Sunny Day Real Estate have never really been the nostalgic type. After all, this is a band that broke up months after releasing one of the most influential rock albums of the ’90s (Diary), got back together and broke up again within a couple of years, and then disappeared completely for nearly a decade on two subsequent occasions.
Time is a funny thing though, and for vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Enigk, guitarist Dan Hoerner, and drummer William Goldsmith, with its passage came the realization that Diary continues to inspire O.G. fans and newcomers alike. Hence, a yearlong celebration of its impact in the form of a tour featuring the first-ever complete performance of the album, plus a modern, track-by-track re-record released earlier this year as Diary – Live at London Bridge Studio.
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Now, Sunny Day is embarking on the final leg of the Diary run, which begins Sept. 22 at the Bourbon and Beyond festival in Louisville, Ky., and concludes Nov. 3 in Anaheim, Ca. The group will also play the day before the finale at Deftones’ Dia De Les Deftones festival in San Diego, alongside IDLES, Health and Duster, and is also one of the headliners for Best Friends Forever, which descends on Las Vegas from Oct. 11-13 with a lineup including such scene favorites as Jawbox, the Jesus Lizard, Cap’n Jazz, the Dismemberment Plan, Pinback, and Bright Eyes.
Enigk and Hoerner jumped on the phone with SPIN to discuss what the Diary experience has meant to them, where Sunny Day may head next, and the enduring bonds that keep them inspired .
At one of the recent Seattle shows, the band played ‘Theo B’ for the first time in a long time. Might there be other songs of that ilk that get aired before the tour is over?
Jeremy Enigk: So, we have a collection of songs that we’ve sort of kept rehearsed. ‘Theo B’ is one of them. ‘Spade and Parade.’ ‘Rodeo Jones.’ ‘5/4’ might make another debut.
Dan Hoerner: We also played ‘J’nuh’ in rehearsal recently.
Enigk: I think ‘Spade and Parade,’ even though we’ve played it, is the rarest of the rare.
Sunny Day has now been performing Diary in full for more than six months. Has anything felt surprising or unexpected?
Hoerner: I’ll dive in if that’s okay, unless you were just about to say something, J?
Enigk: Please do.
Hoerner: In the past, if you would have told me we were going to play Diary from start to finish, I would have thought, that’s going to be a terrible set. There’s going to be too many lulls and it’s not going to move people. Some songs we never played, literally ever, like ‘Rodeo Jones.’ I don’t think we would have ever thought to do that. But this 30th anniversary reunion has caused us to do this thing. We re-recorded the album and now we’re playing it live. Really, I love every song. Every single song has something about it that I really enjoy. I feel like the set flows beautifully. People seem to maintain interest all the way through, and all of my fears about what it would be have evaporated. I find it to be really fun.
Enigk: Aside from just the music, my favorite aspect of these shows is that the younger generation showed up. There are kids in the audience, and it’s the coolest thing to see. At our last show in Seattle, the crowd was a lot of 40- or 50- somethings enjoying the night. But up front, the entire front row, were kids head-banging. That’s where I got my energy. That’s what made the show thrilling to me. It’s so essential. The night before, there wasn’t a lot of that, so we weren’t probably giving as much energy as we could have.
By the same token, it feels like you guys have built real camaraderie with your peers who are also finding new audiences at this stage of the game. I’m thinking about the Coheed and Cambria cruise you played, and the upcoming Deftones festival. The music is being discovered by younger people who are showing up to see it performed live.
Hoerner: Gosh, from your lips to God’s ears, brother (laughs). It is amazing. It’s incredible. [Deftones frontman] Chino [Moreno] has been an outspoken fan of Sunny Day. He came to a show on the How It Feels To Be Something On tour at Irving Plaza in New York in 1998 and came backstage. I personally love Deftones, so to be invited to that show is incredible and to get that recognition from our peers. I never would have guessed it, but I am grateful for it. I think it flows naturally from what Jeremy was saying about seeing younger audiences, and how many new people are still picking this up. We had to get over a 10- or 15-year gap in the technology with streaming, but somehow now it’s working perfectly for us.
And a dedicated festival like Best Friends Forever, which features a very specific cross-section of bands under the ’emo’ umbrella, would have been unheard of even a few years ago.
Hoerner: I’m so glad that it’s still relevant. Maybe it’s a testament to the timelessness of the music.
Enigk: A lot of these bands were hitting when we started, like Jesus Lizard and Built To Spill.
Hoerner: I have to see Jesus Lizard!
Enigk: We’re meeting a lot of these bands now too, to go back to your previous point. We had the opportunity to meet American Football.
Dan: We played with them and Dinosaur Jr. Meeting Get Up Kids at the SPIN event was awesome. They were so sweet. They invited to take us with them to Europe (laughs). It’s awesome to meet all these heavy hitters, you know? It’s humbling to be included in the crowd.
The last show of this leg is in Anaheim, California on Nov. 3. Do you have a sense of what, if anything, might happen next?
Enigk: Not yet. We’re sort of mulling it over. I certainly have a lot to mull over.
Hoerner: I don’t think we have anything confirmed. We’re definitely looking at the future with open eyes. We’ll see what happens.
I can’t help but notice that 2025 is 30th anniversary of The Pink Album. If we really want to keep going down that road, it’s 27 for How It Feels…
Hoerner: Maybe (laughs). I’m loving this anniversary, but it would not be on brand for Sunny Day to keep grinding out that concept. I think the next thing is going to be a country album or a space rock opera. I don’t see [more full album tours], personally, but I’m definitely the ‘never say never’ guy. I’m open to anything if it makes sense. I’m not trying to be flippant about it, because I love Pink. I think it’s amazing. I think it totally deserves its own recognition. And for what it is, it’s honestly probably my favorite Sunny Day album. I don’t know that we’ll do the same treatment. I think we want to try and break new ground, if anything.
Enigk: I think an homage to it in some degree is okay. It’s actually the 25th of [Sunny Day’s final studio album] The Rising Tide next year too. Doing the whole tour thing, I think it’s specific to Diary. It’s our first record, and our biggest-selling and most popular one, so it totally makes sense. But continuing to do that is kind of off-brand. Doing something special in homage to Pink could be really cool, but not a super-taxing tour or whatever.
You guys have known each other for a long time. You’ve been in a band for a long time. There have been times when you didn’t play together for long periods. What has this experience shown you about one another, perhaps with the backdrop being your ability to overcome challenges? It’s not only what the fans wanted, but it feels like something you guys really wanted too.
Enigk: Well, I’ll just say, I’m in a band with incredibly patient and forgiving guys (laughs). It’s amazing to have such old friends that know your idiosyncrasies and always surprise me. It’s humbling every day. That’s a real treat to have that. I guess I’ll just leave it at that.
Hoerner: Geez, well, I couldn’t have said it any better. I am blown away by the friendships and it’s always something that I’ll treasure forever. It’s a blast. It’s incredible that we get to experience it.
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