The Cult’ on Spotify; Apple Music; YouTube
