Sundrones—the vehicle for singer-songwriter, general hellraiser, and experienced life survivor Josh Moran—is a four-piece psych-rock outfit with just one gig under their belt (at NY's Pianos) and an angsty love/hate song called "Kill Me Baby." Towering above anyone in a room, the curly-haired, nose-ringed, tattooe'd raconteur is far from a wallflower. He positively forces himself to stand out, either with a fleck of candy-colored dye in his locks, or one of his many long overcoats to further emphasise his height and throwback to a Dickensian life growing up in homeless shelters, scraping together the days, and teaching himself to play guitar. Essentially, Moran's not a guy you want to cross. But then again he is exactly the guy you want to cross; an amorous optimist, who just wants to find the good with his bullshit headlights switched ON at all times.Responsible for signing BORNS, and co-writing his main hit '"Electric Love" (other credits include Ladyhawke), Moran has decided to spend a good chunk of his time now on the songs he's kept for himself, and his trio of Sundrones cohorts. "Kill Me Baby" contains Buddy Holly-meets-Buzzcocks harmonies, screeching guitar wails, and abrasive feedback. It's a reflection of a life dragged up on punks and rebels, and its individual lonerism is reflected in a monochrome-turned-color music video featuring Moran in full-length pimp overcoat, swaggering through some old ruins in the snow, like a lost member of the Night's Watch in Game Of Thrones.We caught up with Josh about his mission and below is the premiere fo the video for "Kill Me Baby."Who are Sundrones and what is your mission?
Josh Moran: Sundrones was born out of frustration. When I got out to LA [from New York] all I kept hearing were these yelpy synth bands being signed by the fistful and I couldn't differentiate between the bands and the music I was being played. I thought, this is shit. I didn't have a band so I got some people to help out and track a live EP with me that would be the total antithesis of that stuff I was hearing. So I contacted Michael Shuman from Queens Of The Stone Age and Mini Mansions for bass, James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins came in with some weird fucked-up little keyboard, and then Dave Elitch from The Mars Volta played drums and we tracked six songsin two days. I sent it to friends and it made its way around. It's raw and heavy and I wanna release it at some point. I started getting offers and everyone told me I was crazy for starting a guitar band, but that's just the music I like.That was the start of the band. I wrote everything, I didn't have players and got them in. It hadn't been a band up until this February. I met Justin [guitar], he wasn't living up to his potential at what he was doing and has produced our record. I met Darren [drums, formerly of Ambulance LTD, and Brandon Flowers' solo band] in New York and we were talking about writing and I brought him in to write for that TV show Vinyl on HBO. We didn't get the theme song but became great friends and jammed once. Greg [guitar, bass] and I were good friends from New York. I just called up anyone who I trusted not to be a crazy drug fuck.What is "Kill Me Baby" about?
Josh: It's about what we're willing to put ourselves through for a passing feeling, the lack of fervour in modern dating. At the time I was craving more of a real connection but I just kept getting stuck on the surface with these girls. I wasn't interested in some sketchy sexcapade with people who have fucked all my friends already. I like girls that don't give a fuck about what people think of them. I like people who aren't afraid to be polarizing. I just love extremes. I think it's funny seeing someone who's completely out of their element. I love watching people's reactions. Even me, I don't think I look weird at all but driving down to Nashville on a roadtrip last year, everywhere I stopped I was a fucking alien to people.Are you on Tinder?
I've never been on a dating app. There's no intense passion. It's the first time in history where people have had all these options at their finger tips completely based on the surface, which is shit. People don't put any effort into it because they'll just meet someone and if a cuter guy or girl comes along they'll move onto them instead. I used to think once you hit your early 30s you'd be looking for more. It's weird being in New York with a bunch of single 40-year-olds who are baristas and trying to do art once a week, still out there on the prowl trying to fuck 20-year-olds. It's weird that that's the norm.How was your debut show at Pianos in NYC?
