By Charlie Maybee
Amsterdam based singer-songwriters, sunsets and bad bets, have released their debut single “Sunshine on a rainy day”, which manages a healthy dose of optimism to help round out latter half of the week. With the combined efforts of classical composer David Collier and jazz singer, Sydney Imani, we get a mix of magic and warmth as they stroll leisurely through their first release.
Combining classic R&B vibes with pop sensibilities, the song feels akin to the work of SZA or Amy Winehouse. The gentle synthesizers and ethereal backup vocals make a gentle pool of vibrations for you to swim and float inside of. It’s contemplative and seems to be working through complicated emotions offering up a mantra to help move through challenging moments.
“It was summer 2021, and I got a call telling me my granny was sick, and they weren’t sure if she would make it. It was during some of the worst travel restrictions, and I wouldn’t be able to go and see her. We’re really close so I was devastated so I decided to channel how I felt into writing music. ‘Sunshine on a rainy day’ was the result.”
As the song continues, you can feel the sunshine break through dense storm clouds and fill up your soul in musical form. The clouds don’t disappear entirely, but they move to the periphery to make space for calm meditation. “The song is in two parts”, the band writes. “The first half expresses the love I feel for her, and the second half is coming to terms with the idea that she’s dying. Musically it’s a departure from the music I had been writing, and this song started the collaboration with the singer, which became sunsets & bad bets. We’re currently working on a concept album together.”
In the end, sunsets and bad bets manage to bring forward positive news. “my granny is still alive. It was just a brief health scare, which she fully recovered from”. So as take a moment to appreciate the fragility of life, we also get to admire its beauty and perseverance.
“Sunshine on a rainy day” is available on major streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, and can be found on the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify.
Charlie Maybee is a dancer, musician, educator, and writer based in Charleston, South Carolina who currently teaches with the Dance Program at the College of Charleston. His primary work as an artist is with his performing collective, Polymath Performance Project, through which he makes interdisciplinary performance art that centers tap dance as the primary medium of expression and research. He also currently plays rhythm guitar for the Charleston-based punk band, Anergy, and releases music as a solo artist under the name Nox Eterna.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
