NEW SUN plays a nervous, shivering and varied Progressive hard rock which goes beyond classical schemes and stereotypes of this style. Expectations features a number of guest players on bass, violin, piano & voices / vocals. This music can be defined as melodic Progressive rock and includes a restless rhythm section, pulsing and airy solos, sometimes in the YES way. The band hints at traces of KING CRIMSON & KING X styles while still keeping a spacerock sound. They clearly have their own sound.

I got in touch with the band and Chris Cooper answered my questions.

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When and by whom was your band born ? Did any of you, past and present members, play in any other bands before joining up in your band ? Which bands were you influenced by ?

Doug Erickson and Christopher Scott Cooper were introduced by a mutual friend in 1991 and found common musical interest. Thus was born New Sun. In 1993 Alex Kley(bass) and Scott Landucci(drums) answered an ad in BAM magazine and joined. 1994 saw Landucci leave and Alex brought in Chris Trujillo and that has been the rhythm section lineup ever since. 2 CDs were released with this lineup 1995 "Fractured" and 1998 "Affects". After "Affect's" release Doug left to work on Fripp's Guitar Craft and the remaining 3 continued with the 3rd CD "Expectations". From 2002 to 2008 the band took an extended hiatus. 2008 saw work on 4 songs begin and in 2009 Chris Elio was asked to join on lead vocals after CSC saw him at a venue fronting a cover band. Work on the forthcoming 4th CD "Damage Done" began in earnest. This album will be released in January 2012.

Over to your albums. Your debut album was the Fractured album from 1995. Please tell us more about this album.

In essence this was one of my first full album project as a young engineer and was done to lay down where we were at the time musically. We weren't sure how long New Sun was going to exist. DL Erickson and CSC wrote the majority of the material, with Kley and Tru filling out the rhythm components.

The follow up album was Affects from 1998. Please tell us more about this album.

Your third album is the Expectations album from 2001. Please tell us more about this album.

After touring the West Coast of US and playing many shows in support of Affects, Doug decided to leave the group to persue his interest in Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft. After a brief hiatus, Tru and CSC began writing new material and 2000 Kley rejoined and the recording began on what would become Expectations. As a trio now, the band took a different tact in both sound and composition. Tru shared lead vocal duties with CSC and both worked harder on harmonies. And for the first time CSC was not the sole lyricist. Tru wrote several tunes and Kley contributed more to the arrangements. Tru and CSC challenged themselves more as players. This album also saw CSC take a more 70's approach to recording and mixing. Overall the sound got heavier and more aggressive.

We heard nothing about your band for many years. What were you guys up to ?

After Expectations the band members all had other areas of interest become their focus. CSC's engineering/producing career took off and resulted in his building a studio to continue his work in (Blue Seven Audio). Even though there were no formal rehearsals, Tru and CSC continued writing and playing together till 2008 when Alex rejoined the writing sessions the New Sun started up in earnest again. Chris Elio joined in late 2009, which changed the focus and direction of the new songs, stalling the release of the new material till the new dynamic had settled down.

A new album has been announced and a release gig was announced for two months ago. That's all I know so please enlighten us about album title, music and all the good news.

The 4th CD will be officially released in January, but a 4 song EP was released at our CD release show on 11/11/11. The album will be titled Damage Done, has 7 tracks and a total running time of 54 minutes.