Cultivating a name for themselves as The Sunday Sadness, this French act decided to go back to their metallic roots when given the opportunity a few years back, setting the stage for their evolution to TSS. Wielding a sound that incorporates numerous outside the box influences and sounds with a root source founded in heavy music, TSS is about to release their first album End of Days. It’s an inventive and forward-thinking display that should surprise and delight those seeking something heavy, yet different, from the scene. We spoke with Matthieu Kirby, the band’s vocalist, to discuss the changes in the group that led to the name TSS and move towards heavier material, some influential media, their unique sound, collaborations, and more.
Dead Rhetoric: You did your first big European tour earlier this year. What did you gain from it?
Matthieu Kirby: First of all, it was not only our first shows outside of France, but it was really our first tour ever. We really just learned the tour life, basically. It was the first time we played multiple shows in a row. I guess we just learned how to make our performances stronger, and how to communicate with the audience. We checked the videos every night and thought about how we could improve for the next show. The first performance to the last show, if you compare them, it’s not even comparable. We really learned how to put on a show during that tour.
Dead Rhetoric: That’s crazy that was also your first experience outside of France!
Kirby: It was [a lot]. For most bands, their first tour is not really in that same context, playing to 1,000 people every night. It was a great chance for us, and we are really grateful for it.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you feel that you won people over as the shows went on, since you weren’t the headliner. Were there any sort of challenges in trying to do that?
Kirby: At first, we were not so confident about it. The headlining band was Set it Off, and their audience was really responsive and willing to have a good time. It wasn’t like the tough dudes at the heavy shows just watching from afar. They were really invested, so I really think we won people over. The biggest show was in Cologne, Germany and it was like four days ago that we played a headline show there. It was sold out and many of the people came because they saw us opening for Set it Off in February. We definitely felt like we won quite a few people over on that tour.
Dead Rhetoric: What sparked your sound change in 2023 from something more electronic to more metallic? Did that also initiate the name change to TSS from The Sunday Sadness?
Kirby: The genre we grew up with was really metal music, but when we started the band in 2018, we didn’t want to play metal music. We just wanted to try something else instead of what we had been listening to for forever. Somewhere in 2019-2023, with the band mostly targeting France and playing pop music, we were in a contract with a huge label. So we had to stay on the path we started. But then our contract was up on 2022, so we decided to go back to our roots. Nothing was forcing us to play a certain type of music or sing in a certain language. We decided to go to heavy music, since it was what we knew as kids. It felt natural.
Dead Rhetoric: There’s a lot of moving parts within your songs, with the integration of different genres and sounds. It’s not like you just swapped over and made something that sounds generically heavy. What’s it like crafting the songs? Is there anything in particular you pay most attention to?
Kirby: We don’t really have a routine writing process. Sometimes we can go weeks without writing anything and then out of nowhere we write a song in a day, or months for one song. We are doing the writing, recording, mixing, and mastering ourselves. Sometimes we are writing in the same room and sometimes we are writing on our own. There’s no routine, but the thing that we keep in mind during the writing process is that we want to have catchy choruses. We want a chorus that sticks in people’s minds. I guess that’s something we got from our time writing in pop music. Every part had to be catchy. So that’s something we kept. Right now, we are recording heavy parts, but our pop music brains just want to keep those catchy choruses in. I guess that’s how we make everything stick together.
Dead Rhetoric: That’s kind of cool, because when you have a ‘standard’ heavy bands putting in a catchy chorus, there’s usually some sort of pattern to it. Hearing End of Time, it has a very distinct sound, which is more refreshing.
Kirby: Thanks! Also, I have to say that in the metal music world, when bands start to write an album, let’s say they write in the same station so they will have the same guitar, drum, etc sound on every track. We do not work that way at all. Every time we start a new song, we start from the very beginning, looking for new tones and samples. The overall sound on End of Time, we really wanted every song to have a different taste, so we started from scratch each time. It was really important for us.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you hope that listeners take away from End of Time, as your first full-length? What are you most proud of?
Kirby: I guess the goal of our music, which goes with our full name: The Sunday Sadness, we just try to write sad songs. I don’t know if you remember the structure of the album, but it ends with a very sad and slow song. What we hope is that people feel sad and nostalgic, and feel heavy after listening to the album. That’s the number one thing we are looking for.
Dead Rhetoric: TSS has a big DIY component to it. What aspects of the band do you feel you’ve had to struggle the most with in terms of learning the ropes?
Kirby: As I said earlier, all of the sound-producing aspects are handled by us. There’s no other parties that do it. So sometimes we spend an infinite amount of time finishing songs, because we have everything in-house. Sometimes it’s very hard to just finish things and say, ‘this is the final form.’ It’s a very large struggle. Also, when the writing process ends, we are always thinking something sounds worse than it does and we could have spent more time. That’s the main struggle, not having someone working with us and who is able to say that ‘the song is finished.’ I would say the other struggle is that also because of that, we spend less time on the writing itself. We do our own photoshoots, we do most of the visuals, we spend a lot of time crafting our outfits, and thinking up other visual aspects. All of that is time consuming, so sometimes I feel like we are rushing things a bit.
