When Dallas-based band Sunsleep released their debut single, “Fever”, in 2017, they had planned on keeping their project as studio musicians only. As they worked with guest vocalist on the song, Devin Barrus, they soon realized that they wanted the opportunity to play these songs live as well.

They originally found Barrus through a viral YouTube video that he had uploaded for a competition and sent over what they had so far for “Fever”. He added his feature on top of their track and once it was released it gained just as much traction. Before long, they received interest from a management team and producer Erik Ron.

“He actually wanted to get the band in and do a few songs, so the rest is history from that point on,” Barrus said. “We just started hitting the ground running from there.”

Something that is unique for the band is that from the get-go they have worked remotely. Barrus lives in Utah while his bandmates - drummer Mason Croney, bassist Dylan Woods, and guitarists Miles Croney and Lance Nerio - live in Texas. They are constantly sending ideas back and forth until they’ve got a solid demo in place, then meet up in Los Angeles to complete the song with Ron.

Their latest single, “New Sensations”, was ironically the first song that they had written completely in the studio. Nearly a year ago they were in Los Angeles working on three tracks with Ron when they felt that they needed to write something then and there.

“[Ron’s] such a great producer and songwriter,” Barrus said. “He's come in after the fact and helped bring our stuff to life, so we figured it would be fun to try something from scratch. We wrote that one with him in his studio; started it on day one and jumped into post-production on everything else in the meantime. We had a good time working on that one with him.”

The track is about experiencing something for the first time and is a bit more lighthearted than what Sunsleep has put out in the past. They wanted to give it a sound that represented what they love best about summer - travelling, gaining new experiences and getting out of their comfort zone. Although a global pandemic has kept them and the rest of the world from having a true summer to remember, they hope “New Sensations” still brings some sunshine to those summer playlists.

Sunsleep may have gone from a studio band to a live band back to a studio band, but they continue to release new singles in hopes that one day soon they will be a live band once more.