Sound Seekers by Fateema Sayani is published weekly at OttawaMagazine.com. Read Fateema Sayani’s culture column in Ottawa Magazine and follow her on Twitter @fateemasayani

Little Suns on the problem with band names 

In the last little while, members of the band known as Dry River Caravan upped and moved to Montreal, changed their name to Little Suns and got a deal with a True North Records subsidiary. When the band participated in the 2008 folk festival up-and-comer competition called Springboard, people took to their jumbled sound that seemed to riff off of the band Beirut. The festival’s artistic director Chris White said, at the time, that the band had two styles: “like something you might hear from Eastern Europe and something that sounds more like Fred Eaglesmith.” These days their sound is lusher and less married to a folk form. You can hear four tracks from the band’s forthcoming album, Normal Human Feelings, to be released October 8, right here. SOUND SEEKERS caught up with the band’s John Aaron Cockburn to talk about the highlights.

SOUND SEEKERS: Why the name change? Dry River Caravan sounded pretty cool.
JOHN AARON COCKBURN: I was never really satisfied with the name Dry River Caravan — even from the beginning. I wanted a name that wouldn’t bring any genres to mind and wouldn’t be limiting at all in terms of moving forward and evolving. To me, Little Suns does not come attached with a particular genre or sound. It could be anything, and that’s what I wanted for the band. (more…)