Sunglaciers Reach Spiritual Content on Their New Release - Watch “Ballad for Eddy”

Sunglaciers. Photo by Sebastian Buzzalino.

Calgary post-punk quartet Sunglaciers have a dry, tongue-in-cheek take on modern life on their fourth album, titled Spiritual Content. 

"Everyone's always pushing their f*cking content," says vocalist and guitarist Evan Resnick. "It seems to become quantity over quality. I just feel sometimes scrolling on your phone in the mornings, you sort of feel like you're losing your spirit a little bit."

While the title offers a critique of modern digital life, the nine songs on Spiritual Content look outward for inspiration — drawing on themes of creativity, resilience and pushing back against despair.

The group finds inspiration in unexpected places. Opening track "Dead Stop" was inspired by the late American rapper and producer J Dilla, who famously worked from his hospital bed until his death at 32. "Ballad for Eddy" pays tribute to Eddy Grant, the 78-year-old Guyanese-born British Calypso-pop pioneer. "He was a huge genre-bending pioneer and producer in his own right, and also had a life filled with adversity," says Resnik. The album itself is about "highlighting influential people in all these different creative scenes and really highlighting the effect of finding something you love and doing it relentlessly until the end."

This outward focus marks a shift for the band. "The first couple of records were a lot more 'How do I feel?'" says drummer and co-producer Mathieu Blanchard. "This one is more so telling other people's stories through our lens."

The foundation for Spiritual Content was built in Blanchard's basement, with the pair writing around drum and bass grooves — a departure from their earlier approaches. Each Sunglaciers album has had its own creative logic: their debut was written in Mexico, Subterranea was built around synthesizers, and Regular Nature leaned heavily on guitars. 

"For this last one, it was bass and drums," Blanchard says. "A lot of just figuring them out in the jam space." Resnik adds that they'd often layer in a guitar loop for texture — "sort of just something repeating that gave us a really nice foundation to build off of. Kind of like a glue." The album was recorded with Calgary producer Chad VanGaalen and engineer Mark Lawson, known for his work with Basia Bulat and Zoon.

The group brings the same intentionality  to their live shows. A Mount Kimbie performance at Sled Island in 2018 left a lasting impression on Blanchard. "The drummer stayed put, but the other three members rotated between all the stations," he recalls. "It was just a really cool way to create a live show." A Circuit Des Yeux  performance at Sappy Fest 2022 later inspired the band's current light show. "You could tell she really thought the whole performance through," Blanchard says. Bassist Kyle Crough now triggers lights with his feet during shows, keeping audiences visually engaged alongside the music.

Resnik shares that the standout track on this release for him is “Starting to Come Back”, explaining that "It's been a long time since we had a long song. We took our time with that one and it’s sort-of unlike us to be so restrained and gentle. It really felt good to draw everything out and let people move into that soundscape with us.” 

Being a Calgary-based band, the weather in the city offers a unique experience in helping shape their artistic process. "The winters are long enough. It gives you some time to work on sh*t," Resnik says with a laugh.Blanchard — who moved to the city in 2012 in pursuit of his medical residency — says,"Everybody was jamming. Everybody lived in a house with three, four, or five people. So many jam rooms were in basements and garages. You just don't see that that much across the country."

With the album’s upcoming release show on March 28th at the Palomino Smokehouse, the band intends on focusing on a UK tour in May and potential Canadian tour dates in the fall. 

However, the creative gears are already turning with the band returning to the jam space soon. "We've been listening to a lot of Deerhunter again. I want to play really gently with lots of noise. Slower songs, but with lots of noise,” says Blanchard. 

Resnik sums up the ethos that has carried them through four albums, "It's about getting away from some of the dread of modern times, refusing to be sucked into all the division in this post-truth era. We kind of want to turn inward a little bit and celebrate some of the things we have in common."

For a band that named their album Spiritual Content, that feels like the most intentional move of all.

Find the album on all major platforms, Mar. 27.