Originally published in Excommunication issue #2

During the summer of ’02, I spent two months slumming in Old Saybrook, Connecticut, in a little studio apartment above the Fastmusic Label office. It was an interesting time for all. The Fastmusic crew became used to seeing me walk through the office every morning wrapped in a towel to use the downstairs bathroom (where the only shower was), and I got accustomed to a parade of visiting bands from out of town. One such band was a group of up-and-comers from southern Massachusetts called Sonny. I became acquainted with Joe Urban, guitarist for Sonny, and I was impressed by his hardworking attitude and surprisingly entrepreneurial endeavors — especially for someone just out of high school. With his band making waves and his record label, Dirty Work Records, making a name for itself, it seemed appropriate to put the spotlight on Joe and sweat some answers out of him.

Hi Joe Urban. Is “Urban” your real last name, or is it a pseudonym that makes you sound like you’re not from a podunk Massachusetts town? Was Urban Outfitters named after you?
Yes, Urban is my real last name. I actually get this question a lot. Some people think it is my “stage name.” I’ll set the record straight now by finally revealing that it is my real name. About the town…well… it’s sad to say that our town is nothing to look at. There really isn’t much to do in Wilbraham, Massachusetts. But we manage to get through the days. Also, Urban Outfitters was not named after me but it should have been since I have a killer style.

Onto your band’s name: how did you get the name “Sonny?” Weren’t you guys known as “Plan B” in the past?
Well, Matt actually came up with name. If you have ever seen the movie A Bronx Tale, (and if you didn’t, you should, because it’s an amazing movie) the main character’s name is Sonny and we all love that movie and love the character. He’s kinda the badass person we all wish we were. Back in the day we were called Plan B, but that changed kinda fast.

Why did you have to change your name?
When Fastmusic was trying to sign us, we ran into the problem of having about 5,000 bands in the world called Plan B. To avoid any type of lawsuit or confusion we had to change our name. We went through a long process of trying to figure out what band name to use. We even pitched a couple ideas to Fastmusic as a joke. It was quite funny. We can save those names for another interview, so we can possibly keep this PG.

Please tell me all about the new album Sonny just released, and explain to me the relationship that your record label, Dirty Work Records, has with Fastmusic.
The new album is called A Temporary Remedy and it was released November 26 on Fastmusic (plug, plug). We think it’s considerably better than our first EP, Picturesque. We feel like we have grown as a band and have more of our own sound on this record, though these days it’s quite hard to have your “own sound.” The songs are more developed and flow better than the EP. The funny thing is about our last two records, we really didn’t have a chance to drop any songs. Every song we wrote for each album got recorded. In fact, the best songs on the new album were written at Matt’s house, about a week before recording with him playing a riff and me just saying, “Yeah that rocks…let’s make it a song.”

This whole label relationship is quite complicated. I’ll do my best to make it as simple as possible: first of all, my label, Dirty Work Records, paid for the recording of the EP and decided that we should try to find another label to press it. This was basically to get two labels doing promotion for it. A smart idea, since I really didn’t care about the money. Just making the band heard. Cheapskate Records came in there. They paid for the pressing without even seeing us play at all. Just on the sound of the album. It was a big risk and we really love the fact they did it for us. Soon after we sent off the EP to a bunch of bigger labels. A few labels called back, but the one that really stood out was Neal and Fastmusic. Neal (owner of Fastmusic) is great and has done nothing but great things…like getting us on the Warped Tour and getting us some great tour offers. To make a long story short we signed with Fastmusic, and every label loves each other.

What is it like running your own record label? I understand you started that label when you were quite young.
Yeah, I started Dirty Work Records back when I was 17. We have put out three records now and have more coming. Running a record label is so hard, especially when your band is on it. I’m basically the manager of the band. It’s a lot of work, but it pays off when we get to play great shows like our little stint on the Warped Tour this year. The first record we put out was the Grandprixx Seeing Stars EP. In fact, they were going to sign to Fastmusic at the time, but didn’t, so they needed some money to record and I was in the right place at the right time. It’s all a big coincidence I guess…even Ali (ex-drummer of the Prixx) is our drummer now. I figure things happen for a reason. And hopefully this band is the reason.

What do you have planned for your record label in the coming year?
Well, in 2003 we are putting out a full-length, a split, and a compilation for Warped Tour. The split is going to be with Sonny and another band. Sonny is going into the studio in December to record four kickass new songs to be released around May. Right now we are searching for some awesome bands to put out. The last two bands I tried to sign — Senses Fail and The Getaway — have since signed to Epitaph and Drive Thru. Those bands rock so check ’em out.

How about your band? What are your collective goals? Would you like to eventually make playing in Sonny your career?
As a band, I think we would love to have a record that everyone can get their hands on. We just wanna have our music available to as many people as possible by touring and through distribution. It would be great to tour all over the country and have that be our “job.” Right now some of us are still in high school so it’s tough — though we do try our best to get out as much as possible. Hopefully with Fastmusic helping us we will have the opportunity to do so.

Who all makes up the band Sonny? How many former members of Sonny are there floating around New England?
Sonny is Matt on the microphone, Nick on guitar, Ali on drums, Rob on bass, and I also play the guitar. Our first drummer, Phil, who is amazing at drums and played drums on both records, has since left. We sadly had to let him go because he was busy with school and just couldn’t tour all the time. Seth played bass for us, but for musical differences we had to let him go also. I sound like a crude businessman that is firing his employees, but these are all on good notes. We replaced Phil with Ali. That was quite easy, since Ali lives about seven houses down from me and is a great friend of mine. Then after many phone calls we got Rob to fill in on bass for tour. And he turned out to be amazing (possibly the funniest kid I know), so we kept him. This is our official lineup, and we are very happy with it.

If the members of Sonny had a wrestling tournament, who would come out as champion?
Hands down Nick would win. No doubt about it. He’s been known to be late for practice because he was at the gym. And the ladies call him “arms.” To settle our disputes on tour, Matt has had the idea of doing locker boxing, (I’m not sure that’s the correct term) but basically it’s two people put on boxing gloves and hockey helmets and beat the living crap out of each other. First rule of locker boxing…don’t talk about locker boxing.

If there was one band out there that you could tour the nation with, who would it be, and why?
Right now my favorite band is Taking Back Sunday. They are great and are also the nicest guys ever. Right this second I can’t think of anyone I would rather tour with. I would have to video tape every show and make a little documentary of all the events that happened.

Lastly, write a haiku about Sonny.
Nick, Ali, Rob, Matt, Joe
Sociably acceptable
Five guys in a band.