The Jersey Shore is no stranger to rising musical talents. From the plethora of music venues and the origin of some popular names in music, including Bruce Springsteen himself, the shore is much more than a weekend getaway.
Sunshine Spazz is a garage/psychedelic rock band formed along the New Jersey coast in Toms River. The band consists of 3 members – drummer Jamie Lawler, bassist Michael Rutter, and lead singer and guitarist Ryan Rutter. From their first performance at Hemingway’s in Seaside Heights to their slot at the 2024 Sea Hear Now festival, Sunshine Spazz has played at a number of venues since their formation in 2017. With upcoming performances at Long Beach Island’s HopSauce Fest and openers for The Parlor Mob at Asbury Park’s The Wonder Bar, Sunshine Spazz is no longer a garage band— it’s becoming a real act.
When Ryan Rutter attended college at Ohio State, he was surrounded by the concert scene, and being in that atmosphere sparked his desire to be in a band. “Musically, I always had a space to play guitar and drums when I was little with my parents,” Ryan continued. “I guess I kept active, also my brother, who is in the band as well. We always jammed here and there, but never really as a project until this all started…I probably went to 20-30 shows a year when I was going to Ohio State. It really ignited [my mindset of] ‘I really want to be in this environment all the time if I can.’”
“Funny enough, it all actually started from a restaurant job,” explained Ryan. “I was working at Three B’s [Bar and Bistro] in Lakehurst, New Jersey, and met our drummer, Jamie. I actually met him a few times previously through our family members. My parents are good friends with his parents, so I think we were at a couple of family parties. We were at one party in particular, and two days later, I was going into training, and he was the guy training me. It was a really cool, almost destiny interaction.”
The band’s name was even its own stroke of serendipity, as well. When a friend of Ryan’s suggested the name “The Ghost of Sunshine’s Past,” it was misheard as “Sunshine Spazz.” “It was a really silly, not-well-thought-of way to come about it, but here we are,” he joked.
With inspirations from Black Sabbath and Audio Slave to King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, Sunshine Spazz has secured its footing in the Jersey music scene and isn’t stopping at the Garden State.
The band’s first album, “Naked Reaper,” was released in 2018, with their second, self-titled album “Sunshine Spazz” following in 2023. Even with the recent album, the band announced via Instagram that they were in the studio working on new music. “[The music will be] different for this upcoming [album]. Previously, we have done a lot of work with Paul Ritchie, and we were going to his studio in Belmar. We were also going to Retro Media in Red Bank. But for this most recent one, we went to Matt Barrick, who is the drummer for The Walkman. He has his own studio in Germantown, Philadelphia. That was a really fun experience; we spent a week with him.”
With this new album, fans will be able to hear the signature loud Sunshine Spazz sound while also hearing something more “fresh.” Ryan explained, “These songs were all written and recorded recently; I don’t think we ever really had that experience before. COVID had a little bit to do with that. With the self-titled album, we had songs that were written years ago that we were finally able to put out there. This one feels like the first time where the songs were written recently, recorded recently, and released all within a relative time frame. I guess freshness is the thing you can expect from it.”
Ryan also serves as the band’s main songwriter, but admits that this album will see a track written by Michael Rutter. “It’s definitely mainly me,” he said, “but it’s not limited to that by any means.”
Despite the climbing success of the band, Ryan admits that the true success he sees through the band is the ability to partake in the rock n’ roll community far and near with his bandmates by his side. “I get the most gratification and sense of belonging when I am doing this with other people, I don’t see this being fun when you are doing stuff by yourself,” he said. “You wanna contribute to things that you feel like you belong in, and we are kinda learning that even more as we continue. We just want to get out there and be part of these bigger communities that are just nearby.”
“I say people are looking for things we can bring to the table, and we wanna serve those people as well as we can. And there is obviously like some sort of monetary thing would be cool, accomplish our money dreams with this project too, of course, that takes time and work,” Ryan continued. He admits that he spends most of his free time working his restaurant job to remain financially stable while he hopes the band takes off.
Ryan concluded, “We have had little glimpses of how that can work [as a full-time job], and it’s just the way to multiply, that it’s really a business too. I like the combination of both those things, but you definitely want to be an artist first, while also having the ability to combine art, business, fulfillment, and being a part of a community.”
You can listen to Sunshine Spazz on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Deezer, iHeartRadio, and Bandcamp.
Image taken from envertmedia.com
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