Courtesy of Sunshower

This past semester, a new band has officially bloomed at Bowdoin. Sunshower is a self-proclaimed alternative rock band that is made up of Zain Blair-Roberts ’28, Maya Funez ’28, Rhys Vaughn ’28 and Lionel Yu ’28. They have already made their mark on the college’s music culture over their first three performances. Two members, Funez and Vaughn, are also members of the student group Pariah, which opened the Spring Concert last year for Del Water Gap and redveil.

Most recently, the nascent band performed at MacMillan House in a double headline alongside Camille Baratier ’28 for a packed audience of students, marking their third performance with a setlist of indie rock classics.

Liam Rodríguez ’28 opened the show, followed by Baratier and Sunshower. One of the songs, “Jesus, Etc.” by the alternative rock band Wilco, featured a performance by student-violinist Eben Buck ’28.

The setlist included covers of Radiohead’s “Anyone Can Play Guitar” and “Bodysnatchers,” as well as another hit by Wilco, “I’m the Man that Loves You.”

Yu, one of the singers in the band, highlighted its improvement in this most recent performance.

“I think we were much tighter this show compared to our second show, [in which] we had some setup issues, some feedback issues. This one was very clean” Yu said. “The new song we did, ‘Trinidad’ by Geese, was insanely fun.… We had some performances down, so we had an idea of how we wanted to be, how we’re talking to the crowd, how we’re performing, how we’re structuring our set.”

Guitarist Vaughn and singer Yu were the catalysts for the formation of the group.

“I was roommates with Rhys, who was in the band Pariah,” said Yu. “We both knew that we were both very musically inclined. We both played guitar.… The idea of working together to do something was always floating around there, but I guess it started where we were like, ‘Oh, there are some songs that I wanted to play, in a band setting.’”

Funez was the drummer for Pariah and agreed to join the new group. Blair-Roberts was a friend of the other members, coming on to play bass.

Despite some difficulties scheduling their first show, the group eventually debuted at Reed House’s Fall Festival during the past semester.

“Our first performance was at Reed Fall Fest last year,” said Yu. “We had originally wanted to do a Baxter Porch concert on a Thursday. We learned that we can’t do concerts on Thursdays or outdoor concerts on Thursdays. So we had to postpone it. And then one of our friends, Margot [Trout ’28], who lives in Reed came to us and said ‘You guys should play for this.’”

The band has become known for its collaboration with other student artists, performing alongside Trout, Buck and most recently, Baratier. Yu explained that this collaboration was born from a desire to play different kinds of music outside of the group’s usual repertoire.

“I think in our very first rehearsal, some of the other members suggested the song ‘Idaho’ by Slow Pulp, and that song called for a female singer….” Yu said. “And we were like, ‘Okay, we know, our friend Margot, she sings.’… We got her in the room and we actually played the song and we were like, ‘this is awesome.’”

The band has set their sights on a new acoustic set for their upcoming performances as well as a potential run at Battle of the Bands in the Spring.

“Battle of the Bands is everyone’s goal,” Yu said. “But we want to win all bands this year for the spring concert, so we can get a really nice, big set on a big stage and just have a lot of fun. But also we just want to learn a lot of cool songs. I know Rhys and I have both made some upgrades to our equipment so that allows us to tackle some more stuff, like an acoustic set now. So that opens up the kinds of sounds we can do.”

Camille Baratier ’28 is a member of The Bowdoin Orient.