norm arenas walks through their myths. photos by tim owen.

sunny day myth #1

after forming as a three-piece and recording the ultra-rare flatland spider 7" for their own one day i stopped breathing label, sunny day day real estate came across a sulky jeremy enigk, who was playing acoustic in a seattle coffee shop, and asked him to join.

"that's not true," says enigk, the 24-year-old frontman for the influential seattle band. "i was actually supposed to be the first artist on their record label--just acoustic. i joined their band when (original bassist) nate mendel went on tour with his old punk rock band Cchrist on a crutch."

you'd never guess it from sunny day real estate's sound, but the band's members all spent time in hardcore punk bands. guitarist dan hoerner did a stint with seattle straight edge representatives resolution, while enigk and drummer william goldsmith played together in the political hardcore outfit reason for hate.

"i guess you could say we were heavily against sexism, racism, pollution and the slaughter of animals," enigk says, wincing, "and those are all good things to be against, but it was definitely more of the singer's thing. i was just the guitar player back then."

as sunny day real estate make their way onto the stage at new york city's irving plaza, they are immediately greetted by a thunderous roar that seems like it was reserved for a band of much larger stature. the last time they played here, in 1995, sunny day were opening for shudder to think on the ill-fated tour that would splinter the band a few days later in washington, dc. despite rumours that revolved around the schism created by enigk's widely publicized conversion to Christianity, the band showed little sign of volatility on stage. their set flowed with the taciturn melodies and off-kilter time signatures of guitar-driven post-hardcore. but in 1995, there was no thunderous roar to speak of--sunny day real estate's success reached its apex only after the band's breakup.

many of the young fans here tonight are seeing sunny day real estate for the first time. enigk and his bandmates--hoerner, goldsmith and new bass player jeff palmer--are fully aware of fans' expectations, but nothing deters them from playing the entirety of how it feels to be something on, their first new album in over three years. the set opner, "guitar and video games," wins over the crowd, but as each unfamiliar song unfolds, the audience seems to grow restless: some fans begin screaming for older material, like "seven" and "in circles," two of sunny day's minor mtv hits culled from the band's 1994 sub pop debut, diary. others cry for relatively obscure tracks from the band's posthumously released follow-up--alternately known as lp2, the pink album, or sunny day real estate. and finally, when sunny day walk offstage without playing any pre-breakup material, one fan hangs from the balcony with a look of disgust and a bone to pick: "i paid $40 for this?"

"we're not out here to score some arena-rock points," hoerner replies offstage, noting that the same set equally bewildered their fans at a homecoming show in seattle the previous week. "we're just trying to deliver our new record to the people, and that has nothing to do with those first two albums. we went out there to play as best as we could, and, really, most of the response i got was positive. of course there's gonna be a sadistic feeling in saying, 'ha-ha! here's our new record. you're already in here, so you might as well listen to it.' but, really, we're not trying to piss people off."

in sunny day-speak, it all makes sense: you have to remember, this is the same band who, in their short existence between 1992 and 1995, got away with doing only one interview, refused to play in the state of california as a full band, and quite purposely released only one photo to the press--live, not posed, of course. it's the same band who followed up the artistic complexity of their first record's sleeve artwork with a one-panel, one-color sleeve for their second. even after sunny day's break-up, their legacy was kept shrouded in mystery by the band's continued silence--so much so that even now, internet junkies still fight over trivial sunny day secrets, like who was actually responsible for breaking up the band or what has hoerner really been doing since enigk went solo and goldsmith and nate mendel, the group's original bass player, became the foo fighters rhythm section.

so, finally, when the band return for a short-but-sweet encore consisting of "in circles" and lp2's "j'nuh"--a track onomatopoeically named after the guitar chug that disturbs the main riff's otherwise wistful melody--they leave the audience as confused and as agitated as they did when they broke up. some of the kids cheer. others belt out disappointed groans, and still others stare blankly as the band nonchalantly leave the stage.

"oh, yeah," hoerner says later, laughing. "that's called the 'great sunny day stare.' we've seen that before."

sunny day myth #2

the band broke up after a performance on the since-canceled jon stewart show. while they performed, "seven," enigk, by now a practicing Christian, inserted a lyric about "the secret voice of God." the rest of the band, enraged by his ad lib, instigated a yelling match as soon as the cameras cut away.

"you know what?" enigk asks in a slow, quiet drawl. "i listen to diary sometimes and think that i've subconsciously replaced 'dawn' with 'God' ON THE RECORD. i've listened to the actual recording before and questioned what i've sung.. so it could've come out, yeah."

