Sundy Best Talk About Their New CD, How They Got Their Unique Sound + Play Live In Studio – Exclusive Interview

Sundy Best are a duo from Kentucky. Before you start getting Brooks & Dunn stuck in your mind, stop yourself. Like their spelling of "Sunday", this duo is non-traditional.

Sundy Best's rootsy, country/southern rock sound they bring is unique, because it mainly consists of lead singer/guitarist Nick Jamerson and cajon/vocalist Kris Bentley. In the first part of our conversation, Kris explained how they came about "It happened organically. You know, we never tried to be different. I've always played the drums, but when we started, I kinda picked [a cajon] up. I saw a video of one and it just fit what we were doing. A drum kit was a little bit much for the venues we were playing starting out...[Bring Up The Sun] it's all cajon, there's no cymbals. That was my vote for the album title, 'No Cymbals'. But it got turned down.".

I found out Nick and Kris have a different way of promoting their music as well: they don't have a radio single. "Sirius XM has played a song...CMT played something, and other people play whatever, you know...that's a good thing when different people pick a different song that they're digging. We like them all, so it's like, you know, take your pick." Because there is no single, the Sundy Best radio tour has been deemed 'An Awareness Program', where they are just trying to get their name out there instead of pushing a specific song.

I asked how they came about choosing a misspelled name, and they told me, "We grew up playing in church. That was just, you know, you wear your 'Sunday best' to church, but nobody really talks that way where we're from. We just spell it how we say it...People have asked us if we're too hipster for the A's, and, no, we're just...I don't know."

I know. They're real. And Nick and Kris proved they're real talented by playing 'Until I Met You' in the studio. Take a listen to the in-studio performance, and the entire first part of my conversation with Sundy Best:

Sundy Best Interview - Part 1

The second half of my conversation with Sundy Best, Nick and Kris explained that they've been busy playing live shows over the past year. We came to the conclusion that in 2013, they played somewhere between 150 and a million shows. That's a lot!

Sundy Best are a duo, and while they got some musical help with the making of 'Bring Up The Sun', they explained, "We had some guys come in and add some stuff on the album...we kicked them out after we got what we needed out of them." I mentioned that they get a lot of energy and noise out of just two people. Nick says, "Often we get, that's some of the first comments we get after a show, because our live show is definitely something that, you know, it gets people by surprise with as much noise as we make." Kris added, "I think it's an acoustic rock & roll show, almost. Just because of the energy, and, like you said, the noise. It's just a guitar and a cajon...We're just lucky it evolved to this...We were really just doing what we had to do to accommodate venues for us to play in. And this kinda became our sound." Nick continued, "With it stripped down this way, too, I think, cause songwriting is a big deal to us, and...you can actually hear what we're trying to say and the messages we're trying to get across...[songwriting] is something that's really important to us. I think that's why we've found we can connect so well with people. They hear what we're saying." Kris finished the thought by telling us, "We're honest...we're not doing this to become rich and famous someday. We're just doing this cause we love it."

Nick and Kris played another song for us off their new CD, 'Bring Up The Sun'. Take a listen to 'Smoking Gun' here:

Sundy Best Interview - Part 2

Killer.

While you won't be able to find out more about Sundy Best on Wikipedia or Best Buy, you can get the latest on the duo by checking out their official website. You can also follow them on Twitter and like the band's Facebook page and get their music on iTunes. And here's hoping we can get Sundy Best to play a show in the Big Country real soon. That would most definitely be killer.