Sundown Shamans

Music has always been influenced by the trends of its time, reflecting politics, economics and lifestyles. But the moment you play the Sundown Shamans eponymous debut album, youre taken back to another age.

Ask the guys about their influences and its no surprise they mention Hendrix, Cream and Led Zeppelin (listen to the opening track of their album, California Blues!). But theres some inspiration drawn from left field too they love the founding father of Funk, James Brown and Hip Hop artists Tribe Called Quest (while Siebes jazz roots even see him list the late Jaco Pastorius)!

Many modern bands have a throwback sound (Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, Jet Tame Impala) but with Sundown Shamans, its a little different. It honestly feels like these guys are from the late 60s and have somehow been transported forward four decades or more to create new and original 60s songs for our listening pleasure.

All three band members guitarist and vocalist David Sharp, drummer James Haindl and bass and keys player, Siebe Carl Pogson - were born in 1992. That makes them just 20. They grew up listening to their parents classic rock records from the 1960s and 1970s (The Beatles, The Who, Rolling Stones, Zeppelin, The Doors) and obviously soaked up these sounds so much, that its now as if their souls had actually lived back then and are having a hard time leaving their desire to stay in that epoch.

Why Sundown Shamans? just because we liked the sound of it, says David. But its a name that rings true. A Shaman is someone who reaches altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world. These guys do precisely that, encountering rock spirits from a bygone era and channelling them into new and excitingly original material.

The Sundown Shamans are shaped by a time when the cars were much cooler, everyone seemed to dress classier and the music was like nothing ever heard before. The past is always portrayed as being better than it was and no doubt its only a matter of time before we miss the good old days of the first decade of the 21st Century but in the meantime, Sundown Shamans allows us to reflect on wonders past, while being thankful for the gifts of the present.