Rising Southern California rock band Sun Room have made a wave for themselves by refusing to leave their hot, dingy garage. Inspired by the house party concerts they grew up attending, the Southern California trio–Luke Asgian (vocals, guitar), Ashton Minnich (guitar), and Max Pinamonti (bass)–went from humble jam sessions to sold out shows in a hurry with their raw, rambunctious 60s garage rock sound whose records feel like a live, cramped, might-get-the-cops-called-on-us show.  

After a series of unexpected viral moments and two song placements on the hit Netflix series Outer Banks, Sun Room went from playing backyard gatherings to sold-out venues across the world in a matter of months–supporting Louis‬‭ Tomlinson’s‬‭ North‬‭ and South American tours as well as Dublin rock band Inhaler‬‭ in Europe.‬ The band went on to release their breakout EP, At Least I Tried–produced by Fidlar’s Zac Carper, one of the band’s biggest influences coming up in the California garage rock scene.

Despite their sudden rise, the band has grown a loyal fanbase by staying true to their DIY roots: recording their music during live sessions that leave all the beautiful imperfections in place and is perfect for a raucous, live setting.

“We try to record everything as live as we can, which I feel like people can hear and grasp onto just because everything is so edited these days in terms of recording,” says Asgian. “Everything’s to a grid and everything’s auto-tuned. But we just kind of track it how it is, live. If you pay really close attention, there’s little mess ups in it. I think a lot of people latch on to that because it’s something very different from what’s happening in the music world right now, where there’s, like, AI stuff and everything’s just very overproduced. I think people miss that and that’s why people love old music: because it’s not recorded like that; it’s not perfect.”

Coming off a 30-city headlining run and a festival circuit in North America and Australia, Sun Room came home reinvigorated to focus solely on the music they enjoyed jamming to and performing without regard for subgenre or sound. Their new EP, Can’t Explain, is a 4-track escapade into various influences from blues-rock, shoegaze, and post-punk revival centered around the rowdy, raw energy of a garage concert.

“I grew up in Long Beach, there were just so many garage rock bands–kids, 14 years old, just throwing shows in their backyard, and without even realizing it, we were playing like 60s garage rock,” explains Asgian.

While those local inspirations are core to Sun Room’s sound, Asgian explains how certain genre labels–like “surf rock”–got in the way of the band’s creativity.

“I think we had been trying to do the Southern California Surf Rock thing for a couple of years, and it kind of stifled songwriting a little bit. We might have had a really good idea, and then we just would throw it out the window because we didn’t feel like it ‘fit’ into what we were trying to do. But I think we came to the point where we realized we’re not even really a surf rock band at all. Surf is like Dick Dale, and we don’t sound anything like Dick Dale.”

Asgian explains how the band’s recent experiences on tour inspired the exploration of their sound on Can’t Explain, stating, “Being on tour really opened up our eyes to a lot of cool music. I don’t think we were just looking too far outside of Southern California when it came to like influence or like what we would listen to, but then we would go on tour with bands like Inhaler, and they showed us all these sick British bands, like the Stone Roses or The Jam and stuff like that. Stuff that we had no idea about growing up.”

Wanting to test out these new stylings in their studio sessions, Asgian describes Can’t Explain as a breakthrough moment as the band stopped worrying about making songs to appeal to a particular sound.

“I think we’re at a really cool point in our band right now where we stopped trying to do a certain genre.…This EP was really fun because we were just trying to write good rock and roll songs, not good southern California surf rock songs, and it opened up our songwriting and creativity and everything.” Asgian says, “The 60s were super cool, and it’s awesome to take influence from that, but not trying to sound like we’re from the 60s.”

Photographed by Isaac Dektor

Styled by Luke Zampas

Written by Oliver Heffron

Flaunt Film by Wyatt Stromer