For the better part of a decade, Chicago singer-songwriter Ryan “Hoagie” Wesley Ensley has been performing under the moniker Sonny Falls, creating a distinctly rough around the edges blend of Midwestern alternative rock. On March 1, he released Sonny Falls, the project’s fourth full-length album, via the record label East Libraries. It marks an ambitious new chapter for the group.
On the album, Ensley teamed up once again with his longtime collaborator Michael “Mac” Macdonald (Mia Joy, Tasha, Tenci), after collaborating with a different engineer at another studio for his 2020 double album All That Has Come Apart/Once Did Not Exist. However, he wanted to flip that script on its head.
“I had just been working on it for about a year before that, and that was a really long 16-song, big project,” says Ensley. “So, with this one, I wanted to make something that was a little bit more concise and less grandiose, in terms of I wanted to make a perfect ten song record. So, I was trying to make something concise and very listenable and just kind of experimenting a little bit more with the studio stuff. And utilizing the studio in a way that looked maybe a little bit different than before.”
For some of the songs, he initially didn’t have the “typical band set up where you go in and play with the band.” Songs, like “Night Scene” for instance, came together completely in the studio.
“Dealing with not having a band set up was fun and different, because I’d never done that,” says Ensley. “Usually, I would have a band come in and lay down the bones of a song or whatever…I played some drums and stuff, and I had never played drums on anything.”
That process allowed each song to come together very naturally. Once with a band, Ensley decided on a song-by-song basis where to go sonically with it, so that songs would “just kind of pop naturally.” That led to different a variety of song styles.
“Michael and I would just kind of take it song by song and be like, ‘all right, this one starts off on acoustic guitar and then we can deconstruct it and add drums afterwards’ and stuff like that,” says Ensley. “It was a fun process of thinking how to present the song in the best way based on what we had at our disposal, which was sometimes I would play drums or maybe we just used shakers or something, just because there wasn’t always a band set up in the beginning of the process.”
Scummy Water Tower caught up with Ensley to discuss his journey creating the new album and how it helped him expand his musical boundaries.
What music have you been into a lot the past year or so?
I just finished listening to Thurston Moore’s autobiography. I listened to him narrate that whole book. It’s free on Spotify, so it was cool, and it was really long. It took a few weeks to get through, so I would kind of take breaks and as he was talking about making each record for Sonic Youth, I went through the catalog a little bit, revisited all the Sonic Youth stuff, and so I got really into that. Lately, I’ve been listening to Guided by Voices a lot as well. Got really into Bee Thousand. I’m super into that. Let’s see, some newer bands or artists, Katy Kirby, I liked her new record quite a bit. Christian Hudson’s great.
Did those influences have a significant impact on the new album?
Yeah, a little bit. 2021 was kind of the beginning of the process. It was probably the biggest year for writing. I probably got most of the writing done for this record in that year. So, probably not Sonic Youth. Guided by Voices and Sonic Youth is probably going to inform the next record more. Sometimes when I’m writing a lot, I don’t listen to a lot of music, or I’ll listen to jazz and stuff just because I need to hear stuff that doesn’t have words or just to clear my head and stuff. I listen to jazz podcasts and books and stuff probably a lot more than I did music writing.
What got the ball rolling for the writing of the album?
Not to get super into Covid bullshit or whatever. But my buddy Michael Mac, and I went to his studio [during that time]. He wasn’t really having people go into the studio and stuff because everything was weird. He and I kind of just had a little bubble where I wasn’t doing much outside of going to work. So, him and I just started just hanging out recording and working on stuff just because we just spent a lot of time experimenting in the studio because we didn’t have anything else to do, really, other than me going to work. He gave me a deal just because no one else was coming in. He just gave me a deal and let us just experiment and mess around, and it was just a way to have fun and kill time when everyone was at home. That’s how it started.
The world opened back up, things got normal again, and then I was able to start figuring out about recording and playing live. Some of the record became more of a full band process where I would show them some of the demos and stuff I had. We recreated them and some of the stuff got rerecorded. So, kind of a piecemeal process of studio experimenting and then bringing in a band and kind of messing around from there.
