After bonding over a soundbath at The Integratron in Joshua Tree, Jamie and Deborah found they shared a love of weird sounds, magic houses, Pegasus and bacon. Compelled by visions of what a composer and journalist could create together, they joined forces with songwriter WAZ and started a band. It was a moment of truth when Paul McCartney's instrumental, Hot As Sun, came on during a vinyl listening session at Jim McBride's Desert Casa : They'd found their name. The rest was soon to follow. Read More...
After bonding over a soundbath at The Integratron in Joshua Tree, Jamie and Deborah found they shared a love of weird sounds, magic houses, Pegasus and bacon. Compelled by visions of what a composer and journalist could create together, they joined forces with songwriter WAZ and started a band. It was a moment of truth when Paul McCartney’s instrumental, Hot As Sun, came on during a vinyl listening session at Jim McBride’s Desert Casa : They’d found their name. The rest was soon to follow.
Back in LA, while writing on her omnichord and experimenting with layered vocals, Jamie and WAZ started recording. Meanwhile, Deborah scribbled away on stickie notes and drew animated characters for a music video. In a few short weeks, the four tracks that would become Hot As Sun were born.
“As I was recording, I was discovering the sounds of Hot As Sun,” explains Jamie, whose first experience in the music industry was working at Jimi Hendrix’s legendary Electric Lady Studios in NYC. Artists like Radiohead, Patti Smith, Ric Ocasek, and D’Angelo were coming thru, and it was during this time Jamie embraced the art of making records.
“When we first started writing together there weren’t many lyrics,” remembers Deborah, who at the time had her own column in the LA Weekly and was publishing her short stories in literary journals. “She just kind of hummed weird sounds and stuff so I approximated what I thought she was saying and made lyrics out of that.”
Their self-released EP’s blissed-out atmospherics and jagged hooks immediately set the critics buzzing, with spins on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic, and glowing reviews from taste-makers like Buzzbands, Billboard, LA Time’s Brand X, and My Old Kentucky Blog.
The band’s pop art aesthetic earned them slots playing events like Art Basel in Miami, Peter Tunney’s gallery opening in NYC, Concept LA Fashion Week at Ace Gallery, and an underground pool party with water ballet troupe, The Aqualillies. They opened for bands like Gotye, Foster the People, Phantogram, and Active Child.
Hot As Sun is now signed with Last Gang Records (Metric, Crystal Castles, DFA79). Their forthcoming debut album, Night Time Sound Desire, was written and recorded in their Glassell Park basement with Jamie at the helm as producer.
With a mystery box of influences – from the pop stylings of The Chordettes, to the subversive jangles of Harry Nilsson, hip-hop beat nods to the Beastie Boys and Jamie’s gospel roots in Mississippi – Hot As Sun has created an electro psych-pop sound via Spector, that is distinctly all their own.
Hot As Sun is:
Jamie Jackson: singer/songwriter/composer
Deborah Stoll: lyricist/megaphonist/visual artist
WAZ: songwriter/guitarist
