With so many other musicians, Sunday Scaries, an EDM band based in Oxford and Los Angeles, has cancelled or rescheduled shows because of the dangers caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ole Miss student and musician Will Ezell now works virtually with Alex Hein, a student at the University of Southern California, to work on their music. Previously, the duo flew back and forth to work together in person to produce, but now, their process is solely virtual.
Ezell said that though many things have been canceled or postponed, it has allowed him and Hein more time to work on new music together.
“Alex being all the way out in L.A. definitely comes with its challenges, but we’ve figured out a system that works well for us,” Ezell said. “In spite of the fact that we can no longer fly back and forth to work face to face, we make the time to work together via Skype.”
Ezell said that a lot of their work can be shared online, and they can progress their music through video chatting and screen sharing.
“We can actually produce together and write songs together and just catch up on whatever thing we need to catch up on and see each other’s screens,” Ezell said. “There’s some kind of software that allows me to hear his computer out of my speakers. So it’s like we’re kind of in the same room.”
Ezell and Hein originally met over the internet. Ezell said he liked Hein’s style of production and he messaged him. Two weeks later, Hein traveled to Ezell’s home in Nashville and started working on their first release “Cali Girls,” which came out in December.
Ezell became interested in music after moving to Nashville when he was younger and said he felt lucky to have a town that produced a plethora of genres.
“There’s always a concert every night,” Ezell said. “So I always had the option to go see something, my taste of music just grew exponentially.”
After he saw The Chainsmokers perform, Ezell became interested in DJing. He became a DJ for weddings and parties and started creating music under a solo name. Before he and Hein created Sunday Scaries, Ezell started performing around Oxford at frat parties and festivals in Nashville.
“I reached out to Alex and now we’re like starting something completely new,” Ezell said. “So I’m having to dive all into that right now, which is awesome.”
With most of their music being generated by computers, they sometimes ask for additional sounds from friends who play other instruments for recordings. Ezell said their sound can range from pop to R&B to even a subclass of EDM called “future bass.”
“(Hein will) start making melodies, and then we’ll start collaborating, and before we know it, we have got a little bit of something put together,” Ezell said. “We’ll start trying to write a little bit or meet with another writer and start trying to find singers, and then it slowly comes together.”
With the band’s music being very specific, Ezell spoke about how sometimes finding musicians that compliment their sound can be difficult.
“Some of the problems you run into is like, we’ll find a singer that (we) spent so much time with,” Ezell said. “And then we get it back and it just doesn’t fit. They can have the best voice in the world that just doesn’t fit perfectly. So that’s the kind of little challenges we run into sometimes, but that’s with anybody.”
With public health safety concerns, Ezell said he hopes that a cure is found for the virus. In the meantime, Sunday Scaries is continuing to work on their music.
“As far as the music goes, our plan is to continue to make music that people enjoy and we’re excited to see where it’ll take us,” Ezell said.
