Rooted in human connection, vulnerability, and real, raw emotion, Sunday (1994)’s dreamy pop songs capture a side of love not seen on the big screen.
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Stream: “TV Car Chase” – Sunday (1994)
We sing what we know and that’s what we were going through at the time of writing. It’s a love song really, and how to navigate that relationship through depression.
Hollywood dramatizes (and infantilizes) love by defining it solely through grand gestures and exaggerated, over-the-top displays of affection.
Sure, it can be all those things, but love’s real beauty lies in the lost, little details: The magic of the mundane and the everyday. Understanding his needs without him saying a word. Sitting with her on the couch and catching up after a long week. Spending a lazy Sunday together doing who knows what (a whole lot of nothing, maybe a little laundry). It’s adventures, but it’s also active listening, back scratches, shoulder massages, and a whole lot of time spent just hanging out in each other’s company. Love is so much more than a highlight reel, and in “TV Car Chase,” Sunday (1994) capture a side of love not seen on the big screen.
I fixed myself for you
I swallowed SSRI need you
Things were such a mess
But when you ironed
My prairie dress
Oh you don’t know what that meant
As the bombs fell on the house
You took me from the bedroom
To the couch
Inside I’m blue
But I’ll watch the news with you
Cause that’s the normal thing to do
Independently released July 10, 2024, “TV Car Chase” is Sunday (1994)’s seventh career song, and the first song taken off debut EP’s upcoming “deluxe” release. The British-American trio of singer/songwriters Paige Turner and Lee Newell and drummer X, Sunday (1994) debuted this past February with an instantly alluring, nostalgic and dreamy pop sound. Their six-track debut EP Sunday (1994) came out in May, and now an extended version is set to drop on September 6.
Atwood Magazine previously praised Sunday (1994) for their sweetly intimate, boldly cinematic sound – one that calls to mind both ‘90s dream pop pioneers like Mazzy Star and contemporary trailblazers like Alvvays. EP highlights include the band’s debut single “Tired Boy,” the invigorating, impassioned “Stained Glass Window,” and the provocative and all-consuming focus track “Blonde,” itself a truly heartrending ode to the post-breakup reeling: That turbulent, terrible imbalance we feel when our worlds get completely, utterly shattered.
Dinner’s in the oven, it’s gonna take more than nuclear war to tear me away from you…
Sunday (1994)’s debut EP captures “a love story, and every love story that has ever and will ever happen, in all of its sweet daydreaming and dramatic beauty,” according to the band.
Judging from the deluxe version’s first two singles “TV Car Chase” and “Softly,” that theme of love will continue to ring true for the group for quite some time. What’s most exciting is how they continue to iterate on their subject matter, capturing beautiful slices of life that will inevitably feel familiar to many as they employ lush melodies and emotionally charged lyrics, all to undeniably irresistible ends.
Case in point, “TV Car Chase” is a song of love, intimacy, mental health, and mundanity – all with a healthy helping of dark humour and hopeless romanticism. “‘TV Car Chase’ is a snapshot into the living room of two people who are surviving their own mental war,” the band shared upon the song’s release. “Something as small as sitting on the couch together can heal so much.”
We hear this truth play out in the song’s cathartic and catchy chorus: “I’m braiding my hair, you’re drinking a beer,” Paige Turner sings, her voice a tender, sun-soaked vessel of raw vulnerability. “Car chase on the TV, leave me here…“
I’m braiding my hair
You’re drinking a beer
Car chase on the TV
Leave me here
Dinner’s in the oven
Oh it’s gonna take more
Than nuclear war
To tear me away
From you…
Speaking to Atwood Magazine, Lee Newell acknowledges that the band’s songwriting skews autobiographical.
“We just write what we know,” he shrugs. In the case of “TV Car Chase,” Turner had recently started taking SSRIs, and the pair (Newell and Turner) were navigating their relationship through her depression. The writing explores life and love through this lens, while finding respite in the little moments.
“I suppose creature comforts like sitting and watching TV or drinking a beer offer a sense of security, a simple familiarity,” Newell opines. “One of our goals with our songs is to maximize the minimal moments of life, because that’s what life really is: Boredom punctuated with flashes of excitement, then back to boredom. I don’t want all of my art to be about the fireworks; sometimes, I just want to listen to the crickets.”
The screens I stare at say
If I stare too long then it rots my brain away
Catch me 22
My happiness is so taboo
But a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do
I’m braiding my hair
You’re drinking a beer
Car chase on the TV
Leave me here
Dinner’s is in the oven
Oh it’s gonna take more
Than my mind at war
To tear me away
From you…
Atwood Magazine recently caught up with Sunday (1994) to get to know this dream-inducing band (and definitive artist-to-watch) a little better. Between Newell’s candid, coy, and tongue-in-cheek answers, we can start to better understand this trio’s soul-stirring artistry – one deeply rooted in human connection, vulnerability, raw emotion, and – perhaps above all else – capturing what real love looks and feels like, in real life.
Dive into “TV Car Chase” in our interview below, and stay tuned for Sunday (1994)’s deluxe EP, releasing in September!
