Suns Of July On Their New Single “Beautiful You Are,” Challenges & More

Will you tell us a little bit about your band?

We officially formed in 2018 and our debut album will be released in this spring of 2020. The three main members myself, singer, Kosta Dimos, my brother (and drummer) Anastazio Dimos and our long-time friend, lead guitarist, Nick David, a.k.a., ‘The Colonel’. The three of us have played together in various bands since university and decided to form Suns of July after a hiatus from music. We are excited to be making new music again and are excited to share it with everyone.

What is the story and meaning behind your band name?

The three of us are all of the Greek lineage and have been visiting the motherland fairly consistently since high school. We love the summertime and all that it offers, hence ‘July’. The word ‘Suns’ is also a play on that. It is a positive word and our album, although dealing with some heavy subjects, i.e., loss of a loved one, fear, uncertainty etc… the songs do have silver linings and a positive spin.

Who inspired you to make music?

Speaking for myself and my brother, Anastazio, our late father, George, while mainly a small business owner, he was also an excellent Greek musician and had his own Greek band for many years from the time he immigrated to Canada. He played accordion, keys and sang. He would play consistently at home and he gave us our introduction to music and we always admired how good he was and have been trying to emulate him since our childhood.

What is your creative process like?

The process typically starts with Colonel creating a melody and a few scratch lyrics to a chord progression. Then the three of us meet in our jam room (which is now Anastazio’s basement) and we play the song together over, and over, and over, and over again tweaking it along the way until it sounds good. There are numerous revisions and re-writes that happen on the fly as we play it and we don’t stop tweaking until it sounds ‘right’.

What is your biggest musical challenge?

The biggest musical challenge is finding the time to make our music. I am a lawyer by trade, Anastazio is a Chartered Accountant and Colonel is a contractor. We are all extremely busy with our careers so it can be challenging to find time to get together to make the music. Although we always do – often late in the evening.

What is your biggest achievement as a band so far?

We have had radio play on the Toronto’s former Mix 99.9 (now Virgin Radio) and on Toronto’s 104.5 Chum Fm under previous bands. Insofar as ‘Suns of July’ is concerned, as at the date of answering this question our anti-bullying single, ‘Beautiful You Are’ has over 26,000 YouTube views in just over 3-weeks since its release. We are proud of the traction this song has gained and it is heartening to read the hundreds of messages sent to us from people who have been touched by this song and video.

Will you tell us a little bit about your new single “Beautiful You Are”?

This single was inspired mainly by the bullying I experienced as an elementary school student. Although it was a long time ago there were some tough years in the schoolyard for me. The scars caused by bullying last a lifetime and when Colonel first wrote the main guitar melody line we knew that this song had to be about this topic. It’s a very honest track and we are excited that it is resonating with so many people.

What advice would you have for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?

Persist and work hard. “I don’t have time” should never be an excuse. There is always “time” to do what you love. And write from the heart and be honest in your lyrics and approach.

What is next for Suns of July?

The spring release of our inaugural album, called ‘Hello People’ followed by live gigs which will be announced soon!

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