Sunk Loto
Template:Short description Template:COI Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox musical artist
Sunk Loto are an Australian nu metal / alternative metal band formed in Gold Coast, Queensland in 1997. The band's founding members are Dane Brown on drums, his brother Jason Brown on vocals, Luke McDonald on guitar and Sean Van Gennip on bass guitar. Sunk Loto signed a recording contract with Sony Music Australia when the members' average age was 16 years. They released two studio albums, Big Picture Lies (13 October 2000) and Between Birth and Death (17 November 2003); both reached the ARIA Albums Chart top 50. Sunk Loto toured internationally between 1997 and 2007 headlining their own shows, appearing at major festivals such as The Big Day Out and Livid, and playing alongside international bands such as Sevendust, Korn and Deftones. The group disbanded in December 2007, and after a 15-year hiatus the original members re-formed the band in 2022 and have since performed around Australia with 2 sold out national tours, and released their first new song in 20 years “The Gallows Wait” with new guitarist Rohan Stevenson after announcing they had parted ways with Luke McDonald. The band have announced they intend to release new music and continue touring.
HistoryEdit
1997–1999: Formation and Society AnxietyEdit
Sunk Loto formed as a heavy metal band, Messiah, in the Gold Coast, Queensland in March 1997 by Dane Brown on drums, his brother Jason Brown on lead vocals, Luke McDonald on guitar and Miles Matheson on bass guitar.<ref name="Nimmervoll">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> Originally named Messiah, Jason Brown had met Luke McDonald at a local music store, Jason brought his younger brother Dane to practice sessions and McDonald's school mate, Sean Van Gennip joined the band when Miles decided to part ways. Sean Van Gennip completed the new line-up.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> A year later they changed their name due to a London band of that name:<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> Jason explained "we looked up Messiah in the dictionary and one of the meanings was 'liberators of the oppressed' so we took the first letter of each word to form LOTO and SUNK from the sinking of the first name."<ref name="O'Gorman">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref>
In April 1999 the group signed with Epic Records when Dane was 13 and the band's oldest member, Van Gennip, was 17.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> In November that year, they released a five-track extended play, Society Anxiety, which was produced by Paul McKercher (the Cruel Sea, Spiderbait).<ref name="Sony Society">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Template:CbignoreNote: this source has Paul McKercher as producer.</ref><ref name="Beatdust">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Note: this source has Phil McKeller Template:Sic as the producer.</ref> It peaked in the ARIA Singles Chart top 40 at number 40.<ref name="ARIA Charts"/> Justin Donnelly of Blistering described their early sound "it was predictable. There wasn't much in the way of pushing the envelope song wise, and while the nu-metal angle is now a bit contrived, it was a sound that typified the time."<ref name="Donnelly">Template:Cite journal</ref> The administrator of Beatdust felt it "pays homage to its inspirations – elements of both Evil Empire era RATM and Deftones Around the Fur are heavily evident both musically and sonically throughout."<ref name="Beatdust"/> The lead track, "Vinegar Stroke", became a radio favourite.<ref name="Bartlett">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> The band performed at a range of festivals including Homebake promoting the EP and then commenced writing their debut studio album.
