Quinn Sullivan (Used with permission)
By Noah Wade
In the two-and-a-half years since Quinn Sullivan’s last interview with The Strange Brew, the young guitar prodigy has toured himself, and his 2021 album Wide Awake, into the ground. He has also lived a lot of life off the stage, experiencing major hardships and discovering the beautiful things life has to offer.
Onstage, he has a rotating group of gifted musicians tasked with following his unpredictable yet refined nature, including Kyle Spark, his top-notch MA-based bass player and Bennett Vee, the sought-after Minneapolis-based drummer who regularly flies over to the northeast for gigs. He is occasionally joined by a support act, such as the exuberant vocalist and keyboardist Veronica Lewis, or the standout throwback soul artist Shane Guerrette.
His new single “Salvation (Make Me Wanna Pray)” is out now ahead of a new record out later this year, and he recently unveiled other potential album cuts “Dark Love,” “Better in Love,” and “Don’t Wanna Die Today” at shows in Marlboro, NY and his sold out, standing room only end-of-year hometown showcase in Fall River, MA just a few weeks ago.
In this candid conversation (which took place in December, before the announcement of “Dark Love”), Sullivan opened up about his onstage mannerisms, new music, and more.
Take me into your line of sight when you’re onstage. There all these things that happen onstage that the audience doesn’t see, but that only you see and know about as the performer. How is the relationship between bandmates formed and how are those things communicated?
I started playing with my keyboard player, Chris, when I was 18 and he was 23-24. I think when you know and hang out with someone for a long time, it starts to seep into the show and the music. The other guys I began to play with a year or two after that. I’m very lucky that I get to play with really talented musicians… I think it’s crucial for what I do. I heard someone say one time that you want to be playing with people who are, quote on quote, ‘better than you’ in some way… because it makes you better. When everyone onstage is playing to the best of their ability and giving it 100%, it makes you shine.
It’s a lot of natural stuff that happens onstage. It’s always rehearsed… but a lot of what you see onstage is very spontaneous and in the moment. When we get into the jams… we kind of know where we’re going to go, but at the same time, we don’t. That’s the fun part of it. You just have to know how to get out of it when you’re in the middle of that. I could never do a show that I don’t do some sort of improvisation on. I think it’d be super boring. I don’t make records that jam for hours… but, what I love about the live show is that I get to do that. I get to mix that into the music that I’m recording and making and putting out to the people live, but in a different way.
At Sullivan’s co-headline set at New Bedford, MA’s Feast of the Blessed Sacrament Festival this past summer, he played an impressive extended version of Wide Awake cut “Real Thing,” which did not appear on other setlists throughout the year. He closed certain shows in 2023 with a mashup of Elton John’s “Saturday Nights Alright For Fighting” with Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69,” but would opt for his tune “In A World Without You” on other occasions. His trio set at Amagansett NY’s prolific Stephen Talkhouse in May 2022 featured four consecutive covers by artists such as Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix. He is, if nothing else, always unpredictable.
I remember specific performances of certain songs. For you, it’s work. For me, I’m sitting there like, ‘Ok, he’s locked in. I’m locked in.’ You go into that mode.
People that come out to a lot of shows that you see out in the crowd, you start to pick up on that kind of stuff. Seeing similar faces and you think, ‘I’ve seen them out a million times before.’ It really keeps you going when you’re at your lowest points. Especially in the music industry, it’s a common thing to doubt yourself. To be like, ‘What am I doing? Why didn’t I just go get a normal job and do the normal thing?’ Moments like that make me realize I’m doing the right thing. That I’m on the right path.
When you have your foot on an amp and your hair is whipping and your eyes are closed, what are you seeing or feeling in those moments?
I wish I had a cool answer for that. I’ve heard some people say, ‘I see color’ or ‘I see different shapes,’ but I don’t see any of that. What I’m doing is I’m listening to everyone onstage. I think when you’re in a band setting… you’re just trying to compliment everyone onstage and play off of each other. That’s kind of the goal of what you’re trying to do. To have it be a collective instead of it just being me out there with the band behind me.
As far as this last album goes, sometimes it’s like crickets. The people that are there want to see you play covers. They want to see you play the blues. Is it ever disheartening when you’re up there playing your stuff and it doesn’t get the reception you think it should get?
It used to bother me a lot more than it does now. I think if the music is good, one way or another, someone will dig it and appreciate it. It’s definitely knowing your audience. I come from a very old school kind of music being so highly mixed in with Buddy Guy for 10 years. That was such a great experience… it’s a huge reason why I’m where I am today. What comes with that is that now you have a bunch of people who expect something from you. Who expect only one thing. A lot of people who love blues and jazz are purists to that genre. Same for country and hip-hop… who don’t listen to anything else. The kind of music I’ve always thought I play is music that is genre-less. It’s not straight blues, it’s not straight pop, it’s somewhere between that.
