Ontario’s Sunnsetter resolves to never stop trying in the vulnerable, emotionally charged “Try Again,” an aching alt-rock anthem of perseverance, guts, and uncompromising staying power.
Stream: “Try Again” – Sunnsetter
It’s so much easier to give up than to keep trying, but the best things in life are always worth fighting for.
Even if we try and try and never get close; even if we fight and fail, fight and fail over and over again; even if the real trophy is the pursuit of our dreams, rather than the dream itself. Sunnsetter’s new single aches with the raw weight of our hopes and dreams, and all the miles of mud we have to trudge through just to move an inch. It’s a passionate outpouring of all the tension and turmoil we build up along the way, and all the naysaying voices (within us and around us) we must avoid and ignore, lest we fall prey to their calls to “quit while we’re ahead,” etc. Sunnsetter’s Andrew McLeod is in it for the long run, and “Try Again” is as much a promise to himself as it is an invigorating message for all who need to hear it: “Do not listen to all the thoughts that overtake you when you’re not noticing,” he sings, his voice full of pain and passion. “Everything changes in a instant, a life can come and go, but you’ll never wanna go back…“
Sunnsetter resolves to never stop trying in the vulnerable, emotionally charged “Try Again,” an aching alt-rock anthem of perseverance, guts, and uncompromising staying power.
Without trying to overstate it
Can’t help notice what everything is
Even when there is no one listening
They will try to control until you
never wanna go back
And the time it just rolls on by
you notice no one ever stays the same
it goes around again
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Try Again,” Sunnsetter’s second song of 2024 (following April’s “I ACTUALLY DON’T WANNA DIE”). The project of rural Norfolk County, Ontario-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, and mixing engineer Andrew McLeod, Sunnsetter has been a vessel of soul-stirring songwriting for several years now – and he has quite the catalog to show for it, having released numerous albums since his 2017 debut.
Now working with a full-fledged band that includes Cole Sefton (guitar), Hannah Edgerton (bass/vocals), Trevor Cooke (drums) and Kyle Gottschalk (keyboards), McLeod exudes a quiet strength as, with their unwavering musical (and emotional) support, he spills his guts, warts and all:
Do not listen to all the thoughts that
overtake you when you’re not noticing
Everything changes in a instant
a life can come and go
but you’ll never wanna go back,
you see the time it just rolls own by
You notice no one ever stays the same
its all keeps going around
“There are so many forces in this world that work to make you feel worthless, and make you feel like you can’t achieve what you wish to achieve,” McLeod tells Atwood Magazine. “The only way to get anywhere is to try again. I have to tell myself this over and over.”
“This is a song that came to me in a couple hours sometime last year, and I’ve been wanting to share it with the world ever since,” he adds. I’ve gone through many ups and downs since, with different ways of looking at it all. At one point I thought that I was so depressed and uninterested in pursuing music anymore that I didn’t even want this song in the world because it would feel disingenuous to sing an anthem about perseverance when I didn’t even feel like I could live that experience myself. I’ve since reconciled a lot of those thoughts and still just want to do what I do for myself and with my friends. The only thing that matters anymore is being able to tour around and play my silly little songs with friends and hope that some people like them and want to listen.”
Never wanna go back,
you see the time it just rolls on by,
you notice no one ever stays the same,
it always comes and then it goes again,
do not listen to the words in your head,
its overtaking everything you’ve said,
you want to be who ever you can be,
so I say try again
“Try Again” hurts, primarily because it means so much to artist and audience alike.
For all those in need of a reminder of their own inner light; for all those who need a little boost, a reassurance that they’re on the right path, going in the right direction, “Try Again” is for you. Sunnsetter doesn’t claim to know where he’s headed, or if life will go the way he hopes it might, but he knows that he has to try – and that’s as good a message as any in today’s fraught world. Stream “Try Again” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for much more to come from McLeod and Sunnsetter over the coming months.
And never stop trying.
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Stream: “Try Again” – Sunnsetter
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© Jules Mancuso
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