2000–2007: Big Picture Lies to Between Birth and DeathEdit
From 2000 to 2002 Adam Cox joined the band's live roster as their DJ, sampler and keyboardist.<ref name="Beatdust"/> Sunk Loto issued their debut album, Big Picture Lies (October 2000), with McKercher again as producer, in Sydney.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="Beatdust"/><ref name="SonyBMG Big">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> The band travelled to New York studio RPM to have it mixed by Michael Barbiero (Guns n Roses).<ref name="Beatdust"/> It peaked at No. 30 on the ARIA Albums Chart.<ref name="ARIA Charts">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to Australian music journalist, Ed Nimmervoll, they were "never really happy with [the album]. They'd been rushed. They knew the songs could have been better if they'd had more time."<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> It was dubbed, "competent but disappointing", by BeatdustTemplate:'s administrator.<ref name="Beatdust"/> The PostTemplate:'s Sam Bartlett observed, "[it] is all over the shop, suggesting a promising future, while summing up the coagulation of influences from hip-hop, rock, metal and even classical."<ref name="Bartlett"/>
Tim Cashmere of radioundercover.com felt it was "good work" and that unlike many contemporaries, the lead singer, "Jason does have a fairly decent voice."<ref name="Cashmere">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> However Cashmere was disappointed by the limited edition's bonus CD-ROM, which was "difficult to navigate, contentless, jerky horse poo."<ref name="Cashmere"/> The album's lead single, "Make You Feel" (August 2000), peaked at No. 33 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was followed in December by "Sunken Eyes", which reached the top 100.<ref name="ARIA Charts"/><ref name="ARIA Report 566"/> Cashmere described the former as being reminiscent of Korn and praised Jason's vocals on the latter.<ref name="Cashmere"/> Sunk Loto joined the Big Day Out tour in 2001, and also toured extensively for the following two years.<ref name="Alessio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Dom Alessio of Who the Hell noticed "They were being pushed by their label to be the next Silverchair."<ref name="Alessio"/> The group decided to improve the standard of song writing for their next album.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="Lazarevic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> Besides taking time with their song writing they faced personal hardships including the death of a friend, drug addiction, divorce and their equipment being stolen.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="Alessio"/><ref name="Lazarevic"/> The group rejected a number of demos, Jason recalled, "We've just been writing music pretty much and it just took us a while. We kept coming up with demos and they weren't good enough. We just knew we could do better."<ref name="Lazarevic"/>
On 17 November 2003 they issued their second album, Between Birth and Death, a significantly darker and heavier effort with Phil McKellar (Grinspoon, Silverchair, Spiderbait) producing.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="ARIA Report 718">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> It peaked at number 48 on the ARIA Albums Chart, No. 13 on the ARIA Australasian Artists and No. 4 on the ARIA Heavy Rock & Metal chart.<ref name="ARIA Charts" /><ref name="ARIA Report 718" /> Its lead single, "Everything Everyway", had appeared in October 2003, and reached the top 50 on the ARIA Singles Chart.<ref name="ARIA Charts"/> At the ARIA Music Awards of 2004, McKellar was nominated for ARIA Award for Engineer of the Year for his work on Between Birth and Death.<ref name="ARIA2004">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Alessio observed, "the band were struggling with a falling popularity, as well as dealing with managers who were ripping them off. Then the SonyBMG merger resulted in Sunk being dropped from the label."<ref name="Alessio"/> In 2006 Sean Van Gennip departed the band due to creative differences and was replaced on bass guitar by Rob Kaay (ex-Full Scale).<ref name="Alessio"/> The band finished a short Australian tour at the end of that year and planned to record their third studio album. McDonald wanted to "take their sound down an even darker path."<ref name="Beatdust" /> Dane, Jason and Kaay decided in May 2007 to work on a new project without McDonald,<ref name="Nimmervoll"/> due to irreparable creative and personal reasons.<ref name="Beatdust" /> Sunk Loto played their final show at the Hard Rock Hotel, Gold Coast on 14 December 2007.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/>
The Brown brothers and Kaay formed a new band, the Flood, which was short-lived.<ref name="Nimmervoll"/><ref name="Beatdust"/> Some of their tracks appeared on Kaay's Soundcloud page. Jason and Dane Brown later created Electric Horse with ex-members of fellow Gold Coast band, Lump.<ref name="Beatdust"/> Electric Horse issued an EP, Translations (2010), and a studio album, Venomous (2013).<ref name="Beatdust"/> McDonald was briefly a member of another Gold Coast group, Miacarla, before leaving the music industry.<ref name="Beatdust"/>
2022–present: ReformationEdit
After 15 years of being on hiatus, the band's founding members, Luke Mcdonald, Sean Van Gennip, Jason Brown & Dane Brown decided to reform Sunk Loto in 2022.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The band announced three shows in SE Queensland that immediately sold out and further touring was announced for later in 2022.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The band announced on 22 August 2023 that guitarist and co-founder Luke McDonald was no longer in the band.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> On September 4, 2023, Rohan Stevenson of Melbourne instrumental band 'I Built The Sky' was announced as McDonald's replacement, taking up lead guitar duties as a fulltime member of the band. On 3rd of October 2023, the band officially released the track The Gallows Wait,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> their first new music in almost 20 years.
