Purveyors of: Intensely likeable retro tunes with heavy nods to music from films and the gentler moments of 1952-1985.
File next to: The Shadows, Luna, certain Jonathan Richman phases.
Playing the Wavelength/greetings from Toronto co-presentation of A Madcap Night of Royal Debauchery May 17 @ Handlebar.

Straight out of Sunderland, Ontario, The Sandy Pockets specialize in music that is all about mood, ambience and comfort. The Julee Cruise Ships (a.k.a. The Pockets with a rebrand) specialize in music from David Lynch's back catalogue. Both monikers work, and work well. These sister outfits lean on the legacies of swing, surf, Motown, indie and a few of other genres, but never come off as inauthentic or cloying (hi, Squirrel Nut Zippers). This is music for NOW that celebrates THEN. Wavelength caught up with lead Pocket/Ship Tony Neale for quickie Q+A about tunes, movies... and farming!

For the uninitiated, compare and contrast The Julee Cruise Ships and The Sandy Pockets, sound-wise. Where did the idea to hatch a Twin Peaks “cover band” come from?

The Sandy Pockets play an upbeat mix of surf, jazz, swing and rockabilly. With JCS, we do our best to recreate the eerie, ethereal music of David Lynch, [Angelo] Badalamenti and [Julee] Cruise. I guess what we share in common is reverb.

Do you/will you play music from other Lynch productions besides Twin Peaks?

We play some of the songs from Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Lynch is right there with Tarantino in having reliably awesome music in his films. I re-watched Twin Peaks last winter and remembered how great the score was — that was sort of the impetus for the band.

Your music definitely has an “old school” feel. Were you always interested in older music growing up and developing into a musician?

I was always drawn to the 1960s girl groups like the Supremes and the Shangri-Las. My mom used to exercise to the oldies, so maybe that's where it comes from? In the last year, we've been playing a lot more traditional jazz and western swing, largely from the 1930s and ‘40s.

As a non-Toronto band who play in Toronto a lot, how are you received by “locals”? Any biases or issues we should be working on?

It's been good so far, but it sure is a lot harder getting people to dance in Toronto. But we think we've now figured out how to do it.

You play in smaller towns like Peterborough quite a bit. Are there any smaller scenes doing interesting things that Torontonians may not be aware of?

Well, again, they're doing a lot more dancing, that's for sure. It's the most fun when the crowd can be bopping along with us.

Just curious, tell us about your day job. We hear there are some deep farming roots (pun intended) in the band?

At many of our shows, our merch table consists of bok choy and frozen sausages. Jay (drums) and Jess (keys) started the band with me when we all worked together years ago at Wheelbarrow Farm. Corry (vocals, trumpet) is the manager of the Sorauren Farmers' Market, where I vend. She joined us when I was looking for some help doing back-up vocals on an early recording. We've played with a few bassists, but our current guy Mike worked up here last year as well. So we are a farm band really. There's nothing like a full day in the field and then a night-cap in the basement kickin' out the jams.

Both The Sandy Pockets and The Julee Cruise Ships are playing the Wavelength A Madcap Night of Royal Debauchery Saturday, May 17 @ Handlebar (159 Augusta Avenue)

- Interview by Cam Gordon (Completely Ignored)