San Antonio’s Bright Like The Sun are sharing the monstrous “Smile Wide and Look Alive,” the second single from the quintet’s massive new self-titled sophomore record. The heaviest moment of the upcoming LP, “Smile Wide” takes a no prisoners approach to post-rock, growing bigger by the moment before swallowing everything whole with a sound reminiscent the jaws of life. Due out on April 21st via Sun Sea Sky Productions, Bright Like The Sun create post-rock music with nuance from the crashing waves of guitars to the band’s haunting use of vocals as another instrumental layer and the inclusion of instruments not typically associated with the genre. Their music is epic, dissolving the lines between powerful and meditative, creating something that’s both brains and brawn.
Vice premiered “Smile Wide and Look Alive” calling it “dense and emotive” noting the blistering crescendo while commenting on the band’s penchant for being able to “pull influences from such disparate sources as the Beach Boys and 90s alternative band Failure to create something wholly unique”.
Bright Like The Sun’s Chris Etheredge shared some insight into the song’s writing process:
“Chase Bartlett (bass) sent me a quick file of him playing the opening arpeggio on bass, which I quickly translated to the Wurlitzer. Within a few days we jammed on it at practice and wrote the whole thing in what couldn’t have been more than 3 hours. We had also been toying with the idea of having a few heavier parts in our songs and that translated really well when writing the ending of the song. The name itself came from a conversation Chase and I were having about the mood of the record, which we wanted to be optimistic.”
Bright Like The Sun carries a great deal of restraint, keeping with a mellow approach to the post-rock spectrum, a beautifully meditative sound that joins together the genre’s slow builds with unique flourishes of Rhodes keyboards, synths, and even the occasional horn accompaniment. Their cinematic sound retains a futuristic quality. Heavily instrumental, Bright Like The Sun are able to manipulate moods with extended passages of serene beauty and gargantuan moments of enveloping sound. With influences ranging from M83 and New Order to The Beach Boys and Cave In, it’s safe to say Bright Like The Sun have a definite diversity to their music.
STREAM BRIGHT LIKE THE SUNS’ “SMILE WIDE AND LOOK ALIVE” VIA VICE:
http://www.vice.com/read/vice-exclusive-listen-to-bright-like-the-suns-new-post-rock-song-926