‘Sunday, Someday’ Celebrates LGBTQ Youth and QTPOC Communities

During these challenging times of COVID, musical artists are thinking outside the box of ways to collaborate and share their projects with the world.

Sunday, Someday is a new compilation album created by a group of likeminded musicians from the U.K., Pennsylvania, and Los Angeles. After their collective tour was canceled due to the pandemic, they began meeting virtually on Zoom every Sunday from April 2020 onward. The group is comprised of alt/punk band Nervus, indie/folk/punk songwriter Koji, singer-songwriter Solstice Rey, multimedia artists Full on Mone’t, and pop/rock trio Potty Mouth.

They decided to put together a record to fund top surgery and aftercare for a member of the group while also supporting LGBTQ youth and raising awareness about systemic oppression of QTPOC community members. The group wants Sunday, Someday to acknowledge the history of organizing and social movements and how creative communities can go about the work of community care and mutual aid.

OFM had the opportunity to chat with Potty Mouth members Abby Weems, Ally Einbinder, and Victoria Mandanas about the album. Sunday, Someday is now available via Get Better Records on all digital streaming platforms.Hello! Thank you all for taking some time to chat with me about your collaboration album, Sunday, Someday. Can you tell us how this album came to be?
Ally Einbinder: The album started because we were supposed to go on tour in the U.K. It was actually going to be Potty Mouth’s first-ever U.K. tour. It was scheduled for April 2020; then, of course, COVID happened, so the tour got canceled. As a result of that, Koji—they were supposed to be on that tour with us—they reached out to me and was like, ‘Hey, since we were all supposed to be on a tour, maybe we could get together on Zoom and just sort of meet each other and hang out.’ That happened one Sunday in April, and we have been doing it every Sunday since then.

It involves different people from the three bands that were supposed to be on that tour, plus some crew members. It basically turned into this community support group. It has been nice to be in a space with other working musicians who have been affected by the pandemic in the say way. Since we can’t play live shows right now, we were like, ‘Let’s make an album together.’ We were sitting on all this material, and Potty Mouth already had a relationship with Get Better Records. They were down to do it, so that is how it happened.

Get Better Records is a queer-run, indie label, and proceeds from Sunday, Someday will help support LGBTQ and QTPOC communities. Why are these initiatives so important to you?
Abby Weems: It originally started because a member of the group was getting top surgery and had a GoFundMe for it. It reached its goal, so we were like, ‘We should still raise money for causes like this.’ Whether it is within the group or outside the group, like Gabe, who was running the GoFundMe, works at an LGBTQ Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I think the Zoom group brought this attention to our minds of how this community needs support during this time. We want to do what we can to support each other and facilities that help these causes.

AE: We are trying to model mutual aid. The idea that we look out for each other, and there are these needs, especially within the LGBTQ and QTPOC communities. Gabe is Full on Mone’t; that is their artist name on the comp. They are the one who works for the LGBTQ Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, so the money that we raise from the comp is going to go towards building acoustic treatment for the kids at the LGBTQ Center with sensory needs.

Related Article: Rachael Sage: Musical, Artful, and Full of Hope

What do you hope listeners take away from the album?
AW: I think community support is really important and necessary. I wish everyone had a group like this. I am sure lots of people do, but just this idea of having an intentional space for people to vent to each other and support each other artistically. The album is fully collaborative because we have all contributed to the music and artwork. I did the album artwork; Em from Nervus mixed a lot of the tracks, and Koji mastered. It is fully a group project. We are putting all our resources together.

AE: Honestly, if you just listen to Koji’s song “Burn It Down, Grow a Garden,” I feel that song perfectly sums up what I hope people would get out of this collaboration album. Just see what is possible when a community of like-minded people get together and combine talents. Through this group, we have seen so much happen throughout the course of the last year. We started Zooming in April and have been Zooming every week, but we saw the racial uprising protests throughout the summer, the upsurge of COVID, then the election. So much has happened in the last year, and we have been processing a lot of that together. We hope and imagine a better future, and it is up to us. The lyrics of the song are pretty much like, “I believe there’s a world for you and me, a future worth imagining.” That idea of burning down all the shit and grow a garden from it.

The album’s first single, “Let Go,” was released earlier this year. How has it been received?
AW: It has been awesome. So far, a lot of the feedback has been really positive. A lot of people have been sharing it and putting it on playlists, which is awesome. So, yeah, a ton of positive and nice feedback, which is all you can really hope for.

AE: It feels good to release that song. Abby wrote “Let Go” in 2015, and it was recorded in 2018. Now, it is finally being released in 2021. It feels good to have it out, and we have so many other songs like that. We have plans for them, but that is just sort of the reality when you are an artist or in a band. The song does not always come out right after you record it, so it feels great to finally have it out.

How did Potty Mouth begin?
AW: We started in western Massachusetts. Ally and Victoria both went to Smith College, and I just grew up in the area. The three of us and our friend Phoebe started Potty Mouth just for fun. Our first band practice was in Ally’s living room. It was just something that we all wanted to do. I had never really written a song before, but we were like, ‘Let’s see what happens when we get together and make some music. Eventually, it turned into, ‘Let’s see what happens if we try to play a show. Let’s see what happens if we try to go on tour.’ It grew from there.What are you looking forward to the most about the release of Sunday, Someday?
AE: I am looking forward to the day we all meet each other in person. Obviously, I do not know when that is going to happen. We will just have to see how COVID pans out over the next year with travel and all that, but the goal is for us to eventually tour together, all five artists on the album. We are going to take the show on the road; we are going to call it Sunday, Someday the Musical, and we are going to offer songs on the record, plus more. It will feel great. The moment we all meet and get on stage together, I feel like I am going to burst from happiness.

AW: When the record comes out, we are also putting out a zine with it. I feel like once people get the full package of the record, the zine, and the little bundle, they will really see how much of a group we are. I feel it is hard to conceptualize when it is all online. It’s not like we can all post pictures together being like, here we are in the studio. The zine will sort of help visualize all that stuff, and I am just really excited for people to see it.

Victoria Mandanas: I am actually kind of the least involved. I don’t really go to the Sunday meetings, but I am just excited that something cool came of this.

AW: Yeah. What more can you ask for when a tour is canceled? It is the worst thing ever, obviously, but the fact that we were able to make something out of it, there is not much more we can ask for.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention our plug?
AW: I would say, plug Get Better Records. They have a lot of really cool releases coming out this year.

AE: We also have stuff on the docket for after the compilation record, so we will be doing more with Get Better. Like I said before, “Let Go” is just one of a bunch of unreleased songs that we have, so there will definitely be more after that.

To stay up-to-date with Potty Mouth, follow the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, or visit their official website. Click here for more information on Sunday, Someday.

Photos Courtesy of Naz Massaro