Tim Hughes finds out life really is a beach for Sunset Sons after hitting the big time

Rory Williams had been banging out covers on a piano in a French bar when he met the friend who would become his bandmate in one of 2015’s hottest new acts.

Trying to eke out a living in the surfers’ hangout of Hossegor, near Biarritz, he got talking to Geordie, and like-minded soul, Jed Laidlaw, realising they shared the same loves of big music and even bigger waves.

Together with fellow surfers Pete Harper, from Australia and Rob Windram, from Surrey, they hit upon the idea of starting a band.

“I’d never played a gig in my life before,” he says. “But I sang a few songs in the bar, got talking to the owner and was allowed to play my first gig there. That was where I met the boys.

“We were all living in vans and surfing during the day, and the bar became a living room for us. We’d have croissants and coffee and wait for the waves to pick up. It was a nice little melting pot and the band started from there.”

Calling themselves The Cheerleaders, they formed with the sole intention of heading off to the Alps to indulge their other love of skiing and snowboarding, subsidising their season by playing local bars.

They teased out covers by the likes of The Who and Brice Springsteen, but also started slipping in their own tunes, which often got the best reaction. They ended up dropping the covers and sticking to their own brand of swaggering, funky, sun-soaked rock. Sunset Sons were born.

The buzz was almost instant, with a huge word-of-mouth reputation propelling them on to festival bills, including Reading and Leeds, and the BBC Sound of 2015 shortlist.

“It’s good to be in the limelight,” says Rory, who hails from Bournemouth. “And we were delighted and honoured to be on the list.”

The only problem is, with the band flying, they haven’t got time to surf. Wild shows playing their own songs in the Alps and gigs in out of the way British towns like Thurso and Penzance, being followed by the release of self-funded debut EP, Le Surfing, named after the bar where they met; 2014’s No Bad Days; and this year’s The Fall Line. An album, recorded in Nashville, is on the way.

“We haven’t been back to enjoy the sun for a while,” says Rory. “Ever since it kicked off, we’ve been in the van travelling.”

So where are they now? “On our way from Berlin to Munich,” he laughs over a particularly bad line. “Then it’s back to the UK for a bit. It’s been really good. We haven’t really known what to expect because we are playing all these new cities. It’s nice. It’s a word of mouth thing. They are intrigued to know our songs, and we are playing the best we’ve ever played. It’s all pretty relaxed but we have had our moments.”

Their sound is tight, indie-pop, but, Rory admits, is hard to sum up.

“I like the fact no one can put their finger on us,” he says. “We call ourselves a rock band, but are not really indie-rock or pop-rock.

“You have to come and see a live show to get a sense of what we are about.

“I didn’t realise how hard it would be to capture what we sound like live, in the studio. You’d think it would be easy as you can hear what we play, but it doesn’t capture that energy. There is a Sunset vibe.”

Rory laughs when he looks back at the whirlwind of the past two years, which recently saw him supporting Angus and Julia Stone to 3,000 people in Rome and double that in Paris. “That’s the biggest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” he says. And the reaction we got from those shows was amazing. It was very special – but then it’s all good.

“The choice now is between having a career in music or surfing,” he goes on. “We just want to keep it going for a while longer. There’s always time later for surfing!”

CHECK IT OUT
Sunset Sons play the O2 Academy on Wednesday, May 6. 
Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk