25 DIAMONDS LABEL

Sonny Kay interview (completed 4/25)
(Started 09/2018, completed 04/2025)

1. You are a man who has called many places home. In order, can you tell me what cities you’ve lived in, where you currently live and a most and least favorite thing about each city?

Sonny: I was born in London, but soon moved to Johannesburg (South Africa), then Barcelona, then back to England, and then eventually to Los Angeles. That was just the seventies! In 1987 I moved to Boulder, Colorado and since then I’ve lived in Berkeley, Oakland, Anaheim, San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and now Hot Springs, Arkansas. I’ll comment on the last 3. Best thing about LA is the sheer amount of stuff going on, and the worst thing is how long it takes to get anywhere. Best thing about Vegas is the proximity to Lake Mead, Valley of Fire, the Grand Canyon, etc. and the worst thing is “the Strip” and everyone on it. Best thing about Hot Springs is the scenery and the hodgepodge of retro vibes. My least favorite thing here and almost anywhere else is the humidity. Having said that, it isn’t that bad.

2. What was the first album you ever bought with your own money? What is the most recent album you have bought with your own money? Can you share some of your prized possessions from your music collection?

Sonny: “Disco Duck” by Rick Dees on vinyl and Journey’s “Escape” on cassette were the first. Clikatat Ikatowi box set if we’re being honest, and the great Gorillaz dub “bootleg” called Laika Come Home on purple vinyl were the most recent.

As far as prized record possessions, that one is almost impossible to narrow down. Virtually every record I own reminds me of something or someone, or where I got it, and those memories are more important to me than any physical object. There are some records I can’t imagine ever letting go of, mostly the really formative local bands who were my gateway into the underground, like Dead Silence, Again! and the releases on Donut Crew. Those feel like a part of me.

3. What was the VERY first band you were ever in? What was the very first show you ever played?

Sonny: The band was All But One, and the show was June 15, 1990 opening for Dead Silence at Penny Lane in Boulder.

4. When and where and with whom was the most recent show you’ve played? What and when do you anticipate will be the next?

Sonny: I joined my friend Bob’s band Cabron on stage in San Diego for a few songs back in 2022 but haven’t got any plans to do more.

5. Since this is an interview with 25 DIAMONDS, specifically, i want to focus on the ways you are connected to the label. You and i have known each other for over 20 years in some facet, but our first project together was the OPTIONAL BODY 7″. Tell me anything and everything you would like a public audience to know about this band and this experience.

Sonny: We spent the entire calendar year 2008 writing songs as Optional Body. We rehearsed once or twice a week, never playing a show, never even really having a set rehearsal space or anything. It was hard to get everyone to sync up, we were all very spread out across Los Angeles. Eventually we recorded a few songs and then basically called it a day. It was sad to see it end but I felt powerless to stop it, everyone was going in their own direction. For me, this band is the one that got away. I loved the music we made and enjoyed playing with all three of those guys so much. I wished we could have done more.

6. On a scale of 1 – 10, how much do you miss doing GSL? 1 being never once, 10, every moment. Can you tell me some releases you wish you had put out on GSL but didn’t?

Sonny: About 3, I guess. Sometimes less, very occasionally more. I miss the community and the traveling the most. I was offered the first Liars album and passed cause I didn’t like their demo. In hindsight, that was stupid. I could probably tell you more records I wish I hadn’t put out, actually.

7. When push comes to shove, do you consider yourself first a musician or a visual artist? Is there a distinct differentiation? Could you live without one or the other medium? Do you?

Sonny: I love music and enjoy making it but I feel like an imposter calling myself a musician. When I do, it’s only for the sake of convenience. I drum on tabletops constantly and I love writing lyrics, but those are my only two compulsions. For me, the innate drive is for the visual, that’s the one that feels hardwired. I enjoy combining music with visuals, a lot. But it doesn’t have to be my music. I still like jamming for fun though and when I do that these days I usually play the drums, but there’s not really a goal with that other than the personal challenge in trying to get good.

8. Do you believe earth will eventually no longer exist? Would you care to take a however-educated-you’d-like guess on when, if so? If given the chance to populate a new planet, would you choose to, or would you perish here?

Sonny: Yes but I couldn’t tell you when as my suspicion is it’d be very, very far in the future. I would love the chance to explore a new planet. Don’t know how I feel about the human disease spreading but I suppose it’s gonna happen eventually…

9. Do you have an all time favorite author? book? magazine?

Sonny: Not really. I’ve never been big into literature but I’ve read a million rock biographies. I also have read a lot about evolution, consciousness, psychedelics and cultural anthropology. No single author comes to mind except perhaps Graham Hancock, but he’s one of many for me. Magazines is easy, I read every issue of MOJO I get my hands on cover to cover.

10. What are you afraid of? This can be approached however superficially or existentially (or both) you may like.

Sonny: Failure, destitution, and living without purpose.

11. Will you share what you believe gives your own life meaning?

Sonny: Nurturing many friendships over long periods of time. Creating work of value to me that other people can relate to and find enjoyable. Traveling and collecting experiences and memories.

12. Tell me 5 of the best live bands or shows you’ve ever seen in your life and an anecdote or memory about each.

Sonny:

– Laughing Hyenas @ Art gallery in Boulder, fall 1990. Tiny show organized that day, late at night on the floor of a gallery. Intensity and a sense of danger like I’d never experienced before.

– Heroin @ Che Cafe in San Diego, March 1992. They just ripped so hard, and there was such a clear sense of excitement in the air. People went bananas, too.