Dead Rhetoric: How important is that overall visual look for the band and how it all comes together?
Kirby: For me, the visual aspect is just as important as the music. It kind of gives the context of our music. With me and the others being inspired by music that has strong looks, like visual kei and Japanese rock, and not so much now but in 2016-2020 we were all very much into Kpop. We analyzed outfits, and we thought they were really driving people to understand the music. We spent so much time thinking about outfits, make-up, and hairstyles. For me, it’s really important. I get that the people feel it too. The listeners and people that go to the show, they really express how our styles make them enjoy the music so much more, and allows them to understand the music.
Dead Rhetoric: I think that metal could use more of that, instead of just putting on jeans and a black t-shirt all the time. Do you feel that because of your emphasis on the visual components, you can pull in people from outside the heavy scene?
Kirby: Definitely. When we played with Set it Off, the other bands were not as heavy. They didn’t have crazy breakdowns or screams. But the people, when we met them at the shows, they would ask us what we listened to, and when we talked about Kpop, they would say that they could tell. The music doesn’t say that, but that intention shows it and people get it.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some of your favorite media (movies, tv, etc) that have influenced the band’s look and sound?
Kirby: Manga and anime. I would say those are the main visual media that have influenced us. In the “Killing Me” video, we had some influences from some horror movies, but that’s just a slight part of the vision. Some of the main anime and manga are Attack on Titan, it’s our favorite anime between the three of us. Hunter x Hunter for some of our outfits too. There’s a few video games too, sometimes as a reference, we have some Final Fantasy characters outfits, but that’s more of an anime style too.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve collaborated with Cvtle and Windwaker on this album. What do you feel makes a good collaboration?
Kirby: It’s hard to tell but for Culte, the story is quite interesting. I just discovered them in 2019 and I was really impressed by them. We connected and as they continued to produce songs they became one of my favorite bands. They have been in my top one or two artists for a few years. We connected again and decided to collaborate together. I was excited to have a song with my favorite band. It’s an ideal context to collaborate with your favorite artist. So now the Cvlte singer [Aviel] came to France once, and I went to Tokyo twice recently. He also came by Europe once more when we had to shoot the music video. Now we are almost best friends, so it was a perfect context to write that song. Cvlte is one of the best and most inventive bands out there now, so it made for a good collaboration.
For Windwaker, we did not know them at all but we were on the same label. When we collaborated it was on a song that was already released some months ago, it was just a reshoot of the song. When it came out I listened to it nonstop. When our A&R asked us about collaborating on a Windwaker song, and he didn’t mention the title or that it was already released, I was like, “Hell yeah, of course!” Then they said it was going to be that song reshot, I was shocked since I had listened to it so much. I wanted to be a part of it.
Dead Rhetoric: As we have talked with your sound, what are some of the strengths and weaknesses of having a sound that is harder to define concretely?
Kirby: One of the struggles is that first of all, for all of the aggravating parts of social media, it’s easier to have something viral or blow up if it stays within the standards of a specific genre. When you are in between stuff, it feels like there are struggles to put you on the right algorithm and get you in front of the right people. I really feel like when we have something going viral on social media, it’s always the less creative and less sophisticated stuff. So it’s a bit sad and a bit of a struggle. But then I would say that the media really likes that specificity. They like the mix of both languages – it’s always a strength. There is never a downside to it. Maybe with the radio stuff, I know right now we aren’t being broadcast on any radio. I’m not sure that it’s because of that though. Nowadays, I think it doesn’t have so many downsides. People are ready to listened to mixed genres of music.
Dead Rhetoric: How important is the social media side of things? How important are these social media avenues for gaining fan attention?
Kirby: I would say it’s crazy important. Oftentimes, we have felt like we would step up when we had a viral moment on social media. Especially because it helps the algorithm when you have more people coming to check you out. It’s a very important part of the development [of the band] and I’m always grateful for those moments. But it can’t develop a band – you can’t just develop a band to make viral moments. When we went on tour with Set it Off, we get people to come see us because they were at those shows. So viral moments help, but you have to play live. The people that see you want to come back, and maybe buy merch. It’s still very relevant.
Dead Rhetoric: Given where you sound is at now, are there areas where you would like to push further and develop more?
Kirby: We are just about to start album two. Honestly, for now I don’t really know where I want to go. For sure, I want the heavy parts to get heavier and heavier. That’s something I want to keep exploring. As for the rest, I don’t have the answer. I have to feed my brain some new music to see where I want to go. We don’t want to put out End of Time number two. That’s really tricky.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s planned for the rest of this year?
Kirby: We just announced four shows in Germany for September. That’s the first announcement of a full tour in Europe. There will be Italy, UK, Netherlands, and more. We are really pumped about that. In June, we will play two shows in Japan. One is a festival and one is a show with Cvlte. We will add two more shows in Asia and we are really pumped about that. We are doing a festival in Germany in October, and the headlining band is Dead by April, which is really great because it’s a band we listened to when we were younger. We are also playing a festival in Paris in June after the Tokyo shows, with Novelists. Also, we are working on having our first Spanish tour in January or so. I know our label is actively working on getting us on a support US tour, but nothing is confirmed for now.