It went good… I had been staying in LA the month leading up to the show. I didn't wanna spend money so I crashed on this shitty, half-inflated air mattress for a month, got laryngitis before the show and had to get a steroid shot in my ass in front of my manager, an intimate moment for us. I didn't think I'd be able to sing in the show but I don't cancel shit. I think that's the worst, especially for a new band. It ended up being great. We actually sold it and a lot of people couldn't get in, which is tight.”What's next for Sundrones?
The EP is already recorded so everyone is itching to just get out on the road and hopefully stay out there for the rest of the year. I just wanna get to work.Where did you get that amazing coat in your music video?
So the coat… I traded a fucking carton of Marlboro Reds for the jacket. Reds really gross me out. I was up in Woodstock and a guy was selling jackets on the sidewalk. He wanted $200 for it but he settled for stale old Marlboro Reds that I got for a gift last Easter. I do think I have a gift of gab a little bit but mostly it doesn't help. It just gets me into trouble!Who is the old guy in the video?
He's not that old actually. Maybe he is and I don't know. That's my friend Sammy Hopkins, he plays keys in a New York band called Caveman. The director who's amazing—Philip Di Fiore—he puts Sammy in all his videos because he can play any race, any age, he's one of those chameleons.Who is your musical hero?
I have a lot. Steven Malkmus has always been someone I've looked up to. Pavement is one of my favorite bands and I think The Jicks are underrated. It's always been Pixies, Daniel Johnston, REM, Buzzcocks… Pinkerton from Weezer was a CD I wore out when I was 14. I never fell in love with a lesbian, though…What is your advice for someone trying to make it in music?
Just create your own value and define success for yourself. Work hard, don't give up, don't go against your gut instinct. Defining success for yourself is the biggest thing. I couldn't give less of a fuck about selling records, it's about the experience of playing and getting an opportunity to release music. For some people, they wanna be the next Taylor Swift, but I know plenty of people who just wanna play packed 200-cap rooms for the rest of their lives.Who excites you most in music and why?
Iceage. Right when it came out I bought Plouging Into The Fields Of Love and got really into it. I met the singer Elias [Bender Ronnenfelt] at SXSW last year. We had a quick conversation. I got there two hours early to his show, I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to get in and I get there and there's hardly anyone there. And they just fucking killed it. They're super unvervalued right now. The lyrics are amazing, the band's really unpredictable and nobody sounds like him. He looks like fucking River Phoenix and sounds like he's been chewing on shards of glass.What is a sundrone?
I got the name Sundrones because I came across this article about how bad the pollution in certain parts of China had gotten. I don't remember exactly where it was. It had gotten so bad that it had actually blocked out the suncompletely. There's all this negative press around drones coming out and people being perverts and spying on people, and the dangers of it. These people weren't using them for that, they were using them to try and fly up above the smog and see the fucking sun. I thought that was a beautiful, strange parallel. It got so crazy that the government paid to build a huge LCD screen and they have a manufactured digital, man-made sun rise and set in the city.Eve Barlow stared at the sun too hard when she was a kid and now has -7.5 eyesight. She's on Twitter.
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Josh Moran: Sundrones was born out of frustration. When I got out to LA [from New York] all I kept hearing were these yelpy synth bands being signed by the fistful and I couldn't differentiate between the bands and the music I was being played. I thought, this is shit. I didn't have a band so I got some people to help out and track a live EP with me that would be the total antithesis of that stuff I was hearing. So I contacted Michael Shuman from Queens Of The Stone Age and Mini Mansions for bass, James Iha from the Smashing Pumpkins came in with some weird fucked-up little keyboard, and then Dave Elitch from The Mars Volta played drums and we tracked six songsin two days. I sent it to friends and it made its way around. It's raw and heavy and I wanna release it at some point. I started getting offers and everyone told me I was crazy for starting a guitar band, but that's just the music I like.