Band membersEdit
Current members
- Jason Brown – lead vocals (1997–2007, 2022–present); rhythm guitar (2003–2007, 2022–present); bass guitar (1997–1998)
- Dane Brown – drums (1997–2007, 2022–present)
- Sean Van Gennip – bass guitar (1998–2006, 2022–present)
- Rohan Stevenson - Lead Guitar (2023-present)
Former members
- Luke McDonald- Lead Guitar, backing vocals (1997 -2007, 2022-2023)
- Miles Matheson – bass guitar (1997)
- Adam Cox – turntables, samples, keyboards (2000–2002; touring)
- Rob Kaay – bass guitar (2006–2007)
Timeline <timeline> ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:100 top:10 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/03/1997 till:{{#time:d/m/Y}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:4 ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1998 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1998
Colors =
id:Vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:BVocals value:pink legend:Backing_vocals id:Lguitar value:teal legend:Lead_guitar id:Rguitar value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_guitar id:Bass value:blue legend:Bass id:Keys value:purple legend:Turntables,_samples,_keyboards id:Drums value:orange legend:Drums id:Album value:black legend:Studio_album id:EP value:gray(0.6) legend:Other_releases
LineData =
layer:back color:EP at:23/11/1999 color:Album at:13/10/2000 at:17/11/2003
BarData =
bar:Jason text:"Jason Brown" bar:Luke text:"Luke McDonald" bar:Miles text:"Miles Matheson" bar:Sean text:"Sean Van Gennip" bar:Rob text:"Rob Kaay" bar:Adam text:"Adam Cox" bar:Dane text:"Dane Brown"
PlotData=
width:11 bar:Jason from:start till:14/12/2007 color:Vocals bar:Jason from:11/05/2022 till:end color:Vocals bar:Luke from:start till:14/12/2007 color:Lguitar bar:Luke from:11/05/2022 till:end color:Lguitar bar:Miles from:start till:12/12/1997 color:Bass bar:Sean from:01/01/1998 till:06/09/2006 color:Bass bar:Adam from:23/01/2000 till:07/04/2002 color:Keys bar:Rob from:06/09/2006 till:14/12/2007 color:Bass bar:Sean from:11/05/2022 till:end color:Bass bar:Dane from:start till:14/12/2007 color:Drums bar:Dane from:11/05/2022 till:end color:Drums width:3 bar:Luke from:start till:01/01/2003 color:Rguitar bar:Luke from:01/01/2003 till:14/12/2007 color:BVocals bar:Luke from:11/05/2022 till:end color:BVocals bar:Jason from:01/01/2003 till:14/12/2007 color:Rguitar bar:Jason from:11/05/2022 till:end color:Rguitar
</timeline>
DiscographyEdit
AlbumsEdit
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| AUS <ref name="ARIA Charts"/> | ||
| Big Picture Lies |
|
30 |
| Between Birth and Death |
|
48 |
Extended playsEdit
| Title | EP details | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| AUS <ref name="ARIA Charts"/> | ||
| Society Anxiety |
|
40 |
SinglesEdit
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| AUS <ref name="ARIA Charts"/> | |||
| "Make You Feel" | 2000 | 33 | Big Picture Lies |
| "Sunken Eyes" | citation | CitationClass=web
}}Template:Cbignore</ref> | |
| "Everything Everyway" | 2003 | 46 | Between Birth and Death |