Daily Inspiration: Meet Tonight’s Sunshine

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonight’s Sunshine. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Cougar, our new drummer, and Diego, our now guitarist, had been playing in a band together throughout high school before Tonight’s Sunshine was born in the Summer of 2018. Cougar was still in high school, and Diego was starting college at the U of A and wasn’t even sure if he would continue music, Ironically, Anastasia (aka firekid) had just left the university to pursue music exclusively. Cougar’s dad- a local event producer- saw Anastasia at an open mic and arranged for the three musicians to meet. From there, a practice session was arranged and a new song was nearly perfected by the end of the night. By the end of the first three months, we played a variety of shows. Local restaurants, professional events like the Tucson Convention Center Hall of Fame, and nonprofit events like the Arizona Bowl’s Community Village Festival. As time went by, it seemed we were playing everywhere around town. We were producing monthly showcases at three different local music venues where we would arrange for 5 bands or musicians of any genre would play, whilst 5 visual artists would also display and sell their art. The band then extended its horizons outwards to Phoenix, Bisbee, Flagstaff, and tribal reservations in and beyond the state of Arizona. Right before Covid-19 hit, a lot of bands and musicians were riding a huge wave of momentum, and Tonight’s Sunshine was no exception.

The band was set to take off for a Spring Tour on March 13th of 2020, when every show on the tour got canceled one by one the week before we left. Everybody in Tonight’s Sunshine felt the toll of Covid and felt the ever-present need to perform. As it burned, we culminated in a plan to put on a series of Drive-In concerts. These shows hot us in contact with tons of local businesses, musicians, and art collectives that have led us deeper into the heart of Tucson. The more shows we made, the more friends we made- but the shows also gave us the money to pay for our first professionally recorded EP, released on Jan. 1st of 2021. Flash forward through countless practices and shows, Tonight’s Sunshine is playing alongside bands such as Slothrust and recording our first full-length album followed by a Summer 2023 Tour.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Life. Maybe if it was possible to be a band without needing to hold a job, or need money, or food or a place to live or sleep…then being a band would be a little easier. But life is super messy and being a new adult is already hard enough without trying to run a whole band operation on 4 different people’s schedules. The music itself takes a massive amount of time and dedication.

Between practice and shows it takes up roughly 12 hours per week at least. Adding in other band responsibilities like running a website, constantly creating content for social media, and designing and creating merch while having a small DIY budget for all of these things makes it all pretty hard.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
One of my proudest accomplishments has to be having created what we call First Fridays at Thunder Canyon Brewery. Early on, we found it difficult to break into our local punk scene. We were new, didn’t have much street cred, and our genre- or lack thereof- made it hard to convince people to let us play their shows or venues. So what we did since we couldn’t get onto shows, was that we started producing our OWN shows. After playing at Thunder Canyon thanks to local friends/band Diluvio, we got the opportunity to produce one show a month, every first Friday. These shows were different from others happening around town because there were no restrictions on who could participate. One show could have punk, rap, Americana, and folk all on one bill.

The shows created a space where people didn’t have to “fit in” and where all of Tucson’s creatives could find each other and be a part of something bigger. Due to First Friday’s success, we started organizing shows almost every weekend, adding on visual artists, poets, and dancers. People felt like they had somewhere they could go. Somewhere with excitement, new friends, and possibilities. Somewhere we could break out of boundaries and boxes.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
There are a few important things about us that separate us from the crowd. like our Electric ukulele and our skillful mix of genres that give us our signature sound.

Tonight’s sunshine has also hosted and participated in over 100 nonprofit and community-first events that encourage local collaboration and support local businesses and non-profits. our goal as a band has always been to deliver music where it’s needed, not just where we want it to be.

Contact Info:

• Website: tonightssunshine.com
• Instagram: @tonights.sunshine
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sunshine.tonight?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: @tonightsunshine
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tonightssunshine
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/3f3ug8upKgGE39ez8

Image Credits
Devlyn Aubry @Sprytime