With just a computer and a few instruments, many aspiring musicians have found a way to make music on their own. From artists such as Wavves and Dayglow, who have made their way into the mainstream, there is a surfeit of music coming from solo artists who write, play and produce within the four walls of their own bedrooms. Raymond Suny was one of those artists when he started The Sickly Hecks in 2018.
“I just had to DIY where I just recorded everything on one microphone in my parent’s basement. That was before I was ever plugged in with a real music scene,” Suny said. Under the name, The Sickly Hecks, Suny released the EP “Silver Tongue” in 2018, creating a baseline for what would come in the following years. Suny explained that he started The Sickly Hecks with the goal of expanding his one-man project. “I always had the intent of having a real band and having other people help out and contribute to the writing,” he said.
Surrounded by a flourishing house venue scene and a large population of young musicians in Fort Collins, Suny advertised for the band, calling on local artists to reach out if interested in joining.
“I responded to a flyer I found randomly on CSU campus. I was there late one night working on a paper and there was a really goofy flyer, and I responded to it really sarcastically and jokingly,” Steve Hartman, drummer for the band, said.
Suny and Hartman quickly bonded over the flyer and joined forces. Members Zach Visconti on bass and Oliver Mueller on guitar, connected with Suny through the Fort Collins house venue scene, and the band dove into playing and recording together.
“We’ve joked about this being a supergroup lineup because we all play in each other’s bands and support each other’s various songwriting projects in a lot of different ways which I think is pretty cool,” Visconti said of the band. He went on to add, “It’s kind of fun to play with a lot of seasoned musicians who know what they’re doing. I feel like that creates a cool synergy.”
In the few years that the band has been making music together, they have come a long way from the DIY scene of local house parties and posters taped up on college campuses. Earlier this year the band released their first full-length album, “Try and Fail.” “We got a lot more experimental. We covered a lot more ground that we don’t usually cover with tracks. I think we’re becoming more complete songwriters,” Suny said of the album.
Lyrically, the band covers a surfeit of topics in their songs, from mental health to heartbreak and all the messy parts of life ranging in between. While addressing weighty topics they never take themselves too seriously, with jokes strung into each track and a carefree overtone to their songwriting.
“Even though they tackle some heavy issues surrounding mental health, it’s also not that serious,” Suny said.
The band is diverse not only in their lyrical content but also in their style. An unfiltered rock sound is at the core of many of their songs, while more melodic choruses and elements of pop also come into play.
“One of the things that I really like about The Sickly Hecks and was drawn to in the beginning, and continue to be drawn to is the way that we put together things that are seemingly opposite, so taking something like punk music and putting it together with pop music in a way that’s not just pop-punk. And having these sorts of melodies and harmonies with dissonance as well, and writing lyrics that are seemingly light-hearted but they’re at the same time angsty and expressing sarcastically a less optimistic point of view,” Hartman said.
The band plans to continue delivering their raw energy and fresh sense of originality as they continue to play in Denver and other cities in Colorado and plan to begin writing their next album in the near future. Speaking on the aspirations of the band Suny said, “I think we’re just aiming higher, that’s really the theme of things. Bigger and better everything hopefully.”
Listen to The Sickly Hecks on Spotify and keep an eye out for upcoming shows where you can support the band.
