Sugar Candy Mountain are one of psychedelia’s royalty in our books at the moment. Reiter and Halsey bring a dash of just about everything in a perfect tab-sized form. Together, they turn reality into surreality, breaking boundaries and surroundings, before rebuilding them upside down, inside out, and multi-coloured. We spoke to Ash Reiter straight off the back of releasing two brand new singles; “My Clown” and “In My Own World”. We urge you check them, and this interview, out.
First of all, what was your musical upbringing? Can you remember the first music to captivate and change you growing up?
My parents loved music but neither played anything. My mom has a good singing voice but my dad can’t even tap along to the beat. As a kid my early favourites were Paula Abdul, I’d perform dance routines using our coffee table for a stage with my best friend Rachel. I also love The Cars and would make my mom play the vinyl for me- particularly “My Best Friend’s Girl”. In middle school, I took a few guitar lessons but didn’t fall in love with playing until much later. In high school, I spent a lot of time driving around listening to Beatles tapes with friends along the country roads of Sonoma County. I think this had a permanent impression on me, their music is like an onion opening up and revealing new things to me throughout my life- their lyrics evolve and open up with new meaning, parts suddenly jump out that I have never heard before, now that I record and produce music I begin to uncover their production tricks in the studio and apply these ideas to our own recordings. I think The Beatles will always be my compass in music.
You’ve just released a cracking cover of “My Clown”, you’ve said that a cover helps you “gain a deeper understanding of the original artists” and pushes you as artists to find new ways of performing, what did you learn as artists in this cover?
Anytime you re-create someone’s art you have a few ah-ha moments as you follow the lines they have laid out for you. Often you’ll see a choice they made that you wouldn’t have on your own. You may discover some new production tricks you hadn’t tried previously or even just a way of singing that’s out of the ordinary for you. Recording a cover is like walking a mile in someone’s shoes.
Recording a cover is like walking a mile in someone’s shoes.
Your music is dreamy and psychedelic, what catharsis do you find in your music and performance in general?
The great thing about making psychedelic music is you are constantly experimenting and searching for new sounds. With music and recording, there can be tonnes of rules- your thinking can become “theory dictates I should use this chord here, tradition tells me I should record the guitar this way”. But, with psych music you can be less rigid, often allowing your relaxed mind to anticipate how you want to fill up the space of the song, hearing the melodies and sounds as they come to you. This requires you to enter a unique state of preparedness and letting go. You have done the work listening to music and thinking of how to use your equipment to make different sounds, you try it out in the studio, rehearsal and performances. Through playing, practising and performing you become intimate with your instrument. Finally, when it comes time to create you rely on the skill that comes from your experience and trust your intuition to produce something good in the moment. There are few other things in life like this both cumulative and immediately rewarding.
You have a world music approach to me, and I know you’ve mentioned Os Mutantes before, but how important is it do you think to broaden your musical horizons across borders and languages?
Ever since I first heard Os Mutantes I’ve become enraptured by Brazilian music. It appeals to me in many ways. First I love the playfulness of many of the singers, you often hear what sound like improvised phases and very live-sounding performances on the record- it feels very free. I also love the rhythms and colourful chords. I certainly think this has been a huge take away and I am always trying to incorporate new “jazz chords” that I find into our music. In fact, lately I have been trying to remind myself not make things more complicated than they need to be when it comes to fancy chords- sometimes a plain old G is perfect. Finally, when it comes to psych music I think Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Os Brazoes are some of the finest, much like The Beatles, these are guideposts.
…Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Os Brazoes are some of the finest, much like The Beatles, these are guideposts.
What draws you to the colour pink? I’ve noticed it a lot in your work, is it a conscious aesthetic decision?It’s funny because as somewhat of tomboy pink was always a colour I avoided as a child. I don’t think I’ve actively tried to associate the band with the colour but perhaps our name just connotes it- pink being a colour of sweetness, like candy? More than anything we have been attracted to working with artists that we love like Jess Willa Wheaton who did our past three album covers (as well as the artwork for our single “My Clown”. Jess is a friend from high school who has since become an accomplished artist in New York focusing on primarily collage work. What I love most about her work is its subtle twists of perception. Often when looking at our album cover for 666 people initially assume it is a photograph, but once you take a closer look you can see what at first was a seamless line is the merging of two images, two worlds really. What was a serene garden scene hides a snake in the grass and is overshadowed by dark clouds. I love the duality of her pieces and how amidst bright colours and pastels they often feel darkly iconic and disorienting.
The band are very stylish, how are clothes important to you as artists and people? Are they important to your performance?
Thank you for the compliment. I don’t consider myself particularly stylish but I do think it’s important that your dress doesn’t take away from to performance. Mainly I want to feel comfortable and confident on stage I suppose that’s the main thing that guides what I wear.
When it comes time to create, you rely on the skill that comes from your experience and trust your intuition to produce something good in the moment.
Finally, have you got any big plans for the rest of the year?
This will be a big year for us. We have been working all summer on a new album of our own as well as recording and producing a few other artists. We hope our new album will be released in spring of 2020. In the meantime, we have a bunch of tour plans on the horizon including an East Coast tour early this September, a West Coast tour later in September and a European tour starting in late November.
You can find Sugar Candy mountain on Spotify and Apple Music. Find merch, news, releases and dates on their website. Alternatively, catch them on their extensive and soon to grow list of tour dates below.
East Coast Tour:
Sept 5 – Beat Kitchen – Chicago, ILSept 6 – Back Alley Balleyhoo – Indianapolis, IN
Sept 7 – PJs Lager House – Detroit, MI
Sept 8 – Garrison – Toronto, ON
Sept 9 – L’esco – Montreal, QC
Sept 10 – Baby’s All Right – Brooklyn, NY
Sept 11 – Comet Ping Pong – Washington, DC
Sept 12 – Chameleon Club – Lancaster, PASept 13 – The Winchester – Cleveland, OHSept 14 – Expansion Fest – Lexington, KY
Sept 15 – High Watt – Nashville, TN
West Coast Tour Supporting Cornelius:
Sept 24 – Echoplex – Los Angeles, CASept 27 – Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Sept 29 – Revolution Hall – Portland, OR
Sept 30 – The Crocodile – Seattle, WA
Oct 2 – Imperial Theater – Vancouver, BC
European/UK Tour:
Dec 26- The Moon Cardiff UK
Dec 27- The Night Owl Birmingham UK
Dec 28- Nice N Sleazy Glasgow UK
Dec 29- Yes Manchester UK
Dec 30- The Victoria London UK
Dec 02- Kantine am Berghain Berlin Germany
Dec 03- Noch Besser Leben Leipzig Germany
Dec 04- Bumann & Sohn Cologne Germany
Dec 05- Schlachthof Wiesbaden Germany
Dec 06- Tap Tab Schaffhausen Switzerland
Dec 07- Augsburg Switzerland
Dec 11- Le Pop-Up Du Label Paris France
Dec 12- Altstadt Eindhoven The Netherlands
Dec 13- Stille Nacht Rotterdam The Netherlands
Dec 14- Trefpunt Ghent Belgium
