High Sunn

High Sunn is the project of San Francisco’s Justin Cheromiah, who started using the name to upload his garage rock-influenced home recordings as a 14-year-old in 2014. His sound developed across dozens of releases over the next few years to the more coherent lo-fi guitar pop that marked High Sunn’s first studio and full-band LP, Missed Connections, in 2018.
Cheromiah’s entirely self-made debut album, High Sunn, appeared on Bandcamp in mid-2014. He followed it with a steady stream of singles, EPs, and LPs exploring shoegaze, punk, and melodic guitar pop, including September 2015′s Luv Songs for Whiners. It featured drums and percussion by Tristin Sovannarath, who became a regular contributor to Cheromiah’s recordings. A month later, The Okada Bedroom Sessions offered a feedback- and distortion-filled collection of “songs that were either rough drafts or thrown in the trash.”
Subsequent releases included the split EP Emotional sHits with childhood friends Junkie in April 2016, and that July, his live drummer Joe Jensen appeared on Flower Funeral. The latter received a cassette release on Crafted Sounds (U.S.) and Galaxy Train Records (Japan). Z Tapes issued the 20-track collection Sequential Sakura that October. Another collection of otherwise discarded ideas and demos arrived in the form of sorryidroppedyoufrommyanimelist. With production help from prior collaborator John Mello, even the rougher demos demonstrated a tendency toward more structured, melody-focused songs.
High Sunn’s first studio recording, the Hopeless Romantic EP, was issued in May 2017. The release was also the project’s first full-band recording; Cheromiah was joined in the studio by Jensen on drums, lead guitarist Freddy Rivera, bassist Arianna Vazuez, and producer/engineer Dylan Wall. Made with the same team, High Sunn’s full-length studio debut, Missed Connections, followed in May 2018 on Pnk Slm. The collaborative album following up and EP Haven’s Gate appeared before the end of the year.
In January 2019, the Spirit Goth cassette club gave Our Perception a physical release. High Sunn self-released the love-themed L 4 U <3 EP a month later before the Cleopatra label issued COFFIN 3Y3S (aka Coffin Eyes) that July. ~ Marcy Donelson