He’s an upcoming talent and has featured heavily on the BBC’s Introducing playlist, so what makes Will Strickson aka Sundile tick, read below to find out more:
- Could you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into music?
“So, my name’s Will Strickson. I chose the name Sundile, after being at Leeds Festival a few years back, on a Sunday, I think it was, and I was in a really weird mood. A mate of mine, said ‘See ya later, Alligator’ and instead of replying with the usual refrain, I think I said something about. ‘In a while Sundial’ or something like that. Then later on, I was trying to think about a cool name to give myself and I remembered that. Unfortunately, Sundial had been taken, but I remembered the crocodile thing, and so combined the two. I was thirteen when I first started playing originally on the bass guitar. I formed a band with a few mates, and we mainly played covers of the Arctic Monkeys and Kasbian. At our first gig, we were going to be doing I think it was an Arctic Monkeys song, and our singer didn’t want to sing it, so I took over on the vocals, and that was my first experience of singing. It was roughly around that time that I started learning how to play guitar. Having played bass before, it was somewhat easier, as I was used to looking at tabs and transposing chords from bass to guitar. I was around seventeen when I started performing covers myself, and just sort of getting a feel of what I could do.”
“When I went to Uni, my parents got me a Macbook, with Garage Band on it. I got the hang of recording on it, and kind of stumbled into recording full band songs with the tools available on the programme. When it came to ‘Late Night Love Songs,’ I recorded a couple of different versions. The one that appears on BBC 1 Introducing is different to the original version I recorded. It was kind of mad, because after that happened, I heard from a PR company exec who asked if I had anything more to produce. I didn’t at the time, but he told me to keep in touch. And after recording something with my cousin for BBC York, another PR management/label exec came by and since then we’ve kind of been working on getting some stuff written and recorded.”
2. What has changed for you in terms of writing songs since you started out?
“Well, I think the most obvious change is that I’ve gotten older. So, there’s less angst I guess in some of the songs. Now the themes are about anything really, be it drinking, snacking, drinking and moving to a new place, masculinity and not wanting to grow up. A few long distance relationship songs as well, which is always something that seems to crop up. In terms of songwriting, sometimes it can be scarily easy to write songs that people like, such as ‘Late Night Love Songs,’ that’s always something I find a bit weird. And other times it can be really hard, if you think too hard about it.”
3. What are your influences?
“It’s varied, I grew up listening to classic rock, that my dad liked, bands like The Who, and songwriters such as Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen. But then there’s also The Fratellis, Arctic Monkeys, Kasbian, and now some hip hop artists as well. It’s a mixed bag really.”
4. Do you have any plans to perform live?
“At the moment no, I’m trying to get more writing and recording done first before I do anything live. Plus I’d need to find the right people to perform live with, and also try and fit it in with the masters and having a part time job as well.”
Late Night Love Songs is available to listen to on Spotify now, do yourself a favour and listen to it.