On The Quay

sundots’ second album is an extraordinary step forward for the Connecticut indie rock band. On the Quay is altogether dreamy, ruminative, and charged with emotive texture, recalling influences as disparate as the hazy guitar-pop of Duster, Galaxie 500, and Red House Painters to the knotty and deceptively complex emo of seminal acts like Karate. After several solo releases from bandleader Drew Collins under the name, On the Quay is the first full-band sundots record, and as a result, it’s a full-bodied and forceful level-up representation of the group’s sound—a record that feels timeless and in-the-moment all at once, with miles of melody for listeners to become blissfully lost within.

On the Quay represents a breakthrough moment for sundots, which initially started out as Collins’ solo project near the end of the 2010s. “I put it out just for my friends to listen to, because that was the first time I’d ever written songs on guitar,” he explains. “It was a new skill for me, and I was excited about it.” 2019’s room EP built steady buzz as Collins took a DIY approach, playing house parties to build a steady live following.

Eventually, he linked up with the intuitive musicians who make up sundots’ current lineup: guitarist Jake Fucci, bassist Austin Traver, guitar and synth player Teo Hernandez, and drummer Nick Restivo. Together, the quintet added new muscle to sundots’ distinctive sound as their live reach has continued to expand (including appearances at multiple Pitchfork festivals in Europe later this year), culminating in the widescreen approach captured within On the Quay.

On the Quay resulted in a marathon weekend of creative kismet in a Vermont cabin at the end of 2025. “The goal was to go there, write, and demo out as much stuff as we possibly could,” Collins recalls. “There were no distractions—we were in the mountains, getting lost in the process, and it was extremely successful.”

Helping bring together sundots’ in-the-room sound was Kevin S. McMahon (Real Estate, Widowspeak, Swans), who produced, engineered, and mixed the 12 spacious tunes that make up On the Quay. “He played a big role in helping us find exactly the sounds that we were looking for,” Collins says on working with McMahon, who he explicitly sought out based on his impressive CV and ability to capture the real feel of indie rock greats past and present. “I really wanted to capture the essence of sundots as a live act. A lot of the time, our performances change night to night because we inform each other in real time. I wanted to make sure we could capture that magic that happens to us onstage.”

While On the Quay’s music was heavily influenced by a desire to experiment with space and texture, Collins’ lyrics are a blend of diaristic and literary POVs—a marked shift from previous sundots records. “My music has always been reactionary to things that happen in my life,” he explains. “But for this record, I tried to insert myself into other stories I was reading while applying them to my own life. I was using fiction as a lens to approach and work out certain feelings I had.”

The dusky first single “Grassy Lawn,” with tangles of hazy tone verging on pure shoegaze, was influenced by a story featured in Ian McEwan’s First Love, Last Rites that centers around a doomed summer romance. “It’s about something that’s too perfect and precious to hold on to forever, from the point of view of being in the deterioration stage,” Collins explains, before revealing that the tune has been a fan favorite in live sets during sundots’ recent support run with label mates, Panchiko: “I’d initially given up on this song, but years later I brought it back to the band and we reimagined it. On our previous tour, every single night, people would come up to me and ask me what that song was so they could look it up. I was always sad to report that it wasn’t out yet.”

The propulsive “Someone Else’s Song” takes lyrical cues from the last story in James Joyce’s collection Dubliners, “The Dead,” and was written by Collins after the initial Vermont recording session: “After I’d written it, I brought it to the band and we were all really excited about it,” he explains. “I was really stressed with the album process, and writing that song was a tool to let off some steam.” With a blooming post-rock song structure, the unrequited love song “Distraction”—which was inspired by David Foster Wallace’s debut novel The Broom of the System—is especially representative of sundots’ sonic evolution, as it was one of the first songs the full band wrote in congress.

“It represented a turning point for the band, and informed our writing style towards a more jammy direction,” Collins reflects on how “Distraction” had an impact on the construction of On the Quay, as well as sundots’ currently charted musical course. “I let go of a lot of control and tried to have everyone meld together, and that ended up being how we approached the album in general.” And it’s that collaborative spirit that has ushered in this new era for sundots—an all-in-it mind-meld that Collins describes as deeply necessary for the project’s evolution.

“I got to a point where, as a solo project, I felt like I couldn’t really express the things that I wanted to anymore,” he says while talking about the moment that On the Quay represents for the band. “This record hits the mark for me when it comes to how I wanted to evolve the sound without forcing it, and it’s a reflection of our collaborative style—our ability to inform each other’s decisions in real time. Making it brought us a lot closer together.” And the results of their tight-knit camaraderie gesture towards a bright future for sundots beyond the undeniable achievement that is On the Quay.