SUNFLOWER DEAD play The Canyon/Montclair Sep. 7, The Canyon/Santa Clarita Sep. 8, The Cave Sep. 13, The Canyon/Agoura Hills Sep. 14 and The Coach House Sep. 15; photo Janelle Rominski
Sunflower Dead, a native SoCal band, returns to their home state as support on Scott Stapp of Creed’s “The Space Between the Shadows” tour. The tour is scheduled to play a series of local shows including The Coach House Sep. 15. Fellow rockers, Messer, are also support on the tour.
Front man Michael Del Pizzo says Messer has proved to be great musical compatriots.
“We just met those guys about a week ago and they’re putting on a phenomenal show and the crowd every night is responding amazingly to them,” Del Pizzo said. “I’m just getting used to their sound and I’m loving it so far.”
Del Pizzo says that, as a fan of the iconic band Creed, hearing Stapp sing live has been a treat for him.
“I’ve been a Creed fan since they started so it’s a pleasure for me to see him do those songs every night including his new songs” Del Pizzo revealed. “I love it.”
Del Pizzo and his fellow Sunflower Dead bandmates have been playing since 2012. The group officially broke into music with their independently recorded and self-published album aptly named Sunflower Dead. The group was able to break into mainstream music thanks to the radio showcasing of songs from their second album It’s Time to Get Weird.
The music Sunflower Dead plays is an undeniably major factor for the group’s success which is described by Del Pizzo as being “heavy aggressive.”
“We sit right between heavy rock and metal and lyrically it’s very emotionally weighted,” Del Pizzo explained. “Something you can connect to.”
This is showcased by songs like “Turn Away”, one of the band’s most popular singles released just this year. That song in particular deals with the subject of suicide. While the sound backing up the song’s lyric are heavy, the lyrics in it are aimed at encouraging people not to give into the urge to end their lives but do their best to muster on.
Powerful songs like that are something that are made naturally according to Del Pizzo. He says that song composition in the group is open ended and dependent largely on mutual consensus in regard to their creation.
“There’s no one specific way we do it,” Del Pizzo admitted. “Everyone in the band is kind of open to inspiration. So, when it strikes, we go with it. There’s no egos, there’s never been egos involved in the writing process in this band. We just kind of go with whoever has the best idea.”
Del Pizzo says that both the songwriting and recording processes are the easiest tasks for the band. Being able to play those songs live is always a challenge but a rewarding one.
“Playing music live is taxing because you’re trying to figure out everything you did in the studio and how to represent it live correctly,” Del Pizzo said. “We’re not a band that uses backing tracks or anything like that. We just go out and play just the four us. We play a representation of the album live but once we get it down it’s incredible.”
Sunflower Dead “Turn Away” Artwork
Sunflower Dead has to date played numerous concerts, gone on multiple tours and produced a total of three albums with their latest album C O M A seeing a release just last year and whose songs continue to top active rock charts.
Del Pizzo admits it’s hard to pick some of the most truly memorable they’ve experienced. But there are two that stand out the most to him: playing live at the O2 Apollo in Manchester with Korn and touring with Hellyeah before the death of Vinnie Paul.
Del Pizzo remembers playing with Paul and that the legendary musician undeniably adored being able to play along with Sunflower Dead.
“The last time we toured with Hellyeah, on the last day of the tour Vinnie came up to me and wanted to get a picture with me,” Del Pizzo recalled. “The whole time he’s taking a picture with me – we’re doing like a bunch of shots – he’s singing one of our songs to me. So, for me to have one of my idols take a picture with me and, not only that, sing one of my songs to me, that’s pretty amazing.”
Events like these and the popular reception the group’s heavy but inspirational style gives Del Pizzo and his bandmates the fuel they need to keep playing and creating music both in their upcoming appearances in SoCal and beyond.
Del Pizzo says that Sunflower Dead is already looking ahead to a busy future.
“We are currently looking to our next tour and working on our next single and writing a fourth record and just moving forward and building Sunflower Dead up.”