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Josh: It's about what we're willing to put ourselves through for a passing feeling, the lack of fervour in modern dating. At the time I was craving more of a real connection but I just kept getting stuck on the surface with these girls. I wasn't interested in some sketchy sexcapade with people who have fucked all my friends already. I like girls that don't give a fuck about what people think of them. I like people who aren't afraid to be polarizing. I just love extremes. I think it's funny seeing someone who's completely out of their element. I love watching people's reactions. Even me, I don't think I look weird at all but driving down to Nashville on a roadtrip last year, everywhere I stopped I was a fucking alien to people.Are you on Tinder?
I've never been on a dating app. There's no intense passion. It's the first time in history where people have had all these options at their finger tips completely based on the surface, which is shit. People don't put any effort into it because they'll just meet someone and if a cuter guy or girl comes along they'll move onto them instead. I used to think once you hit your early 30s you'd be looking for more. It's weird being in New York with a bunch of single 40-year-olds who are baristas and trying to do art once a week, still out there on the prowl trying to fuck 20-year-olds. It's weird that that's the norm.
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It went good… I had been staying in LA the month leading up to the show. I didn't wanna spend money so I crashed on this shitty, half-inflated air mattress for a month, got laryngitis before the show and had to get a steroid shot in my ass in front of my manager, an intimate moment for us. I didn't think I'd be able to sing in the show but I don't cancel shit. I think that's the worst, especially for a new band. It ended up being great. We actually sold it and a lot of people couldn't get in, which is tight.”What's next for Sundrones?
The EP is already recorded so everyone is itching to just get out on the road and hopefully stay out there for the rest of the year. I just wanna get to work.Where did you get that amazing coat in your music video?
So the coat… I traded a fucking carton of Marlboro Reds for the jacket. Reds really gross me out. I was up in Woodstock and a guy was selling jackets on the sidewalk. He wanted $200 for it but he settled for stale old Marlboro Reds that I got for a gift last Easter. I do think I have a gift of gab a little bit but mostly it doesn't help. It just gets me into trouble!Who is the old guy in the video?
He's not that old actually. Maybe he is and I don't know. That's my friend Sammy Hopkins, he plays keys in a New York band called Caveman. The director who's amazing—Philip Di Fiore—he puts Sammy in all his videos because he can play any race, any age, he's one of those chameleons.
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I have a lot. Steven Malkmus has always been someone I've looked up to. Pavement is one of my favorite bands and I think The Jicks are underrated. It's always been Pixies, Daniel Johnston, REM, Buzzcocks… Pinkerton from Weezer was a CD I wore out when I was 14. I never fell in love with a lesbian, though…What is your advice for someone trying to make it in music?
Just create your own value and define success for yourself. Work hard, don't give up, don't go against your gut instinct. Defining success for yourself is the biggest thing. I couldn't give less of a fuck about selling records, it's about the experience of playing and getting an opportunity to release music. For some people, they wanna be the next Taylor Swift, but I know plenty of people who just wanna play packed 200-cap rooms for the rest of their lives.Who excites you most in music and why?
Iceage. Right when it came out I bought Plouging Into The Fields Of Love and got really into it. I met the singer Elias [Bender Ronnenfelt] at SXSW last year. We had a quick conversation. I got there two hours early to his show, I was convinced I wasn't going to be able to get in and I get there and there's hardly anyone there. And they just fucking killed it. They're super unvervalued right now. The lyrics are amazing, the band's really unpredictable and nobody sounds like him. He looks like fucking River Phoenix and sounds like he's been chewing on shards of glass.What is a sundrone?
I got the name Sundrones because I came across this article about how bad the pollution in certain parts of China had gotten. I don't remember exactly where it was. It had gotten so bad that it had actually blocked out the suncompletely. There's all this negative press around drones coming out and people being perverts and spying on people, and the dangers of it. These people weren't using them for that, they were using them to try and fly up above the smog and see the fucking sun. I thought that was a beautiful, strange parallel. It got so crazy that the government paid to build a huge LCD screen and they have a manufactured digital, man-made sun rise and set in the city.Eve Barlow stared at the sun too hard when she was a kid and now has -7.5 eyesight. She's on Twitter.