Van Common Looks Inward on Sunstruck
Photo Credit: Hannah Aletta
It takes a certain kind of bravery to look within ourselves in search of answers. On Sunstruck, Berlin-based Van Common does just that. The album, which wavers between electro-pop and dance music, is a think piece, in album format, on Van Common’s lived experience as he attempts to figure out where he fits into our world.
Van Common is the solo project of Dutch songwriter/producer Sebastiaan van Ravenhorst. “I picked up the guitar when I was about 10 years old, and around 14 I started playing drums as well. I made my first song in Garageband for a high school assignment when I was about 16. It was just one guitar track and one drum track recorded separately on a Zoom video recorder, later putting the two together,” he writes on his musical beginnings over email. “It didn’t really spark an interest into producing yet though, and after moving to Amsterdam I went on to play in different bands as a singer-guitarist and songwriter mostly,” van Ravenhorst explains. “ I did record my own demos in Logic for that whole time, but I didn’t finish full productions on my own. It wasn’t until I worked with Jurriaan Sielcken on my first EP that I got more intrigued by the recording aspect of music. It took the pandemic for me to fully commit to producing an album by myself. That’s when I got really into Ableton.”
The new album is van Ravenhorst’s aim at using a more electronic sound. On Sunstruck Van Common leans into synth-pop and dance music, whereas his first EP Time Is A Dream (2019) is shoegaze/dream pop-oriented. As van Ravenhorst explains, the sound was deliberate. “It actually came from a commitment to not use my guitars for a while. I wanted to get better at producing songs solely my laptop, because I really liked the idea of being able to make music while travelling without any gear. It definitely slowed down my process a lot.” Van Ravenhorst wrote, recorded and mixed the majority of the album on his own in an Amsterdam houseboat. “In the beginning I was mostly encountering technical and motivational obstacles because I had no idea what I was doing” he writes. “When I was a bit further along the way, I think my biggest challenge was avoiding overproducing during the mixing phase.”
Before starting the album, van Ravenhorst set limitations–BPM, instrumentation and arrangements–which he ultimately threw out the window, he tells us. “I think at some point I just had to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t going to be perfect. From that position it was a bit easier to let go of the rules that I set for myself, which were useful to get me started but did start to imprison me in a sense. The songs I’m working on tend to sound much better in my head than how they eventually turn out when they’re done. Every new thing I start has this infinite potential to become the perfect song, but in the end it will always turn out into something that sounds like me, and then it takes me a while to accept that.”
The album is a cohesive work that was influenced by a multitude of artists ranging from indie-pop to dance/electronic. “I’d say there were a few particular albums: Porches - Ricky Music, Paradis - self-titled, Porter Robinson’s - Nurture and Tirzah - Devotion,” he writes on his influences for the record. “I also really opened up to instrumental music for the first time during the recording of the album, and got really into Gigi Masin, Geotic, and dance/club music in general.”
Working alone on Sunstruck, one would imagine that Van Common is comfortable with solitude. In fact, the song “Athens,” speaks to that. “I think I needed to make this album the way that I did before being able to collaborate more freely again. A nice exception to the rule was ‘Athens’, a song I did with my friend Tom Meijer. That one happened quite naturally. We just got together one day and came up with the drumbeat and synth bass pretty much instantly. I was playing his acoustic guitar just to figure out some chords, and he insisted on recording what I was playing, even though I still this idea that I shouldn’t have guitars on the album. I’m happy he recorded it then though!” On working with other artists, Van Common writes, “A few dream collaborations that come to mind are with Bullion (Nathan Jenkins), Rostam and Daniel Avery.”
At times, Van Common is optimistic. On the electro-pop track “Adore,” (think Swede pop star Robyn’s electropop hit “Dancing on my Own”) Van Common expresses being reignited by the sun. Other times, like on the indie-pop “Sunstruck,” he reminds us that our time is limited and that our use of that time is a reflection of our true selves. Throughout the album, a collection of meditative voice memos remind us to be kinder, to be more concerned with how we’ll be remembered. On “Eclipse,” he uses vocal sampling and manipulation to recreate the sonic landscapes of dark club, one of the best spaces in which we can lose ourselves. On “Mercury,” Van Common dives into micro-house, lyrically exploring interpersonal relationships. “Mercury I feel is the only song on the record where I managed to tick all the boxes that I initially set for myself in terms of production and songwriting. It’s one of the few that I think you can actually dance to. It’s about having a connection with someone that seems to be criticized by the people around you.”
When asked about translating the album to a live setting, van Ravenhorst comments, “I played the first live show in a long time with my band last May in Amsterdam to celebrate the release of the album. I tried to make a really compact hybrid set-up for this: my drummer plays an SPD triggering samples through midi from my Ableton session, while me and my bass player are both plugged into a UAD interface using the virtual Fender and Ampeg plug-ins. My vocal and guitar effects + the stereo tracks are also sent from my laptop. It’s also really convenient to have a steady monitor mix ready everywhere you go,” he explains. “For the rest of this year, I will mostly be focussing on recording and releasing new music, and hopefully experiment with some solo shows now that I’m back in Berlin.”
Van Common notes how much making Sunstruck was influenced by his own personal journey of being a kinder person. He comments, “I do feel I hear a certain amount of urgency and struggle listening through the album.” He expounds, “It was a long road to the finish line, and especially being stuck in my house for as long as the rest of the world was too, I really had to look even more inward which I already have the tendency to do a bit too much sometimes. I feel like it translated into sounds that are relatively ‘loud’ and forceful. But it’s hard for me to say at this point, honestly.”
Sunstruck never pushes us to feel or think a certain way. Instead, it gently asks us to consider our impact on ourselves and others. “I don’t really have a singular meaning or thought I want people to walk away with, but I would hope someone who finishes listening to the album feels hopeful about where they are in life.”
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