On July 10th, sundayclub released their self-titled debut album. Since its release, audience reception has been immensely positive. But the dreamy, indie sound wasn’t something that happened overnight. This is an album that’s been in the works for several years. And now, the band is finishing up their Sad Summer tour with one exciting show left in August. The Winnipeg band, made up of members Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre, sat down with Northern Transmissions before their Toronto show last weekend to talk about their new album and their latest tour.

NT: I wanted to start by congratulating you on your debut album that came out on the 10th. That’s super exciting. What was the process like of putting that together? Are there specific first steps you took in the creative process?

Courtney: It was essentially, throughout the pandemic, this really long process of stringing together these rough demos that we had made sporadically over time. When we started sundayclub, we weren’t exactly sure of our sound, and it took some time to develop that. I’d say around 2021, when we first wrote “Sad Summer” or “Sober”, things started to come together.

Nikki: Yeah, I think the process really starts where I’ll make something, whether it be on synth or guitar, and then she’ll hear it and get really inspired by it. Then we’ll play it over and over again. I’ll hit a note, she’ll tell me to stop at certain moments, then we just create something from that.

NT: Do you find it usually starts with sound first, and then you get inspired by the sound for the lyrics?

Courtney: It’s about half and half. Sometimes I’ll bring a melody to the table, and then the other half of the time, if I’m not feeling super inspired, I’ll rely on sound to trigger an emotion. Then that emotion helps trigger a lyric. Then the rest of the lyrics will come with that.

NT: Would you say that your process of creating this album was different than when you were creating your EP from last year?

Courtney: Not at all. The EP was part of the record. We had always anticipated releasing all of the songs together, and then in this whirlwind, we’re signed by Paper Bag, and now we have to come up with this plan of release. To give ourselves enough leeway to make a good release, we essentially decided to release a couple of the songs and pair them to create this EP
before the album.

Nikki: Yeah, we kind of see this entire timeline as one prolonged release, because it was originally altogether. The whole ethos behind how we had the record originally was always to have a side A and B vinyl. All of the songs in the EP were side B songs.

NT: When you were developing this album, did you have people that you draw inspiration from or a sound that you look to, or do you tend to kind of stay away from looking too deep into other musicians’ work?

Nikki: We do both. Very strongly. It becomes a problem. We were leaning too much into our influences, which led us to recreate this album over and over and over again. Then when we sat down to mix it, we stopped listening to music for six months entirely so that we could really connect and figure out what we wanted the album to be.

Courtney: The entire period took us at least four years. I would say while we were starting to experiment with sundayclub in 2020, we didn’t really have a name or an idea for it, but the concept came, I’d say, a year later. Then, even after mastering, we finished in 2024, and we still held onto it for another year and a half.

NT: I wanted to talk about the lyrics in this album because I find them to be very vulnerable and
kind of raw and very relatable. Did you have a story in mind that you wanted the album to say?

Courtney: I think I just realized that I’m sad a lot of the time, and that just kind of came out. I would say that as people, we are pretty happy most of the time. For some reason, just in the lyrics, it comes out as being vulnerable, and I think I carry a lot of emotion that I don’t even realize I have. Then the minute I’m able to apply it, it just all comes out in that way. I haven’t really been able to change it, and I haven’t really been able to write something very happy. I think maybe “Blue Wave” is the only happy, more upbeat song. But even then, it has layers of frustration.

NT: Is there a lyric that you find is a standout lyric for you in the entire album?

Courtney: I would say either “I give up”, which is really simple, but it’s in “Blue Wave”. I think there was always that feeling of things taking so long during this process, things being impacted by the pandemic, and then just the whirlwind that it’s been. There was always a looming sense of “Can I keep doing this? Is this worth it?” Then the other lyric would be “not merely hanging around, waiting for the whistle to blow”. That’s a lyric from “Lombard”, which is one of our favorites on the record, and it’s the feeling of being done waiting around. I think that was a sensibility that played into the record, just about thinking “when is this thing going to come to fruition?” I didn’t want to be waiting around, waiting for somebody else to push us to release this record. It had to ultimately come from us, and I think we finally did that.

Nikki: Lyric-wise, my favorite is probably “Turquoise”. When you look at it, it’s the only piece that’s just poetry. It’s not meant to be a song; it was mainly just a piece of art.

