The story of the missing and abandoned Sunny Day Real Estate album
The term “emo” often sparks debate among those it describes, but there is no doubt that Sunny Day Real Estate fits within this genre. The Seattle-based group blends alternative, indie, and post-hardcore music with dynamism and atmosphere. Despite their origins in the rainy Pacific Northwest rather than the rolling prairies, they are considered pioneers of the Midwestern emo sound, thanks to the intricate guitar work of Jeremy Enigk and Dan Hoerner.
A true cult band, Sunny Day Real Estate’s 1994 debut, Diary, released by Sub Pop, remains a staple of alternative rock and emo music. Their 1995 follow-up, LP2, is also now considered a classic. However, as is often the case with culturally significant bands, their story has been far from straightforward. Their career is marked by ample acrimony and confusion, not to mention considerable fan conjecture.
Shortly after completing their sophomore effort, the group split because they felt there was nothing else to achieve. Enigk later admitted they put no effort into the lyrics and artwork because they wanted it to end as soon as possible. In a 2020 episode of the This Was the Scene podcast, drummer William Goldsmith revealed that even before recording LP2, they had decided to split up prior to embarking on their first US tour in 1994.
After the first breakup, Enigk went solo, Hoerner opted to live on a farm, and bassist Nate Mendel and Goldsmith joined a re-emergent Dave Grohl’s newly formed Foo Fighters, his first since the breakup of Nirvana with the tragic suicide of Kurt Cobain in 1994. Famously, Goldsmith was ousted from Foo Fighters in 1997 during the production of their breakout effort, The Colour and the Shape. Mendel has remained their bassist since, however.
Sunny Day Real Estate has since reunited on a handful of occasions, including in 1997, albeit without Mendel, and produced the brilliant How It Feels to Be Something On the following year, as well as their most recent album, The Rising Tide, in 2000. Mendel had initially agreed to rejoin but ultimately opted out, fearing it would be a disappointing reunion.
In 2001, Enigk, Goldsmith, and Mendel formed The Fire Theft, with Mendel participating whenever the Foo Fighters’ schedule allowed it. They chose not to perform under the Sunny Day Real Estate name, hoping for a fresh start. This decision also paved the way for their eventual 2009 reunion as Sunny Day Real Estate.
After much speculation during the middle of the decade, in 2009, it was reported that Sunny Day Real Estate had reunited as a quintet with all original members. The band’s first show back was a secret set in Tacoma, Washington, and they would later tour North America in the fall and travel to Australia for Soundwave Festival in early 2010. Prompting much excitement for a new album after a decade, the group often performed a new song called ’10’ on the tour.
Speculation was heightened when the members made a series of suggestions that new music was coming. Then, in early 2010, Hoerner told Australia’s FasterLouder that Sunny Day were writing their fifth record and would be entering the studio in May that year. However, the opus never materialised. This reunion ended in 2014, and long before that, Mendel had returned to the road with Foo Fighters.
Speaking to Music Radar in 2013, Mendel clarified the status of Sunny Day Real Estate, who have since reformed again in 2022, and explained what happened to their fifth album. At the time, he mentioned that they weren’t “doing anything” and recounted how they had reunited, only to have the recording sessions for the new record “just fall apart”.
Mendel said that the band had reconvened out of the blue and amended their friendships, putting the past behind them in view of playing their reunion shows. “It turned out great, and it was a lot of fun,” the bassist continued, adding: “We sort of accidentally wrote a song, and we were like, ‘OK, why don’t we try to do a record?'”
However, he added: “We spent a lot of time writing an album’s worth of songs and then went to record it in Los Angeles – all of the writing had been done up in the North West where most of the guys are located – and the recording process just… It just fell apart. So that was probably the end of that band – if we couldn’t make any new music, what’s the point?”
There was more to the story of the missing fifth Sunny Day Real Estate album, though. In December 2018, the vociferous Goldsmith claimed in a Facebook post that the record remained “silenced, abandoned and buried within the murkiest depths of David Grohl’s sock drawer”. He was later forced to clarify that this loaded statement referred to the studio where the sessions took place, Grohl’s Studio 606. He also claimed that the project was abandoned due to Enigk not getting “the moral support as well as engineering that he deserved”.
Goldsmith had more vitriol for his ex-band leader, too. He claimed that Grohl was unsupportive of The Fire Theft and, by extension, would not back a new Sunny Day Real Estate album. These comments also affected Mendel, who denied the allegations via a Foo Fighters representative. Goldsmith had the final word and claimed he and Mendel had not spoken since 2011 after a conference call to discuss finishing the fifth album that never arrived.
Definiting any kind of music is a mystery. Trying to categorise an art is at odds with its very nature. However, it is easy to categorise an artist’s career, and Sunny Day Real Estate, with its constant breakups, lost opportunities and missed moments of excellence, can easily be typified by the lost album it will never release.