You’re also 24-years-old. Why should you be making an album of 10 songs that sound like “The Thrill Is Gone”? You’re young, with the skillset of someone much older, but you have to find the balance.
I try. I love pop and I’ve always loved pop. I was on the road with Buddy Guy when I was 11, but I was still listening to the Jonas Brothers. I was still listening to Taylor Swift. Everything for me has always been good music or bad music. I don’t really look at it in a genre sense. I’ve learned that, from being in this music business, there is a business side of things. They still have to put you somewhere. Someone from my label said ‘The public doesn’t know where to put you. The people don’t know what to call you, and you have to find that.’ At first, that was something I was kind of mad about. Then I thought about it and thought there might be a point to that, but I’m still going to do what I do.
You’ve got a new lead single out… “Salvation (Make Me Wanna Pray).” What went into the decision to put “Salvation…” out first, even though you’ve been playing “Dark Love” for a while?
From a musical standpoint, we were just playing “Dark Love.” It’s going to be a single, but it hasn’t yet come out. It just felt right to start playing new music. When you’re testing these songs out… you’re seeing what’s working and what’s not. “Salvation…” was one that we finished, and I was like, ‘This rocks.” I don’t have to think much about it, I just love it. It’s the most in your face lyric and music.
“Salvation…” is the first of a batch of new tunes to come from Sullivan after a dark period, and has a multitude of meanings.
It’s my personality to be optimistic. I was raised that way. I think when it comes to my music, that’s where I go. I may write a sad song, but there’s always a happy ending. I mask my real emotions through song. Through trying to make art that makes people feel good. That is what “Salvation…” is.
In order to both amp up the storytelling in his music and expand his creative output, a number of Sullivan’s songs, including “Salvation…” in its own way, showcase a bit of dramatic flair. “She’s So Irresistible,” off Wide Awake, is a perfect example: “She’s just livin’ in a suitcase/ Showin’ up to my place sippin’ on a candy cane/ Kisses sweeter than a Sunday/ Tellin’ me that one day I may even know her name.”
You do this alter-ego thing in your lyrics. It’s like you’re playing a character. Do you go into a studio with the idea that you’re going to do that?
I don’t really write songs about people. Most of the songs aren’t about anybody. I’m not inauthentic about it. When I finish a song, I think, ‘Is this me?’ But then I think, ‘Well, if this is another character, it doesn’t have to be about me. It could just be something that I’m portraying.’ In ‘Salvation…,’ when I say it’s a character being portrayed, I’m portraying this really confident guy who gets this girl. It’s fun to build a character around who you really are.
What else can we expect from this album?
It’s just me on this record. I didn’t hear anyone else on any of these songs. I think because they’re so personal to me. I’ve been working on this new album for the last year… and it’s a collection of songs that, to me, really represent me as an artist now. It’s probably the most cohesive record I’ve ever made. I think every song belongs on the album.
Do you want to sort of ‘graduate’ to a new level with this record?
I want to be selling lots of tickets… and turn more and more people onto my music. Everyone wants a hit, but you can’t live your career as that. People don’t really know why hits are hits, they’re just hits. You have to appeal in the first 20-30 seconds to get somebodies attention who may not know you. There are all of these things to stress about… but at the end of the day, I’m an artist. This is what I signed up for.
How do you, realistically, want to be looked at at this point in your career? What are the conversations you have with yourself and the people around you about that?
I think there’s a lot of great things about being a young artist… coming onto the scene at nine-years-old. There’s also a lot of bad things about it. I always want to answer this without sounding ungrateful. There was a point in 2018 where I wanted to do something else, and the people around me didn’t. They wanted me to work with the same people… make the same music… not grow… not find myself. To say that to an 18-year-old is not fair. But, I think with every hard thing you go through in life, you get stronger through them. I’ve gotten a hell of a lot stronger than I was through those experiences.
I was talking to Carlos Santana about this. His thing is, ‘Expand, extend, and transcend.’ What he means is don’t let somebody put you in a box artistically and creatively. Whenever I’ve done these big things throughout my life, they were always very spaced out. It’s a big deal to do those things, but now I’m 24 and I never think about those times in my life. I’m always in the moment, and I think that’s a good way to be.
Further information
Quinn Sullivan’s album Wide Awake is available on CD, LP, and digitally on: https://lnk.to/QuinnSullivan
Stream Sullivan’s latest release “Salvation (Make Me Wanna Pray): Spotify
More information can be found at:
quinnsullivanmusic.com
