Cinematic Universes: The five movies Sunday (1994) want their music to live in
Go onto Sunday (1994)’s social media and you’ll find almost as many film clips as there are clips of the band. To them, that feels right. Singer Paige Turner can’t help but edit her music to scenes from her favourite films, bringing to life the cinematic crossovers she hears in the songs from the moment they start to take shape.
In the world of the band, film really came first. Their band name, with Turner’s birth day laid out like that, is a cinematic nod to the way movie titles are referenced. When she and Lee Newell began writing for this project, it was their favourite movies that informed it, both wanting to create music that felt richly storytelling and atmospheric, that both sounded like a soundtrack while holding enough emotion for a feature film.
But that’s exactly why Far Out holds our film section as dear as the music section and why they sit side by side; the two are inseparable. What are films without music? What would music be without the inspirational power that film has forever had on it, with artists across each decade since the absolute invention of the moving picture finding ways to bring film’s stories and style into song?
Sunday (1994) are merely the newest to honour that in an all-encompassing way, with Turner’s homemade movie clip mini music videos to their songs being the most outright. But as we caught up with the band to discuss their work, starting with cinema felt like the right beginning, as it’s where they began, too. So the question posed to them was simple: If your music could exist in the cinematic world of any movie, which ones would it live within?
Five movies Sunday (1994) want to soundtrack:
16 Candles (1984)
Turner came in with an answer right off the bat: “These films are the ones that I sort of pictured our music being in when we first started writing our songs,” she said, with 16 Candles being the first on the list. Given the band’s Americana feel, despite Newell being from Slough, and the spirit of adolescence that runs through each track, John Hughes cropping up feels like an inevitability. He arguably invented the thing, being one of the first directors to dedicate a huge proportion of his career to stories of teenagehood.
16 Candles was Hughes’ first, and it was the moment where he set his style in his directorial debut. It has all the cornerstones of his career that would become signature; the devastating teenage crush, the glorious style of a Molly Ringwald protagonist, the coming-of-age lessons in the humour and heart – all things that Sunday have too, except it’s Turner’s prairie dresses rather than the classic ‘80s get-up.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
If John Hughes invented the cinematic teenager, Sofia Coppola invented the cinematic teenage girl. The second on Turner’s list is another feature debut, as The Virgin Suicides was Coppola’s first full-length outing and an instant sensation. Despite coming from a famed movie-making family, the daughter instantly stepped out of the shadows, making a legacy of her own.
The connection between The Virgin Suicides and Sunday (1994)’s world is evident within only a song or two. The movie deals with the gloom and angst of suburbia and the smothering of strict religious parents. “This town’s old-fashioned / I’d have to run from your daddy’s gun / If he knew what happened / When we’re alone in his pick-up truck,” the band sing, capturing the seduction of a secret in that kind of setting, just like in the world of Lux Lisbon.
Lost In Translation (2003)
Coppola instantly becomes the resident director of the Sunday (1994) world as Newell’s first pick stays with her. “I would say, Lost In Translation makes sense to me, just because it’s little whimsy, a little sardonic,” he says, capturing the essence of the movie so effortlessly. The whimsy lives in the humour Coppola litters throughout, bringing light to the tale of loneliness, but around it, her signature angst is right there.
Dealing with the topics of romance and isolation, that’s something their music knows well. As Scarlett Johansson’s character Charlotte is stuck waiting around, alone in a different country, the band’s track ‘Tired Boy’ could be her anthem as she watches onto her husband’s life and the band sing, “’Cause you don’t give a shit / And it works so perfect for you / I wish I was more like you.”
Newell also casts an actor to play in their world. “Bill Murray’s in it, I relate to Bill,” he says, putting out an early offer for Murray to star in the Sunday (1994) movie one day.
I Saw The TV Glow (2024)
The band’s final two picks come down less to inspiration and more to aspiration, with Newell starting it off with a new one: “There’s a great film I saw recently called I Saw The TV Glow.” Making it clear that you will find this band at the movies, their love for the 2024 film is proof of their cinephile status.
But while their music would definitely suit the world of the movie, following the same richly aesthetically charged energy and often delving into the topics of queerness and forbidden feelings, Newell’s pick is more about the film’s actual soundtrack. “That had an unbelievable soundtrack, and I would love to be amongst them,” he said, hoping to position the group amongst the cast on their already, like Phoebe Bridgers, Alex G, Caroline Polachek and more.
Frozen 3
Before we started the interview, Turner and Newell were looking for their enigmatic drummer, Puma. We were on a time crunch, and the two joked that they could already predict his answer, that it would almost certainly be something Disney-themed.
When the moment came and the mic was handed to him, Turner seemed to hold her breath; “Frozen Three” Puma says and Newell shoots me a knowing look as we laugh. It’s a savvy move as the guitarist quips, “He’s business-minded,” dreaming about that Disney soundtrack commission to fund their cinematic dreams.