– Clikatat Ikatowi @ Boulder rehearsal trailers, January 1994. They were magic every time they played but that first show in Colorado was so anticipated and so unique (freezing weather, back of a semi trailer) that it was unforgettable. Incredible video of this one exists on YouTube.

– Nine Inch Nails @ McNichols Arena Denver, October autumn 1995. Part of the Outside tour with Bowie. I worked as a runner for the show but got to watch NIN, after seeing them as a solo act solo twice before. The energy and chaos was just off the chart, they were coming apart at the seams (it seemed) but at the same time it all felt a little choreographed and tongue in cheek. The stage production was like something from Close Encounters and the whole spectacle, after 5 solid years of only hardcore shows in basements, just blew my mind entirely. At some point that night, I spent 60 seconds in a hallway with Bowie and Trent Reznor, just the three of us, with me trying to look busy while the two of them briefly made small talk. That was a surreal moment in my life.

– The Mars Volta @ All Tomorrows Parties, Camber Sands, England 2005. I’d seen them probably 70 or 80 times at that point and that night was just next level, something magical. They were the best band in the world at the time. My streetwise English cousin gave me some ecstasy before they went on which may well have played a role in my memories of the night. 

13. There has been a plethora of reunions and reissues lately from the era we came up in – too many to count on Numero, Solid Brass, etc. Clikatat Ikatowi, Unwound, Portraits Of Past, Orchid, etc etc all playing shows and touring again. In addition to all of these, the Angel Hair discography was just rereleased on ThreeOneG. Can you talk about the impetus behind this and your feelings with how it came out?

Sonny: I understand people being nostalgic for a particular time in their life and I’m no different. I think it’s great that the music can be polished up and still provide enjoyment for old and new audiences alike. I also think it’s great that so many relatively obscure bands from back then can be unearthed and rediscovered. What I do find a little weird is the overwhelming push towards what kind of feels like museum-izing everything. The box set retrospective in many cases doesn’t feel earned. A lot of the design feels repetitive, too. Hell yes, Unwound deserve all the credit imaginable for being the most prolific band in their scene for a decade. They deserve a box set, or 2 or 3 or however many there are. Some of the others, though, not so much. Having said that, I really wanted to re-issue AH’s music on its 30th anniversary. Three One G kind of felt like the obvious choice to me. Most importantly, the label was 30 years old as well and had never stopped in all that time. There’s always been a bunch of active bands on the label pushing exactly the kind of boundaries AH was, so to join in that continuum just felt natural. Sure, it’s a reissue, but to put it out on a label dedicated to reissues seems in its own way kind of a resignation.  I know we would have sold a ton more of them on a label like Numero Group, for example, but that was never the point before so why would it be now?

14. Do you have feelings about reissues and reunions in general? Are there any you’ve purchased or shows you’ve attended?

Sonny: I think punk music specifically is better left to young people. I don’t fault anyone doing their thing, at any age, and I understand for many people, performing music they wrote 20, 30, 40 years ago beats any other kind of work. I was very glad when Drive Like Jehu reformed since I’d never gotten to see them in the nineties. and they were incredible. I saw the first Bauhaus reunion in 1998 and it was unforgettable. More recently, I saw Clikatat Ikatowi and it was magical to hear those songs being played live again. Their headlining show at the Casbah felt like a pretty close approximation to seeing them play at the Ché. A couple nights later, opening for Unwound at the Conservatory in Costa Mesa, was everything people hate about modern show-going in one scoop: shitty venue, offensive pricing, and the overall feeling of being rushed in, shaken down, and rushed out. It killed any chance of it actually feeling like a nineties show, even if the bands both sounded great. Not that I expected that, but it was a stark contrast to seeing both of them in their element many, many times.

15. Will any of your old bands ever reunite? Who do I have to pay for a VSS reunion tour and record?

Sonny: Haha! I don’t think so. We came close with The VSS back around 2012 when Sargent House reissued Nervous Circuits, so close that there was an agent booking dates. But, it imploded before it got off the ground and will stay that way.

16. What haven’t you done yet in life that you’d still like to? Where haven’t you been? What haven’t you seen? Do you believe in or have any form of a “bucket list?”

Sonny: I’m making a lot more art these days and getting back into traditional mediums like painting. Eventually, I want to exhibit it. I feel like I’m still a year or two away from that point. But I would be very happy for art to be my doorway to traveling the world as much as I used to through music. A gallery show in Japan, especially, would be very meaningful to me. I’ve been there with other peoples’ bands a number of times but to make it back there through nobody’s efforts but my own would be very satisfying. I would love to experience traveling around Central and South America, Australia, Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, all the corners of Europe I haven’t been to. I went to Anchorage once for a day but I would love to check out Alaska. I’d like to go everywhere at least once, basically. I think having bucket lists is great, but I’ve never really had one myself.

17. Why does any of this matter? Art, music, punk, interviews, documentation, etc. Does it?

Sonny: Human expression matters. You could argue we exist to create. We live at the very dawn of technology that could make expression a thing of the past and in some ways already is. I think right now, making art and expressing what it means to be alive are more critical than ever. Resisting corporate police state monoculture has never meant more or had bigger stakes. Beyond that, I think the underground culture we’re specifically talking about won’t ever exist again in quite the same way, so documenting it, like all cultural phenomena, has value. It’s easy to lose sight of that when things sometimes seem so common, or normal, or even oversaturated. The internet creates the illusion of everything being a click away. I don’t think we can imagine or underestimate the importance of these things existing in the future.