Greenville rockers Sunhouse debut strong first album at Radio Room: Upstate Beat

Sunhouse, an Upstate quartet that has been together since only 2022, has made one of the best local releases of the year. Surprisingly, it’s the band’s first album.

That album, “No One’s Home,” is so melodically beguiling throughout that you might miss how adventurous the band’s arrangements are, and how wide a stylistic net it casts.

“Tiny Computers” is a jittery, caffeinated take on the chaos of the social media age that resembles the best New Wave artists of the early ’80s. “Things We Meant” is a gritty song that starts with a sparse rhythm and barbed-wire guitars and then builds to a full-on hard rock crescendo. And the closing track, “Curtain Call” is a stretched-out jam that never sags, thanks to the tight rhythms of bassist Evan Tate and drummer Brandon Sewell.

Sunhouse will play an album release show at the Radio Room in Greenville Nov. 22 to celebrate “No One’s Home” finally coming out after a lot of hard work.

The album took more than a year to record, and singer-guitarist Sawyer Rice describes the process as “a labor of love.”

TOWN Tracks: Sunhouse

“It was definitely a long process,” Rice said. “It was recorded at Brett Ensley Studios, and their recording engineer, Mike Horner, helped us arrange the songs and made us tighter as a band. We were very focused on the details and getting things right.”

It’s difficult to imagine the band needing to be tighter. Sunhouse’s sound has arrived fully formed, with Rice’s guitars filling wide-open spaces while Tate’s and Sewell’s rhythms bob and weave around the beat. Rice’s lyrics are just as strong, delivered in a weathered, emotional voice.

“The lyrics are definitely me wrestling with questions about being alive,” he said. “I feel like a lot of our songs revolve around a bigger idea, no matter how its presented.”

When we spoke, the band was still making a few tiny adjustments to the mix of “No One’s Home,” but Rice said he is looking forward to debuting the completed album and the band’s new four-piece lineup — featuring guitarist Andres Sanchez — at the Radio Room.

He’s also a little relieved that it is finally done.

“We have a lot of pride,” he said. “It’s an achievement to be able to say that we made this album. I’m really excited about seeing everybody at the Radio Room and being a part of this celebration of how far we’ve come.”