“Everybody has a place here; that’s what we advertise. Music was a community for us and we want to be that for you. Music saved a lot of our lives, so if we could just do that and be a helping hand and a friend to somebody else through our music, that’s all we could ever ask for.”
Zack Baumgartner is the frontman of When The Sun Sets, the Illinois band making music that aligns with mental health in what can only be described as being done in the most heartfelt and authentic of ways. We spoke to him about the band’s latest single release, which was an immediate success in their growing community of fans, and how they tackle the emotions, message, and the overall sound of the band as they approach 2025’s opportunities to write, release, heal, and connect through riffs and lyrics.
The band is proudly independent, a DIY output from Chicago that is worth supporting. Even if you’re not into the genre of alt rock or the Y2K/emo-leaning style of melodies, When The Sun Sets can be for you. Everything from the order they drop songs to the color scheme on their album artwork is intentional and welcoming. Within the energy of the instrumentals and beats is a tale that needs to be told and a shoulder that is open to cry on. We love how hefty and deep, relatable and honest, these songs are – none more than their latest release, though, which we kicked off our conversation with Zack about.
How are you feeling coming off of your new single, “Undertow,” being out in the world? We’ve been listening to it on repeat over here, but what’s the feedback like on your end?
The reception has been crazy. The amount of [streaming] numbers and people messaging us from the moment we were teasing the song on social media is crazy. People were just messaging us and being like, “I really think this song’s gonna help a lot of people.” That was the whole mission that us and Courtney [Clinkert of Definitely Maybe] set out on when we got this song written; if we can help people with the song, then that is the entire goal, especially going into winter and seasonal depression.
This band is s self-proclaimed pop punk band for positive mental health. You’re part of this mental health awareness movement. It’s integrated in all you do. For people who aren’t well versed in the band yet, though, I think this song is a great introduction to who you are, sonically, the path you’re on, and also the mission you have. “Undertow” could be someone;s foray into what pop punk for your mental health can be and who When The Sun Sets is. Do you feel the same? Is there a different song that you think might be a good first indicator?
I think this one is perfect. It’s very well put together with our sound, first of all, but it also integrates the message that we have very well. Not every song that we’ve written is about mental health, but a lot of it dives into it. Whether it’s super out in the open like on “Undertow,” or whether it’s a little bit more tucked back into the song, our mission is usually really prevalent. I think this song is probably, like you said, the best indicator if you haven’t heard of us before.
There’s a lot that can be taken from the song, and as you mentioned earlier, it is coming out now at a pretty poignant time. When did you know this song was going to be a single and when did you decide that now was the right time to drop it?
With singles in the past, it’s been mostly about logistics. Like, “Hey, what do we have ready in the vault? What’s ready to go?” But right now and with “Undertow,” we had three or four singles to choose from. This one was just a standout; especially working with our friends in the band Definitely Maybe, too, because I don’t think they were releasing music anytime soon, so we were like, “This would kind of be a perfect time right at the end of the year to collaborate before they kick off their new year, and us, as well.” Then, hearing the final version, everybody was like, “Yeah, this one’s gonna hit different, so I think we better just put it out now.”
Something else I was keen on asking you about came to me as I was doing research and looking into everything When The Sun Sets. Your visuals encompass the band fully, from the sound to its warmth to its indie feel. In terms of the visual aspect, though, from artwork to merchandise, how much thought do you all specifically put into it?
We are 100% independent, so we get to do whatever we want. Luckily we’ve been able to work with a lot of artists that we trust and can give them the reins. That’s just kind of always how I’ve been as a person, too. I have a lot of tattoos that were done by my artist for me. I’m just like, “Hey, here’s a general idea, put your spin on it. You’re an artist.” We’ve done that with our merchandise and our album covers – at least the recent ones. I think that it definitely helps having a bunch of different minds listening to your song, knowing the story behind it, and being like, “What does this mean to me? Artistically, what do I hear and see?” There’s always been the level of trust with all of our artists. It’s been a long time since we’ve even had a revision with merchandise or anything like that! The artists we’ve been blessed to work with are very great at what they do and they’re down with helping smaller bands like us, and that means everything to us.
