Sundressed is Trevor Hedges and the friends he keeps pulling into the room to help him make the most honest record he can. He’s been doing it since 2012. More than a decade later, the band makes emotional indie punk that doesn’t flinch — songs about mental health, recovery, love, and the stubborn act of choosing to keep going. The music coming out of San Diego right now — unhurried, collaborative, written in the middle of real loss — sounds like a band that has earned every note of it.
SNQLX: Sundressed started as a personal project with a specific purpose. Over time, what has stayed constant about why you make music — and what has fundamentally changed?
SUNDRESSED: It has definitely remained personal in the sense that come from places in my heart and brain that just need to get out. Over the years working with different friends and collaborators in the band, it’s almost become a collective in the sense that I have so many people willing to contribute their time and energy into the songs
SNQLX: There’s a version of this band that stays small and private, and a version that signs to a label and tours with Fall Out Boy. How do you hold both of those versions of Sundressed in the same identity?
SUNDRESSED: You know, there have been so many big “almost” tours back in the day and nothing ever came to fruition, I’m just glad I have the opportunity to make another record and keep putting music out. Obviously I’d love to be financially stable from doing what I love, but I have to say I need to keep a level of intimacy to be able to be there for the people that have cared about this band already and have kept it alive for 15 years.
SNQLX: When you write about mental health, sobriety, or anxiety, are you writing toward the listener — or is the listener a byproduct of writing toward yourself?
SUNDRESSED: Oh gosh, it’s definitely a mix of both! Some are talking to my younger self, some are talking to friends seeing the same patterns. I’ve definitely had a lot of cool talks at the merch booth about peoples journeys through addiction and mental health battles. That’s just something that makes it all worth it to me
SNQLX: The self-titled album was described as a pivot toward the present — away from anticipatory dread. What actually shifted in your writing to make that happen, and did it feel like a decision or did the songs just start coming out differently?
SUNDRESSED: That’s interesting I’ve never heard it described that way, I guess that first record kinda sent me toward a long path of self acceptance and I realized singing about sad stuff is great, but if you offer a little hope in there, a little self love, it changes the vibe .
SNQLX: (s)undressed vol.1 has a noticeably different texture — more stripped, more intimate, self-released on Bandcamp. What were you trying to hear in those four tracks that a full production wouldn’t allow?
SUNDRESSED: Honestly those were just some popular tracks that I had been playing acoustic occasionally and thought it’d be fun to reimagine some!
SNQLX: You’ve described certain songs as emotional anchors — “Something Good” being one of them. What does it feel like to perform a song that carries that much personal weight night after night?
SUNDRESSED: That one specifically chokes me up for sure, I feel like it just captures that frustration empathetic people have a better world, and it has a lot of yelling at the end and that gets me GOING!
SNQLX: When a collaborator enters the room — Sydney Sprague, City Mouth, Have Mercy — what do they unlock that you can’t get to on your own?
SUNDRESSED: Sundressed has always been a collaborative method of me and my friends and these just happened to be artists I was friends with or had songwritten with before and honestly it’s just fun to have talented friends lend their voice and perspective on your song !
SNQLX: The phrase “emotional indie punk” is the tag Sundressed carries. Does it fit the way you experience the music — or is it a container that’s starting to feel tight?
SUNDRESSED: Hmm hard to say, I like to say that we have started the songs on acoustic and dressed em up how they’ve come out. I like to just say emo at this point or adult contemporary emo because I’m almost forty and I’m still writing emo songs 😂
SNQLX: You’ve built a community around this band that seems to attract people in specific kinds of pain. What responsibility do you feel toward that audience when you’re writing?
SUNDRESSED: You know, I find it important to advocate for less heard voices with what little platform I have on stage to let everyone know that someone on stage thinks they matter no matter their identity. After talking to some kids at our last show, it really make me realize that even if it’s a handful of kids, their favorite band makes a profound impact on them, and I can just be there for them and make them feel less alone. Every single person that walks into that venue matters so much and a lot of them don’t think they do. That’s the person I wanna be for them and I take that very seriously
SNQLX: What do you want someone to walk away feeling after their first full listen of the self-titled record — not what you want them to think, but what you want them to feel?
SUNDRESSED: lol there is one track I would yeet off it if we repressed it!
In all actuality though, I hope they find some nostalgia and some comfort listening to that record. It’s ten years old next year and looking back those were just really fun exciting times for the band and we probably played the most shows of our career touring that album
SNQLX: What’s the version of Sundressed you haven’t made yet — the record or the moment that still feels out of reach
SUNDRESSED: There’s some rawness and naivety from the first record I am definitely tapping into with this new record, ideally late fall. I am fortunate to have a patient producer and no deadline and these songs just keep growing. I don’t know what it is but we’re onto something with this batch of songs and I think that’s the sundressed that’s coming!
Direct to You.
