Article by Jerid Gooding
It all started in Rockaway. For my new music and arts discovery app (in—yc), I partnered with Max Power Presents for his Rock! Away! Summer Fest, to put every show happening across the neighborhood on in—yc’s map. I ended up spending the whole weekend out there, bouncing between an honestly incredible range of gigs. Saturday’s festival bill was set up entirely at Rippers on the boardwalk. Alice Danger was on when we arrived, and then Butthole University took the stage and really cranked things up — too much noise and chaos for my wife (Alia), so we all wandered up the beach to get a bite.
We walked up to Caracas (fav post-surf spot) for food, and before we even got in line, we heard this heavy, hypnotic psych-rock pulsing across the sand. Turned out to be Smokey Mirror, out of Texas — shows we somehow didn’t even know were happening! Still a bit intense for Alia, so she headed back to the beach while I stayed and jammed with my other friends. Then this crew of guys appeared, looking from another era — dialed style, calm poise, real strong presence.
A few minutes later, that whole ensemble hit the stage. Warm cosmic synths, riffs wrapped in analog haze — just gorgeous, head-tilting stuff. My friends and I all exchanged that same wide-eyed “are you kidding me!?” glance of shock at what we were hearing. A totally unplanned unexpected surprise. NYC rewards you for all the hell sometimes. That was my first time seeing Düül Suns, and I haven’t missed a NYC set since.
JERID: I literally stumbled upon your set, tried to capture the moment without being a nuisance and also be selfish enough to enjoy the set only for myself.
NICK: Yeah I remember we saw this tall guy in the audience taking pictures who none of us knew. Actually taking pictures though, like not with your phone. You had a nice dslr and you were getting the angles… We assumed you were from Rolling Stone.
JERID: I’m amateur, but thankfully, you all gave me the illusion of talent.
NICK: You take beautiful pictures man. They capture the energy of the music, the live event. I love them. Everybody loves them. You’re like this photographer fairy that floats around going to shows and afterward you say “hey loved the show I’m Jerid by the way, mind if I send you 50 gorgeous pictures of your band?” That batch from TV Eye was so good we made it the back cover!
JERID: I was shocked when you told me Düül hadn’t been together even a year. How did you all get started, find each other and come together?
NICK: Thanks man. James Ruffino and I were in another band together called Grits. I was only with them for their last year or so, but I started writing songs and we played a few live. James was the main songwriter. He and I would work on new stuff together, and suddenly we were writing songs that didn’t feel like Grits anymore. It happened naturally.
JERID: Was that a conscious choice to move in a new direction?
NICK: No it was like a gravitational pull. Grits was an indie / soul / americana vibe (which I love – I was just channeling Richard Manuel, it was a dream), and I think we just have other interests too. This was around the time Hermanos Gutiérrez released “El Bueno Y El Malo”. James and I loooved that album haha. So you hang out and jam on that and it seeps into the songwriting. We made a few demos that were shamelessly inspired by that album. That was probably the first batch of non-Grits tunes. We stashed them, at the time we didn’t know where we’d use them. And we were listening to the Mystery Lights and Allah-Las, around that time Night Beats put out “Rajan”, which is a masterpiece. We were listening to this stuff together and playing and writing, it just coalesced.
JERID: Have you always been into psych rock or was that a new interest?
NICK: Oh yeah of course. I grew up on the Doors, the Beatles, the Zombies, Hendrix, Pink Floyd, etc… We all did.
JERID: When did the rest of the band come together?
NICK: James and I were writing songs for this unnamed new thing for a while. I met Kevin Muenzer through some friends. He came in for a session, and right away he was in. It was the three of us for a while, and I think the first time Adam Kriney came in we got through like four beautiful new versions of tunes. It was so easy, it was electrifying. That was the first time we’d ever played most of the songs with a full four-piece. After more than a year of piecing together demos with two or three of us, I can’t tell you how good it felt. I’m a terrible drummer so those demo’s have been burned.
JERID: Düül Suns… Where’d the name come from?
NICK: We wanted something simple and memorable… I guess that was a pipe dream? Haha unique we went unique instead! Man the name was the hardest part. Horrible. We went through such a long list which will never be shared. When we booked our first show it was finally the gun to our head. I think James had a fever vision of two suns. Someone said spell düül like Amon Düül. It looked cool in print, nice symmetry. That was the most important thing. If you can’t make a cool shirt, what’s the point?
JERID: You do have a distinct visual style. Tell me about it.
NICK: I saw a Noel Gallagher interview where he said something like “you can write a great song, but if you wear cowboy boots no one gives shit. If you write a decent song and dress like me, I’m listening.” To be clear we’re extremely pro-cowboy boots, but I like the sentiment. James is the ringleader here – he was born with good taste. He drew the original logo by hand, and he commissioned the snake logo. Yeah it’s also finding the right collaborators. Zaq McCollum takes a lot of our photos and does our socials, he’s got a great eye. Issey Goold did a photo shoot with us last year, she’s a visionary. Lauren Ebner directed the Lying eyes music video – we just told her we wanted cross fades and she’s a genius, so that was easy. All that stuff, we really really put care into it. We’ll go back and forth until everyone feels good. It’s fun. Making music is fun, but so is making cool shirts.
JERID: Do you have more videos coming out?
NICK: We’re finishing up a Serpentine video now that we shot with an amazing Burlesque dancer named Charlie Birznieks. And in a few weeks we’re filming a trio of videos, live recordings for a couple tracks off the EP and one new song. We’re gonna release those in a series this winter.
JERID: Tell me about the album artwork and its origins.
NICK: A filmmaker friend of mine Rick Alverson did the collage. He’s got a great band called Lean Year and he does their artwork. James saw their one of their record covers at my house and really dug it. He randomly picked it off my shelf and I was like oh I know that guy! Rick’s just a genius artist and filmmaker, it was fun to work with him on it. And there’s two suns on the cover so that’s obviously very high concept.
JERID: Okay so you got together, you named the band in a fever, James has great taste. When did you record the album? Had you been playing for a while together? Where’d you record it?
NICK: We recorded it right after our first live show together, which was last fall at the Sultan Room, the next weekend I think. We have a little basement rehearsal studio that we spruced up one day to record. Meaning we surrounded James’ guitar amp with blankets to try to get some isolation. That was really stupid. Another hour and I think we would’ve lit the place on fire. But it kind of worked! I thought it was gonna sound way more homemade, rougher around the edges. It’s so cool what you can do with affordable gear nowadays. Technology is crazy. Anyway we recorded all the songs live one day, and then we mixed them and produced them ourselves over a few months. We met Greg Vegas through Adam, and he offered to put out the album on his label, Declared Goods. He’s so supportive, it’s been great working with him.
JERID: What’s next? You’ve got those videos later this month. What else? Can we expect another album?
NICK: Oh yeah. This winter we’re back in the studio. We’ve got so much new material, more than an album’s worth. I can’t wait to sink our teeth into it.
JERID: How do you choose what goes on album?
NICK: We’ve got plenty of songs that we’ve played a bit but haven’t finished yet, haven’t performed. You can tell when everyone in the band raps their head fully around the thing and feels ownership of it. That’s when a song is ready. Once it’s done being “Jimmy’s song” or “Nick’s song” and it becomes just a Düül Suns song. I met someone at a gig who told me he liked that all of us gave everything on every song, it seemed like we all loved every moment of it, nobody was ever less involved or less interested. I think that’s important. It also means you don’t know where the music’s going to end up because everyone really does put their touch on it. It’s hard work and it’s unpredictable, but when a song makes it through, it’s worth it.