Brandon Sammons 19 Vocals/Guitar Mike Evans 21 Guitar/Vocals TJ Matthews 20 Bass Jaime Gehly 20 Drums
Sunset Black: the heaviest EMO band in the world? Emotionally gut wrenching stories encircled by raw aggression. Like Dashboard meets the Deftones. Intensely focused and real, they come from Minneapolis, the same hometown of Semisonic and Prince, except these guys have no idea when 'Closing Time' is, and the only thing purple about them are bruises left from their relentless, driving performances.
Formed in Kansas City MO. in 1998, they met while in high school and began to perform at the local Kansas City venues. In August of 1999 Sunset Black made the decision to move to Minneapolis. They took the local scene by storm and one year later Sunset Black were sharing stages with bands such as Linkin Park, Staind, Fear Factory, System Of A Down, Nickleback, Fuel, C.O.C and more.
"I was 17 when I dropped out," Brandon says. "The four of us packed up and moved to Minneapolis. It was the most growing I'd ever done as a person. I had a lot of temp jobs and I did a lot of couch surfing. At one point I was actually paying $100 a month to live in somebody's walk-in closet. We were playing three or four shows a week. We became each other's best friends.²
Sunset Black's big break came with a battle of the bands contest sponsored by Minneapolis' 93X. The winner would get to play at the station's X-Fest concert in front of 30,000 people. The X-Fest bill included the fast-rising,hard-hitting Florida band Nonpoint.
Discovered by Nonpoint, the band was brought to the attention of Bieler Bros/MCA. Nonpoint's guitarist Andrew Goldman went into the studio as producer with Sunset Black and emerged with 'Common Ground.' Upon completion of the record they kicked off the year with yet another appearance at 93X-FEST in Minneapolis and shortly thereafter headed out for a series of dates supporting their friends Nonpoint.
This kind of relentless touring should help propel Sunset Black towards their ultimate goal of sharing their music with as many people as possible. The band has also amassed a huge, close-knit family through emails, street teaming, and their website.
Their music is emotional, inspirational, passionate and real. There are no games or gimmicks, only four individuals pouring every ounce of heart and soul into their music, their fans and their life. Common Ground hits stores on August 27th.
