There are a handful of artists who find inspiration beyond the walls of a recording studio. Listen to Mac DeMarco’s Salad Days, produced in the comfort of his Brooklyn flat. Revisit the early‑2000s hit Starlight by The Supermen Lovers, recorded and concocted in a bedroom before its final release. While biopic documentaries of the late ’90s and early 2000s showcased sumptuous recording rooms, privacy remains a luxury even for prominent performers like Billie Eilish. Sundots are not far behind these prodigies.

The much‑anticipated debut release from this Connecticut indie‑rock band, On the Quay, is the latest album to emerge from the solitude of an enclosed creative space. By renting an isolated Airbnb in the mountainous region of Vermont, Sundots removed themselves from the distractions of the modern world. With their focus set firmly on writing and brainstorming, the dreamy single “Distraction” surfaced as a gateway to all things frenetic. A striking step forward for the band, its melancholic, if not nostalgic, rhythm champions a less‑exalted corner of the pop‑music landscape.

Slowcore, often called sadcore, first rose to prominence in the ’80s and early ’90s, and its influence shapes the narrative of “Distraction.” Though its bitrate runs higher than the genre’s typically subdued tempos, the percussive layers throughout galvanise the listener into an alternative point of view. Their gradual build‑up resembles droplets of rain before a storm, inviting you to remember that joy can exist even within murky clouds.

Lyrics heralding the message of unrequited love aim to capture the agonising frustration of a partner’s divided attention, according to the band. However, Drew Collins’s restrained singing is a contrasting delivery of this notion, as it features an acrobatic vocal performance. Not your chamber‑soul epic, but synchronised mellow melodies that connote a change.

Speaking about the track Drew Collins of sundots says:

“Distraction felt like a turning point in the band’s songwriting. I think this track informed a new approach for us to songwriting together as a band. I brought the skeleton of this track to the band maybe a week before our first tour with Panchiko. We were all so excited about it that we finished writing it and drilled it enough to have it ready for the tour. It definitely felt like a departure in sound from some of our other tracks, but people on tour seemed super receptive to it. We felt confident in it, and chased a similar work flow for the rest of the record.”

“Distraction” was one of the first songs written collaboratively by sundots as quintet, steering the band toward a more “jammy direction” and laying the creative groundwork for their forthcoming album, ‘On the Quay’.

“I let go of a lot of control and tried to have everyone meld together, and that ended up being how we approached the album in general,” adds Collins. 

The band will kick off their UK tour in Brighton on 6 November, co‑headlining with the Newcastle‑based slowcore/indie‑pop duo Lots of Hands.