A famously embattled rock band will be commemorating 30 years of their masterpiece debut LP – popularly considered the starting point of the emo genre – by playing it in full at SPIN magazine’s day party. No, not Weezer. We’re talking about Sunny Day Real Estate! The Seattle-launched, sometimes four-, sometimes three-, currently fivepiece band just might have the most out-of-whack influence-to-success ratio in alt-rock history. We spoke to founding guitarist Dan Hoerner about the band’s bittersweet past and triumphant present. Tickets for the March 16 party at Stubb’s, which also features the Get Up Kids and Die Spitz, start at $39.50. (SXSW badges will not grant entry to the show.)
Austin Chronicle: You guys just had your biggest tour ever, and you’re about to go into a run of dates playing Diary (1994) all the way through. Does this feel like an extension or a whole new thing?
Dan Hoerner: It’s definitely going to be an extension. That’s part of the reason why we wanted to record [Diary Live at London Bridge Studio] – we wanted to say, “Hey, come see us. Over the last two years, we’ve been crafting what Sunny Day Real Estate sounds like right now.” It’s a very new sound, and it very much includes Chris Jordan on bass [replacing founding member/current Foo Fighter Nate Mendel] and Greg Suran on auxiliary guitar. And [Jeremy] Enigk’s voice is in a whole new realm for me. So even though we’re doing a 30th anniversary tour of Diary, it’s really more like a celebration of Diary that we’ve put together with our 2024 sound.
“That’s the existential crisis of what our band represents – this amazing thing that’s also its own obstacle to success.” – Dan Hoerner
AC: And you’ve put out your first song in 10 years, “Novum Vetus,” which is actually a reworked scrap from the sessions for your third album almost 30 years ago.
DH: Yes! Everything old is new! It’s very much the sound of Diary Live at London Bridge Studio. I’m so proud of it, and I’m so stoked to play it live. Fans of us know that we follow the muse wherever it leads, with no thought for the past and no deliberate intention. “Novum Vetus” is kind of a hilarious example of that modus operandi. Our tour is hugely successful; we’re sounding better than we’ve ever sounded; we’re getting tons of wonderful attention. The whole world’s like, “Okay, write us a song. You know, give us a hit. We’ll finally let you guys have a hit.” And we’re like, “Sorry, here’s a seven-and-a-half-minute-long sea shanty with no chorus!”
AC: Is there a song on Diary that most resonates with who you were in 1994 and who you are in 2024?
DH: The song “Grendel.” On its surface, it’s a song about Grendel from Beowulf. But for me, the main lyrical moment in the song is: “I wanted to be them, but instead I destroyed my chance.” That’s the existential crisis of what our band represents – this amazing thing that’s also its own obstacle to success. When Jeremy sings it now, as this mature guy, it’s like the arc of Sunny Day coming full circle.
AC: When you call it an arc, does that mean you don’t have regrets about the band’s path?
DH: No. It was heartbreaking when Sunny Day stumbled. We were absolutely poised for success: a couple videos on MTV, The Jon Stewart Show, selling a ton of records … like if you even just consider how absolutely beautiful Jeremy’s face was in 1993 … we had all the things in a row. Probably the weakest link was me. “Okay, there’s got to be like one weird-looking guy in the band to balance it out.” [laughs] And we also excelled in the terms that I thought really mattered, which was the passion and the truth of the music and how hard we hit live. It was on a silver platter but we literally walked away from it, just saying, “No, no thank you.” So that was heartbreaking. And even now we’re definitely not huge, but … we persist. And the music persists. So we’re now very much at peace with where we are, where we’ve come from, and what we’ve been through.
AC: And you’ve been independent for 24 years.
DH: Yes, we’re 100% our own music, our own record label. So we do everything ourselves and pay for everything ourselves. We get to dictate what we will and won’t do. Looking back, one of my most indelible, and hilarious, memories of Sunny Day is us sitting in the room at our contract signing with all these expectant Sub Pop faces around us. And we’re like, “We’re not going to do any press. We’re not going to do any photos. We’re not going to make any videos. We’re only going to record songs and play them live.” And everybody’s like, “That’s the dumbest fucking thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” [laughs]
AC: As we wrap up, I just want to note that I have yet to say the word “emo.”
DH: Oh my God. I don’t consider Sunny Day to have started anything or have been the godfathers of anything, but imagine this: You make some records and you don’t ever get big but you have a great time and your albums seem to persist, right? And then, 30 years later, the main genre of rock & roll is basically what you’d been trying to do, but done way better. That’s cool.
Spin Magazine Presents: Sunny Day Real Estate
Saturday 16, noon, Stubb’s
Sunny Day Real Estate Celebrates 30 Years of Diary
A version of this article appeared in print on Mar 8, 2024 with the headline: Sunny Day Real Estate Celebrates 30 Years of Diary
This article appears in March 8 • 2024.