Published on June 17, 2009.

Although Ian Hudson (vocalist and guitarist) and Ryan Walters (guitarist) have known each other and been in bands together since middle school, their new band Sherwin Bonsoir has only been around for about one year. While they don’t classify their music as just electronic, they do think it’s about having fun. Here’s their take on things.

The State News Where did the name Sherwin Bonsoir come from?

Ryan Walters My middle name is Sherwin, named after my grandpa.

Ian Hudson We used to make movies when we lived back in Zeeland (Netherlands) — really good movies, top quality, and one of my characters’ names was Bonsoir, and so I adopted that name and we just combined them.

SN Can you describe your music?

IH All the beats right now are electronic beats so it’s actually just guitar, beats and vocals. Kind of like (an) electronic rock mixture. We don’t have a drummer so we just do what we can with computers.

SN What other bands and artists would you count among your influences?

RW Together, John Frusciante has been a big influence; he’s the guitarist from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But more importantly, it’s his solo stuff, his solo albums. Ratatat is a big influence. Mike Patton, lead singer of Faith No More, Peeping Tom, Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Fantômas, Lovage. He is the alternative rock singer that is my favorite of all time probably. So, Mike Patton and Daft Punk.

SN How did you get into electronic music?

RW Probably the biggest thing was one day I saw the Daft Punk “Alive 2007 Tour” on
YouTube of (Daft Punk) in that pyramid and how they just kind of mashed up their own songs and mixed them around. It was the first time I heard an electronic music performance that actually sounded live and not just pre-sequenced, or like something was already written and they just hit play. It sounded like a real performance and I just thought that was awesome. Then, I just started getting into all the electronic music.

IH We used to be totally only rock. At one point, we were just like ‘All (these) computer beats (are) not cool.’ Then we started opening our minds and broadening our horizons. For me, I guess it was the fact that when I would go to bars or parties, I would be just a little bit drunk and I would get into the music. The next day though, I wouldn’t think about the music I had listened to until Ryan got into electronic, and then I’d be like, ‘Wow, this stuff is good even when I’m sober. I would dance to this when I’m sober.’

SN Is it difficult to perform live since your music is electronic?

IH There have already been a bunch of road blocks with that. It’s not purely electronic. Ryan plays guitar and I play guitar too. I play decent enough drums, I used to play drums in our old band, and I drummed and sang.

RW It’s not quite as electronic as we made it sound. A lot of our songs are just drums, guitar and bass.

IH Yeah, some of them don’t even have bass. Really, what we have to do for live shows is just convert the electronic drum parts to real drum parts. It’s difficult because electronic drum parts are flawless and converting them to a real player, who especially isn’t a real drummer, is a little difficult.

RW Sometimes there are electronic drum beats that are just impossible to play on a real drum set…

SN How do you record together?

RW Basically, I record all the music myself, and then I send it over to him. He listens to it and starts thinking of some vocal stuff. Then, we meet up together and record him over the top of that.

IH That’s kind of how we always did that with our old bands. We would just get together and write a bunch of stuff and vocals would come last.

RW Once we actually live in the same town, it will actually be easier to have jam sessions and write songs together. Right now, it’s kind of like one of us will write something, and then (the rest) will just listen to that.

IH Ryan’s coming here next year so we can get stuff done much faster, but right now it’s like a trading back and forth.

SN What has been the most challenging part of being a band?

IH The hardest part is definitely the distance.

RW And finding the time.

IH Yeah, because I work full time. Also, the second hardest part is having a roommate who doesn’t want to hear you play the same song over and over again as you try to figure out what you’re going to put on it.