sundaze: a band to end your week on

By Lauren Kosky

Amidst chattering about bleached eyebrows and a chaotic search for guitar leads, a rhythm pulsed from the drums. Soon, bass, and then guitars, followed, until out of the chaos emerged the iconic opening to ‘Redbone’ by Childish Gambino. Gently-reverbed vocals completed the ethereal and electric atmosphere. The band behind the sound, newly formed in 2023, is none other than St Andrews’ own ‘Sundaze’, consisting of Alejandra on vocals, Alastair on lead guitar, Kawing on rhythm guitar, Karina on bass, and Oscar on drums. After hearing Sundaze perform at the STAR Awards, I took the opportunity to interview the band during one of their practices.

Tell me about how the band was formed.

Karina: Kawing and I were trying to write jingles for STAR shows. We were really just jamming out and having a lot of fun with it, and decided that we should maybe think of starting a band.

Kawing: Yeah, and when it first started we were really just jamming together. It wasn’t until Ale joined on vocals that we really came together as a band.

Alejandra: [Karina and I] met in first year and had played a little bit together, so when she spoke to me about the band I was so excited for it, and mentioned it to my friends as well so we could all play together.

Oscar: I knew I always wanted to be in a band, so when the opportunity came up it was something I just wanted to take. I think we all felt like we just wanted to be a part of something music related, and this was our chance to. 

What direction would you like to see the band going in?

Karina: I think most of the bands in St Andrews are more indie rock music. That’s something we’re quite aware of and don’t really want to steer into as much. I think we would like to have a more defined sound.

Kawing: Yeah, I agree. I think we’re looking for that sound that really is us as a band.

As a band you have not performed any original songs yet. Is this a process you have practised behind the scenes?

Alastair: I think as individuals we’ve all written songs. It’s not something we’ve tried as much as a band yet, but it is something I think we’re all keen to start to get into.

If you could add any instruments to the band what would you add?

Oscar: I’d love to add a saxophone! … ooh, or a trumpet!

Karina: Yeah I’d love to add a trumpet too! I would like to bring back the keyboard as well as more of a consistent feature; we used to have a keyboard player but it’s not something that has always remained.

Alastair: Yeah, the great thing about having a keyboard is they can really play anything and it just adds such a nice dimension to it.

What’s been your favourite gig so far?

Karina, Kawing and Oscar were all in agreement about the garden party being their favourite so far.                        

Kawing: I love it when the crowd moshes to songs like ‘American Boy’, it’s so fun!

If there is one message you would like people to take from Sundaze, what would it be? 

Oscar: Music is about having fun, for sure

Karina: Yeah, I agree. I mean some of us as a band only started playing really recently.   

Alastair: A few of us had never even performed live, so just any opportunity to do it is really special.

Kawing: And if anyone wants to play music they should really just start, because it’s amazing how quickly people can pick things up. We have so much fun just getting to play together.

My interview with Sundaze showed me that these students are in it for the love of playing. For being so new to the world of playing music, it was incredible how relaxed they were. The talent was obvious: from vocalist Alejandra casually strumming an acoustic guitar, to the band wordlessly creating music from nothing. Where this band goes next will be interesting as some members are soon departing for different cities, but Sundaze – whose name suggests the easy weekend listening they may become known for – is definitely one to watch.