"but there was no fight," hoerner quickly points out. "personally, i was never surprised by jeremy. he was always a Christian to me because he always talked about it. i think that william and nate had the biggest problem with it, so maybe they saw the tapes [of that show] afterward and got bummed, like, 'oh, he says "God" there.' but what do you think the 'secret voice of dawn' is? that's what it means. i was bummed out when we broke up because i thought sunny day should never have come into odds with jeremy's Christianity. i was more bummed that william and nate couldn't accept it."

the reunion process actually began as early as three months following the band's official breakup, when hoerner and enigk started playing together again in between sessions for enigk's solo debut. with great interest, hoerner watched his friend and former bandmate mastermind a 21-piece orchestral record called return of the frog queen. aside from hoerner's discovery of the late qaawali artist nusrat fateh ali khan, whom he calls his "biggest musical influence in the past three years," hoerner admits that enigk's solo record also had an inestimable effect on his own songwriting. ("yeah, well, it was successful in what it sounded like and in my heart," enigk moedestly proposes, "but no one bought it.")

when goldsmith quit the foo fighters earlier this year following a dispute with band leader dave grohl, enigk--who confesses to making the initial phone calls that disbanded sunny day real estate--decided to phone everyone and propose regrouping.

"when we first got back together it was the four of us," hoerner explains. "nate was still in the process of extricating himself from the foo fighters, but there was always one more show or one more tour. there were at least nine months where we thought he was gonna be in the band, but when the time came to go into the studio and record the album we'd been working on, nate decided that he didn't want to leave the foo figthers behind. we'd done so much work by that point that we just thought, 'hey, we gotta do this now. we gotta make that next step.' and that was the hardest thing sunny day ever did, besides breaking up."

jeff palmer, mendel's replacement and a former member of the mommyheads, fits comfortabley into the large shoes left behind for him. "you can hear his bass lines on the new record and just figure out that he was the right person to be in sunny day," says hoerner. "it was the luckiest thing that ever happened.

"if nate had just said no right away," enigk says sullenly, "there's no way that we'd even be here right now."

sunny day myth #3

despite their rigid policies against photo shoots and commercial susceptibility, sunny day real estate took money to appear in a series of "grunge clothing" ads for the nordstrom department store chain in 1993.

"we actually thought we were ripping people off," hoerner scoffs. "we were gonna make $250 apiece, so we made up this fake band name and had this weird guy that was supposed to be the singer of our band. we were just laughing about it, thinking, 'yeah, we're fucking the man and making some money!' but then it came out and said really huge: SUNNY DAY REAL ESTATE. we got fucking slapped with that one, but i still think it's funny when i see it."

the release of how it feels to be something on marks a number of practical changes for sunny day real estate. they're doing a select number of interviews for the album, sitting through an equal number of photo shoots, and they've even discussed the possibility of gnashing their teeth through a first-ever show in california.

"we don't know anything about being a rock band, but it's also partly a career choice," says hoerner, now 29. "when i was first in sunny day, my rent was $100 a month and my food cost another $50. and now, whether i like it or not, i've got so many more responsibilities. i live on a farm that's really expensive to run, and i'm married now, too. so there are more trappings involved. doing interviews and photo shoots, i guess that's part of the career of a rock band."

hoerner, who doesn't own a television set, is reluctant to say whether the band will indulge in a new vidoe. "those videos were just something the label suckered us into," he says. "they're just so terrible and boring--and i don't wanna slag anyone who worked on those videos because they did great with what they had--but i just turned my back on them. it was like, 'okay, you're allowed to film me. but i'm gonna be thinking "fuck you" the whole time. i'm not gonna help you.' and i think that showed."

for the most part, sunny day real estate were a well-concealed myth; an unintentional combination of underexposure combined with overadulation. surely it was the kind of story that cult followings are made of, and--considering that several fans bearing flowers for the band were in line for the irving plaza show close to eight hours before doors opened--it's safe to say that they've already earned that much.

as for the future, enigk plans to continue his solo career, having already begun the recording process for a follow-up to frog queen, while sunny day real estate, together again for only they know how long, will also persevere--spinning the legacy they left behind in a dc nightclub three years ago.

"and, by the way," hoerner adds, grinning devilishly, "i have nothing against california at all. i'm totally stoked on all 50 states."

sunny day myth #4

while it's true that hoerner spent most of his post-breakup time on a farm in eastern washington, he was also receiving payola of an undisclosed amount by working for corporate giant atlantic records.

so really, dan, what was the connection?

"a thin fiber and some money to do nothing. i mean, i was living on a farm--what do you think i was doing, scouting out all the new coyotes?" he laughs coyly. "i'm not saying anything else about it."

so much for debunking the myth.

thanks to Andrew Christensen "sdre@rhf.bradley.edu" for typing this article!!!