I love that everything comes about through genuine collaboration. How special! Do you and your bandmates listen to music the same way, too? Are you single-listening people over album-listening people? You’re really playing into the world we live in now, which is single releases, but I am curious: having such a message and purpose to your music, are these singles building up to an album? Do you all have that mindset? Some of these songs stand alone so well, but when you do go about a full length LP, is it gonna be like a strict, cover-to-cover-don’t-hit-shuffle listen? Or will it be a bit freer? Because I think the creativity is there for that, but I’m also loving how you’re releasing things in a really individualist modern way.
I really like that question. We actually just talked about this on the way to a show the other day, and we got a tracklist together because of it. We decided that we are going to release our songs and album like a traditional LP. We think it’s really important for a band to get out their first full length album like that. It is a transformational period for a lot of bands. We all like albums, too. I think everyone in the band loves listening to records top to bottom, so it is looking like, for us, it will be important to make sure that these songs flow in a way where we could listen to the album from top to bottom very smoothly, but in a way that lets the listener who wants to put it on shuffle still enjoy. Maybe someone hears “Undertow” and explores us from there. We’re trying to make our album so that either type listener can get something out of the songs.
I love the way the album sounds top to bottom, too. I would encourage anybody and everybody, when the LP is out, to listen to it in order. We spent a lot of time on trying to figure out the pacing, questioning, “Where is the energy going to be? What are we talking about? Are we connecting?” We did spread out the mental health topics throughout the entire record, but, honestly, it was important to us to start the album off energetically before kind of bringing it down and then bringing it back up at the end, you know? When it’s out, you’ll hear that. […] We all brought in our own ideas of tracklists the other day, too, and compared who had what song in what spot and how it sounded. There was a lot of give and take for everybody. Everybody had songs that they wanted in certain spots and we kept those that everybody liked, and we had songs shuffle around that everybody was totally fine with it. It’s always nice when you have that with a band. […] We’ve had a solid group of guys for a while now. Everybody’s comfortable with each other, both in the studio on stage. We’re in a really good place right now and we’re very blessed to be there.
When you’re putting together a song as a band, what is the process? Since you have that comfortable friendship and collaboration, is there even a process, or do people just bring in what the have? Let’s use “Undertow” and its creation as an example!
I think for that song – and a lot of the ones that are gonna be on the record – we have the music start with a basic idea. Usually it’ll just be like a guitar. For “Undertow,” I knew the topic and where I wanted to go with it. Once we have kind of a fleshed out demo, we bring it to our producer, Roy. He’s like our secret member. He’ll take our vision and do all the studio magic to the song to make the vision happen. If he wants something to sound super airy or something, you could give him a term like that and he can translate that into how it sounds. It’s really cool working with somebody like that. I think that’s a huge part of how we sound. For “Undertow,” I knew the topic of what I was gonna be writing about, so we had a general blueprint for the song in that way, then we got the instruments – guitar first – and then all the lyrics were written when we got in with Roy. He just put the cherry on top.
I love that! The production actually reminded me a bit of early Neck Deep!
I love Neck Deep, so that’s great. I can hear that, 100%.
That was one of the first bands that, when I was listening to your music, I was like, “Ok, I can hear a bit of that influence. This is When The Sun Sets, but I hear what they like.” What else do you all listen to and bring to the table in terms of inspirations?
We’ve all explored a bunch of different routes with this band already. We’ve gone the more edgy route – still the same topics, but like the inspiration was a little more heavy music. Now we’ve kind of drawn some inspiration from more pop artists, whether they’re like indie pop band like Honey Revenge or they’re like pop rock bands like The Home Team. We’re just trying to find our place, find where we’re happiest. Magnolia Park are a heavy band, but we love them, too. I think that we’re finding a lot of melody on this side of things and with “Undertow,” which I think is super fun for all of us. You can put a melody on top of another melody and it still won’t cut into each other. It’s really cool to hear all that sonically. For all of these songs we’re gearing up for, the message has to be able to hit for everyone, and we want it to be palatable to anybody. That is really important to us. With “Undertow,” this is the next generation of band. We are not pigeonholing ourselves into a more aggressive sound or even an aggressive audience. We want anybody to be able to listen to that song and the songs to come and understand the message, feel like they’re not alone.
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