Your previous album was a double album that has a mix of louder and acoustic oriented songs, and it seems like you kind of continued a little bit of that on this one.
Yeah, for sure. I guess the process wasn’t that much different. I guess now that I’m thinking about it, I mean the goal is just to try to make something that was more concise, I guess, just to pare it down. I’m glad that I did the double record, but it’s not exactly digestible for a developing project…It was a challenge to make a record that was just about a half an hour long where it was just trying to make a tighter, more concise album than I had before.
How would you describe the sound on the new album?
I guess songwriter oriented, orchestrated rock or pop or rock, experimental rock.
This album is your fourth album. How has being a kind of prolific writer helped you grow as a songwriter?
I think just the more stuff that you make, regardless of what the medium is. If you’re a songwriter, a painter or sculptor or writer, anything, the more you produce, the more you learn. That’s part of why it’s so fun is that it’s just a constant learning process and just something that you can always get better at. I just keep learning. Every time you write a line or a chord progression or anything, you’re kind of expanding on what you knew before. It’s a fun process and just always learning stuff, every new song.
By attempting to be prolific, you’re just always trying to grow and write something more interesting. And sometimes you have to write stuff that sometimes you have to write. I have been trying to write songs that are not as, I guess, picked over or thought about. I’m trying to write more and allow myself to write stuff that maybe I would be critical of before, but I’m trying to just write as much as I can, because sometimes you need to write five bad songs to find the good one, and then what you think is bad is actually good and you’re just being overly critical. But I think it’s just important to try and finish every one and then just let it lead you to the next song. It feels very linear in a weird way.
How did you originally come up with the band’s name?
I think everyone just sort of hates naming bands. It just feels hard, and it feels like a big deal when you’re trying to think of something and then the name itself at a certain point just becomes a sound. It’s like no one really gives much thought to Green Day being called Green Day. It’s just syllables that represent this iconic rock institution band thing. So, I was struggling to think of something, and I knew with this project, I wanted the freedom to be a little bit more distinct, like my songwriting project. I had been in bands with more classic style lineups before, and so with this project, I wanted something that was just more distinctly my own, but I didn’t want to go with my own name.
So, it just popped in my head as it sort of sounds like maybe it could be a stage name or a moniker, but then it could just be a band name. So, I sort of like the ambiguity of it. It just kind of popped into my head and I was like, “all right, well, that doesn’t necessarily sound like a guy’s name, but it also could be understood that way.” It bridged the gap of not using my own name, but then also it could be a band, it could be just one guy. And then the ability to have on a little mini album I put out in 2022, I called it Sonny Falls and The Natural Action was that lineup. So, if I ever play with those guys again, it sort of has the ability to be like Elvis Castello and the Attractions. It allows me a little bit of leniency in being able to do that kind of thing, as well as just keeping it a name.
You’ve been collaborating with Michael for a while. How do you think you were able to push each other this time that you hadn’t as much on previous efforts?
We’ve been working together since we were 19, now we’re both 32. I think that we just naturally have learned more about each other’s craft. Michael continued growing as an engineer, and I’m hopefully growing as a songwriter, and so it is pretty natural in just keeping each other interested in making music. I took a break from making a record with him just for one of them. And then it’s kind of like every other album I’ve gone back to [work with] him. So yeah, just kind of a natural thing where I come back to him with new stuff and then we were able to naturally collaborate just because we each kind of have grown in our own thing and being producer and engineering stuff.
I think when you work with someone for that long, we’re comfortable saying if we think something sucks. With others I’m getting to know I might not be as direct if I think something isn’t as good. I don’t want them to think I’m an asshole or whatever. With him, there’s an understanding. We’re friends first, and so we’re able to talk freely about how we really feel, and there’s no cushioning. We’re able to just be very comfortable saying if we think something’s a good idea or what to follow, and we trust each other’s instinct most of the time. Just kind of a natural evolution of working with someone creatively for 13 years or something.
Some of the album’s lyrics capture some of the tension between past, present and future. What was your goal with that theme?
