FEATURE: Multi-Instrumentalist Sunnsetter Shares Paper Bag Records Debut LP With Emotionally Striking ‘The best that I can be.’

For multi-instrumentalist, composer and mixing engineer Andrew McLeod, crafting music under their moniker Sunnsetter has become a consistent and necessary outlet to transpose his personal struggles and experiences into something tangible and cathartic. A noteworthy collaborator and contributor, specifically with Polaris-nominated artist ZOON and JUNO nominated act OMBIIGIZI, McLeod first began releasing music as a solo artist in 2017 with the release of their ambient-rock album Attic Son.

Six years later, and the Norfolk County-based artist has released their label debut record, The best that I can be. via Paper Bag Records. The album title intentionally reads as a sentence – one that has become a mantra for McLeod’s paradigm. “I found that sentence to be a bit of mantra…It stems from a need to pull myself up, and build a life for myself away from addictions, and being self defeating, into a more sober and fulfilling life”.

Addiction, mental health struggles, and grief are weighted themes that build the foundation of The best that I can be., stemming from a number of experiences over years of McLeod’s life. The new 10 track collection helps McLeod better make sense of his place in the world, and the person he both is and continues to become.

“These songs are something I have been working towards for the better part of three years”, McLeod shares about the album. “During this time, I have grieved the loss of a close friend/bandmate and continuously dealt with my journey of sobriety and struggles with mental well being, concepts around gender identity and queerness; while simultaneously, of course, being thrown into even more chaos via the pandemic. I hope that these songs can make sense to the people who have never heard my music and the people who have supported me along the way. This is simply the best that I can be, through song, and the need to share that feeling with the world is what has kept me going this entire time.”

Recorded from the self-created sanctuary of their home studio in Norfolk County, The best that I can be. blends together the psychedelic elements of ambient and shoegaze, while delivering lush soundscapes derived from McLeod’s experience as a film score composer, pushing the collection into post-rock territory in line with Mogwai and Explosions In the Sky.

The poignance in the song titles alone gives way to the emotion that awaits the listener, as McLeod’s whispering slow-burning vocals sweep across effect-laden guitar motifs and puzzle pieces of instrumentation. Previously released singles “Float In Circles”, “Always Talk, Never Speak”, and “Surely Everything’s Alright” have set the groundwork for what feels like a complete journey through McLeod’s psyche – bookmarked by the haunting acoustic opener “Memories (Come and Go Like Light)” and its more uplifting opposite “Can’t Forget”.

Alongside the album release, McLeod has shared its new focus track, “The Whole World that Turns Around Itself”. Andrew explains, “This track is one of the first things I created when my partner and I moved into our new house in rural Norfolk county. I found myself realizing there was an album coming together; I had about 20+ pieces of music to work from and I was trying to pair down but also create more tracks that really captured the mood of how I was feeling at the time.  After finishing this track I remember thinking to myself that I had found a more central mood for this album as a whole and ended up scrapping a bunch of the songs I had previously recorded and almost starting from scratch.”

Serving as the album’s sole instrumental track, “The Whole World…” shifts the collection’s focus towards the world of post-rock, as the guitar takes center stage, building into a rich and acrobatic trance.

As someone who aims to blur the line between genres, and find new ways to express themself through music, Sunnsetter manages to do so on a wonderfully consistent and explorative release that stirs through one’s subconscious with its subtle production strengths and entrancing energy. By allowing the world to enter their mind, McLeod has continued to impress with one of his strongest releases to date.

The best that i can be. is available on vinyl direct from Paper Bag Records, HERE. Sunnsetter is confirmed to play a free headline show at the Baby G in Toronto on Sunday April 9, 2023. Show details are available HERE. Sunnsetter will also play a special in store set at Tiny Record Shop on April 22, for Record Store Day, and in association with Precision Record Pressing, Tiny Record Shop and Paper Bag Records. The event will be formally announced next week with full details and line up.

Listen to The best that I can be. below, and dive further into McLeod’s creative process and autobiographical approach in the latest Q&A just past.

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Kane: Starting off strong: why did you want the title to read as a sentence – specifically that one? 

Andrew: Originally the title of the album actually comes from a song, that I ended up not including on the album (though I may plan to release the song as a single in the coming months). I found that sentence to be a bit of mantra. There’s is a lot that can be said about why, but mainly it stems from a need to pull myself up, and build a life for myself away from addictions, and being self defeating, into a more sober and fulfilling life.  I’ve struggled with mental illness for most of my life and found that I often used to write music and create from a space of desperation and depression.

I found that approaching it in this way was getting me absolutely nowhere. 

I needed to free myself from this idea that self expression had to be extremely intense and personal, when in reality I could express myself in ways that were less about me and more about the feeling itself, so that others might also be able to relate to it.

K: While this is your label debut, this is certainly not your first album you’ve released. That being said, what is something you’ve aimed to keep consistent throughout your releases? 

A: I think the main thing I aim for is that I try to experiment with genre blending as much as I possibly can. I definitely have a lot of music, and some of it is unapproachable due to being difficult to categorize, but I think that people who can appreciate that really do. 

My entire approach for this album was to address that, and make sure that what I was compiling in the final track list for this album actually made sense together in the same project. Something I am trying my best to learn. 

K: Is there a specific lyric on the album that means the most to you? 

A: I think I might skip answering that question with the specific lyric *laughs* – just for personal reasons. But there is a few lyrics in the song titled “Today Feels So New” that directly reference a close friend of mine who passed away, and I think about it every time I hear it or sing it. 

K: There’s a lot of weight and pain weaved into your music – especially on this album. Is there a process you have for transposing your experiences into music? 

A: That process has evolved over time. A lot of my old music I was naïve and actually pretty destructive, I would find myself in a negative headspace or even intentionally put myself there and then try to channel that into music. I realized how toxic that behaviour was only later once I began a journey of sobriety and self love. These days I try so much harder to allow creativity to come out through just making as much music as I can, and approaching it with more focused attention on what I want the end result to sound like. 

That being said, it’s not as if I am miraculously never sad. I still use emotion as a way of channeling creativity, I think the difference is that now I have proper mechanisms for how to deal with those feelings and how to express them in much more constructive ways than I used to. 

K: I understand there was a bit of music carried over from your 2020 album onto this new record. Looking back, what is something from that version of yourself in 2020 that you’ve held onto that you’re proud of? What is something you’re trying to still change/work on? 

A: The main thing I’m proud of from that time would be that it was pretty early on in my sobriety, and I’m glad I stuck to it.  I’m glad that I poured myself into music so heavily, even more so than in the past. 

The end result is that not only did I keep myself on a healthy path but also just generally got better at recording music.  

K: Previously you’ve spoken about “Always talk, Never speak” and its reference to letting your truest self be open to the world. I’m wondering – was there a specific moment or experience where you felt your perspective shift and really let that truth be free? 

A: I can’t think of specific moment. It is something that is slowly evolving. But it’s mainly in reference to my acceptance of a queer identity. Something I’ve struggled with my entire life.  There’s something about this song and how I felt at the time,  that I reference in my own head as being a sort of turning point for that self expression. I had never wanted to talk about it openly before. But this song made me want to do that. 

K: With such a large catalogue of unreleased music, what were some decision points to help you narrow things down for the track list of ‘The best that I can be.’ ?  

A: Mainly style and overall emotional tone. I felt like I had tapped into a pretty specific emotional tone that I wanted to keep going through this release, and so I found that if any of the songs I had in the original track list lacked in any way I needed to remove them. I ended up with 10 songs from over 20+ before this. 

And some of which I still very much like and want to put out but that will have to wait.