Well if you can’t find me then
My head is in the oven
(oh my head, oh my head, oh my head)
I’m braiding my hair
You’re drinking a beer
Car chase on the TV
Leave me here
My head is in the oven
Oh it’s gonna take more
So much more
To tear me away
From you…
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:: stream/purchase Sunday (1994) Deluxe EP here ::
:: connect with Sunday (1994) here ::
Stream: “TV Car Chase” – Sunday (1994)
A CONVERSATION WITH SUNDAY (1994)
Atwood Magazine: Great to chat! For readers who are new to Sunday (1994), how would you describe your band to a first timer?
Lee Newell: Hello, it’s a pleasure to be here! I wouldn’t dare do such a thing. In fact, if you’re reading this interview and you’ve never even heard of us then I strongly urge you to take up a hobby. Just kidding, pop music.
I want to chat about your debut EP first! What’s the story behind these six songs, and how do you seem they serve as a first look into Sunday (1994)?
Lee Newell: We just write what we know — our lives — but I daren’t explain every detail of each song, just as I wouldn’t want to ruin The Sixth Sense for you by telling you that Bruce Willis is a ghost all along.
It’s been just two months since the Sunday (1994) EP’s release; what is your relationship like with this record? How have its songs grown with you?
Lee Newell: I love it. Paige and I are immensely proud of it and to see so many people like it has made us float through the ceiling. We are extremely grateful.
You introduced yourselves earlier this year with “Tired Boy”; why that song? What was it that made you feel like it was ‘the one’ to set the tone?
Lee Newell: Quite simply it was the first one we wrote! But once we wrote more, we kept referencing “Tired Boy” as the blueprint. Our gut said “Tired Boy.”
I’m a “listen-to-the-record-in-full” guy myself, but do any other songs off the EP continue to resonate with you, that you’d like to mention at this point?
Lee Newell: “Our Troubles.” It’s a bit of an outlier, it’s more aggressive. But yeah I’m the same, I always have to start from track one.
Now, you’ve followed the EP up with “TV Car Chase,” a brooding, cinematic outpouring of feeling. What’s the song about, and how did it come to be?
Lee Newell: It’s about Paige starting SSRIs. Like I mentioned, we sing what we know and that’s what we were going through at the time of writing. It’s a love song really, and how to navigate that relationship through depression.
You've described this song as a “snapshot into the living room of two people who are surviving their own mental war.” Where, for you, did this concept, and these emotions stem from? Was there a specific moment or experience that spurred that?
Lee Newell: No, there wasn’t one particular experience, more a collection of experiences. It’s more of a vignette of the feeling. Did I really just say vignette? We’re losing him…
You also mentioned, in rolling out this song, how something as small as sitting on the couch together can heal so much. I’ve definitely experienced this firsthand. What’s that been like for you, and why did you want to put it in song?
Lee Newell: I suppose creature comforts like sitting and watching TV or drinking a beer offer a sense of security, a simple familiarity. One of our goals with our songs is to maximize the minimal moments of life, because that’s what life really is: Boredom punctuated with flashes of excitement, then back to boredom. I don’t want all of my art to be about the fireworks; sometimes, I just want to listen to the crickets.
I was absolutely taken by your first lines, “I fixed myself for you, I swallowed SSRI need you. Things were such a mess. But when you ironed my prairie dress, you don’t know what that meant.” You open the scene with such vivid descriptions; what’s going on in the song, as we tune into this couple in action?
Lee Newell: That all means what you think it means. Unless of course what you think it means is wrong.
Can we also talk about that line, “SSRI need you”? Pure gold! Tell me about writing that, if you wouldn’t mind?
Lee Newell: Thanks, we originally thought that was too much but I’m glad we kept it.
“It’s gonna take more than nuclear war to tear me away from you.” How would you describe the subjects of this song, and the nature of their love affair?
Lee Newell: To me that line is the ultimate declaration of love. But I’d recommend all of the fabulous readers of Atwood Magazine to listen for themselves.
I’m honestly intrigued by the lyric, “My head is in the oven,” which switches from “dinner’s in the oven” in the earlier chorus. What does this phrase mean to you? Why the change?
Lee Newell: I’d say that line is about how powerful the mind can be, and are you ever truly in control of it?
Do you have any personal favorite lyrics or lines?
Lee Newell: It’s difficult to dissect it, but I do love the bridge (or the middle 8 to my comrades back home).
What do you love most about this new song, and what do you hope listeners take away from it?
Lee Newell: What I love most is that we got to talk to you about it. I hope listeners turn those frowns upside down.
What can fans of Sunday (1994) expect to hear from the band as we get into the second half of the year? Was this single a one-off, or is there more to come?
Lee Newell: This was the first single from our deluxe EP, the second single “Softly” is out now as well. Our deluxe EP comes out on Sep 6th and we are playing Los Angeles on September 23rd and London on September 30th. London is already sold out, but there’s still tickets left for LA.
Right, can you tell me about “Softly”?
Lee Newell: “Softly” is about the first time he left for the airport, or the dreaded moments alone while she’s at the grocery store. Being apart can feel like “my neck to the knife, softly.”
Lastly, in the spirit of paying it forward, who are you listening to these days that you would recommend to our readers?
Lee Newell:
- Something old – Cocteau Twins.
- Something new – Fontaines D.C.
- Something blue – Blue
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:: stream/purchase Sunday (1994) Deluxe EP here ::
:: connect with Sunday (1994) here ::
Stream: “TV Car Chase” – Sunday (1994)
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