Courtney: It’s one run-on sentence. There’s no pause in the sentence. I think it was the only song on the record that fell out all at once. It just all came out in one session.

NT: I wanted to discuss the general sound within the album. It’s very dreamy, indie pop. For me, it invokes a lot of nostalgia, and I feel like when I’m listening to it, I can picture the screen of my childhood camcorder, rewatching old memories. I was wondering if you had a specific vision for the feeling that this album was going to evoke in terms of the sound, and if the audience’s
perception has been similar to what you were anticipating.

Nikki: I think, from a production standpoint, I always try to evoke an emotion and not an idea. Every emotion falls along a specific gradient, and if I can pull one out of myself, I know someone else will feel it too. I try to let that emotion overcome me so I can pull it out in the music. And I’ve found that people have been responding to it quite the same as how I made it and with what she wrote. It’s so cool to see people actually resonate with it how we intended.

NT: What kind of things have you heard from people? Are there any specific things that you’ve heard from the audience that have really stood out to you?

Courtney: There are a lot of people that will be commenting about the whole car thing in “Blue Wave” and feeling very nostalgic about their first car. It’s so funny because I didn’t really realize that was such a thing. Of course, everyone has that first car they get when they’re first learning to drive. I totally didn’t think people were going to take the song in that direction. But people have just been in the comments dropping the exact make and model of what they were driving or what they’re still driving. Some people are still driving their old Toyota Corollas. It’s impressive.

NT: Do you find that in terms of sound there’s a song that you feel the most connected to?

Nikki: I connect to them all so strongly. But the one song that I listen to, and I go “I don’t know how we did this. I don’t know if I could ever do this again,” is “Lombard”. It’s just the way the drums interact with the bass. The harmonies that come in. How things just swell in and out. I don’t know how I came up with it. It’s a mystery to me, and it still intrigues me, which is crazy. I know every little secret about every song except for that one.

NT: I wanted to spend some time also today talking a little bit about the tour. Today is technically the last of the Sad Summer tour, right?

Nikki: Technically yes. But we have another show in two weeks where we’re opening up for the Beaches in Winnipeg. But technically yes, today is the last show of the Sad Summer tour.

Courtney: We’ve never played in a church before. But the acoustics are probably going to be amazing. I like the fact that it’s two levels. We’ve never played in a venue where we can look up into the rafters.

NT: How has the audience been in the other shows?

Nikki: It’s been great. It’s been really good. The shows have been packed, and we’ve talked to more fans on this tour than we have at any other tour. We’ve been getting stopped a lot, getting to talk about the record, and hearing that people want to know about the songs. It’s been fun to connect with people that have listened to the record.

Courtney: Yeah, it’s the first time we’ve been on tour that music’s actually been out, which has been really cool.

NT: Do you find that each time you play every song, they sound the same, or do you think that each time you play, they change a little bit?

Courtney: That’s a good question. We try to be consistent, but sound is always the challenge with us just because of those layers and the dreaminess. It’s hard to expect that every venue will be able to provide what we need to get our sound as accurate as it can be. We always try to have it be as accurate as possible, because when people show up, they want to hear what it sounds like
on the record.

NT: Being on tour, do you find that going forward now you’ll approach things similarly to your last record? Or do you think that now after being on tour, you’ll have a new perspective based on talking to the fans and performing everything?

Nikki: I think with a new perspective. Based on a lot of other bands we’ve met and played with, we’ve found things that we’ve kind of started to be interested in. Some things are a little more unpredictable in music that we’d like to bring out. A little louder, maybe a little more aggressive.

NT: Do you have anything in the works right now that you’re getting excited about?

Courtney: Always. We’re always sitting on something; it’s just a matter of if that thing is going to get the attention that it needs. But yeah, we have a couple things that we’re sitting on that we can hopefully, in August, get to working on.

Nikki: We’ve been trying to get into the studio for a year. But there’s always things pulling us away.

NT: And as one final question – are there specific artists that you’re listening to for inspiration right now?

Courtney: I’m still listening to like a lot of shoegaze. Slowdive is still always on heavy rotation, a lot more Cocteau Twins.

Nikki: For me, Feeble Little Horse. I’ve been really liking them. The 1975 never really leaves. Also, In Color. Been listening to them a lot. They’re really great.

Order sundayclub’s self-titled debut album here.