I think the tension being just trying to, everyone has their own path of where they think they’re going to end up in life and where they’re at and where they’re going. So, I just kind of mean turning 30 isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s not the first milestone, I guess, being like, “all right, feel, I guess I’m a real adult now.” It is just kind of reconciling the past and the future and just the tension is finding yourself in the moment and trying to sit with that and be comfortable with it so that you can forge ahead and keep building a positive future.
What were the inspirations for the songs “Dystopian Dracula” and “Going Nowhere”?
“Dystopia Dracula” is pretty autobiographical, kind of the beginning of the record kind of thing where I’m just talking about pursuing music at a young age. It’s just a pretty linear story of just some memories of first trying it out and questioning the path as it opens up. And then I think at the end it just kind of resolves in saying that you’re compelled to do something and for better or worse, you’re going to do it.
And then “Going Nowhere” is kind of the other side of the coin of that. And the idea of going nowhere is a little bit can go either way. And its interpretation. The idea being that going nowhere is a good thing. I’m trying to stay grounded. I’m trying to not be worried about where you’re going in life as much as just, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going nowhere. I’m right here, I’m in the present.
What was one of the biggest surprises in the making of the album?
I would say probably a few of the songs turning out to be not what I thought they were. There were a few songs where I thought that they were done, and then when I met up with a full band in the middle of making it, I realized that it would actually sound really cool to re-record those songs as a live band instead of a studio interpretation. So, was cool to be like, “oh, I love that kind of first version, but I want the full band to be the kind of official album version.” And then now for the first time, I have these extra songs that I’ll be able to put out down the road that are different versions, I guess you’d say demos, but I think of them as just alternate versions of the album stuff. That was cool just to understand that a song can end up, it just goes anywhere. It turns into anything. You never know. You can just keep thinking about it, keep changing stuff. So yeah, that was cool. That was exciting.
Why did you decide to self-title this one?
I think because I was just trying to make a very concise record. The mini album in ‘22 I don’t know if that’s technically a full-length, but in my mind, this is kind of like the third full length. It just felt like a natural thing. I felt like my voice as a songwriter is sharp, pretty sharp here. It’s the most sharp it’s been. It was a long process and I’m coming up on seven years of doing this project. It just felt good. I’ve never put myself on an album cover before and I really liked that photo. It just felt fitting to just do it. I don’t know when else I would do it, so yeah, it just felt fitting, just natural. I told everyone else, and they were like, “yeah, that makes sense.”
What are you most looking forward to in the year ahead?
Well, it took a long time to finish this record, and so I’m excited to just kind of have it done and have it out and just have it completed. I feel good and, honestly, I’m grateful that I have this cool label Earth Libraries to work with, and they will put out the next album as well, which I’m writing, and I’m excited just to continue writing the next record and figure out that process. My favorite part is the writing and recording and hanging out with people and figuring out how to translate. I usually start stuff on acoustic guitar, so yeah, I’m just excited to collaborate on new material. It’s just been a long time since I’ve had a clean slate where I’m not thinking about this record anymore because I’ve been thinking about it for four years and I’m ready to see what is going to be written next, and I already have a bunch of shit for the next record that I think is exciting.
Do you think it’ll be a kind of continuation of what you did on this one, or do you think it’ll be a different direction?
I think in some ways it’ll be just continuing to find and sharpen my voice as writer and guitar player and just sharpen the collaboration of the people that I’m working with. And now that I’ve spent so long making a record, which I love doing, I sort of want to go back to what I did before and write a bunch of songs. Yeah, it’ll be a continuation for sure. While being just naturally just trying to get better at writing and collaborating with people.
You can listen to and find more about Sonny Falls via Bandcamp, Facebook and Instagram.
Joshua is co-founder of Scummy Water Tower. He’s freelanced for a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites, including: Rolling Stone, The Boston Globe, Chicago Sun-Times, Guitar World, MTV News, Grammy.com, Chicago Magazine, Milwaukee Magazine, MKE Lifestyle, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, A.V. Club, SPIN, Alternative Press, Under the Radar, Paste, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and Relix. You can email him at josh@scummywatertower.com.
