An emotive many of many words with a healthy obsession with all things music, Solid-State Sunlight seems to just be kicking off the ground considering he just started not too long ago in 2022 / 2023. Regardless the man’s crunchy guitars, grunge aesthetics, punk stylings, all give way to a quasi garage-industrial style. Founder Will N was kind enough to stop by for today’s edition of INTRODUCING and tell us all about the project. Read below.
Give us a brief about your band. Who are you and what do you do?
Solid-State Sunlight is a solo project based in Denver, USA, comprised of yours truly, Will N. It’s a passion project whose eccentric sound tends to orbit a core of darkwave, industrial, and hard rock. Conceptually, the lyrics for each track tell a story grounded within a science-fiction world that continues to expand as our characters grapple with emergent sentience, subversion, and conflict.
When did you first launch the project and how has it come along since?
Looking back, this project marks a return to making music after exiting the scene many many years ago. Back then I was in a goth-rock band called Caustic Soul, who successfully bummed-out the Denver scene for several years.
Began writing the music that would become SSS back in ‘22-23. Recording, mixing, and mastering the first EP took ages since it involved all of the trial & error that accompanies learning (and re-learning) new things. Huge props to trusted colleague, Michael Smith (Fiction8, Bleak Assembly), for helping me maintain sanity through the reboot process.
The resulting debut EP ExoAnthro was released in 2024 and became the initial benchmark of what I was capable of producing as a belligerent ‘determined’ novice. After that, I set out to make every major release significantly better than its prior neighbor.
Three new tracks were released as singles in 2025, featuring the efforts of some truly remarkable humans: Dan Milligan (drums), Mark Alan Miller (mastering), and MoonCoilMedia (promotion). These tracks were, in my opinion, objectively better than the EP, and with them in tow I am actively working on the band’s first full LP.
What bands and artists influenced you the most and why?
Tough to pick favorites.. Like a parent smiling, shaking their head, declining to name their favorite child (but we all know they have one).
Failure: this band exemplifies sonic primacy. I’m not sure how they work their songwriting & engineering magicks but in my opinion their execution is unmatched. I love their sound, their arrangement, their almost-slouchy precision. When stuck I often ask myself how the struggling musical element would sound if I heard it on a Failure record.
Prick: Deft artistic swagger. McMahon somehow swerves across punk irreverence and tender reflection, crashing into noisy thrash. When I feel like my sound is getting boring I reach for my Prick albums to get out of a rut.
Stabbing Westward: Synth all of the things. I love my synths, but sometimes the grunge roots kick in and I end up needing to add keys to a track whose first draft would feel at home in the setlist of 1993 – MTV Drops the Ball. In these moments I take a breath and give some early Stabbing Westward a spin. Suddenly synth counterpoint riff ideas start beaming in from the beyond, resulting in some of the thickest grooves I’ve ever created.
If you could pick a single song from your discography to explain your music, which song would you pick and why?
‘Halogen Dusk’ (rel Sept 2025): SSS music is all over the place so it’s tricky to assign a single ambassador, but this track captures the subtle sweetness of budding self-awareness interwoven with ‘more human than human’ themes, wrapped in shimmering synthwave gloom. That contrast can be felt all throughout my work. Whether it’s light lyrics set against heavy / dark music, or vice versa, there’s always an uneasy truce hanging in the balance.
What is your most recent release and what is it about?
‘Fall Apart’ (rel Oct 2025): This is an example of grunge DNA inhabiting an otherwise perfectly normal electronic-rock song. Lyrically, it is a protest anthem against the cruelty of oligarchy, told through the perspective of a cynical technocracy that deeply resents its duty to care for its human bretheren.
Fun fact: despite the dark subject, the lyric video for this song is kinda hilarious.
Take us through your creative process. How do you compose a song from start to finish? Where do the ideas come from?
When writing new music I hear rhythmic patterns first, whether it’s language or percussive noise, all else steadily gloms onto the original groove, supporting and extending it until there’s enough to begin storybuilding and developing lyrics (often constrained in support of the original rhythmic pattern). The lyrics then inform what direction the production phase goes. A shouty guitar-driven rock song gets very different treatment than a smokey-vox synth track does. No two tracks have taken the same path (thus far), as the seed pattern can be derived from any source: from a stilted, staccato reading of a favorite poem, to the point-counterpoint of dogs barking across the street.
What’s your current favorite song, band, or album within your scene? And vice versa, what do you enjoy the most that’s completely opposite of what you make?
SubNatural – ‘Was It’: Discovered this via the Sounds & Shadows FB group on Bandcamp Friday a couple months back. Catchy and punches hard. Stop what you’re doing and go check it out. I’ll wait. Go ahead, I’ll hold your place right here.
…Oh hai, you’re back. Ready for opposite-land?
Worse in Person – My Hobbies Suck (EP): Looked these guys up after stumbling onto them in the video game ‘Pacific Drive’. Snarky, manic Seattle punk. “My hobbies SUCK ((your hobbies suck)), I’ve given up doin’ what I lo-ove!” Direct hit to my battleship, man. Chef’s kiss, no notes.
What is on the horizon for your project? Upcoming gigs, tours, merch, videos, etc. Name it, link it, show it off.
I’ve been assembling lyric videos for recent releases and posting them to YouTube, so definitely check those out if you want a glimpse of the imagery and emotion I carry for each of these tracks: Solid-State Sunlight on YouTube.
Currently working on artwork for a short run of cassette singles for the 2025 tracks. Yeah it’s true that there aren’t many cassette players out there, but tapes are such a uniquely-pleasant physical artifact to hold. They’re like a music storage device that doubles as a fidget spinner. Keep an eye on the Solid-State Sunlight merch page if you want one of those. Designing something special if you manage to collect all three.
As a devout hermit, there have been no live performances of SSS’ music to date. However, an undeniable urge to play live occasionally arises, so this trend is likely to be broken. Stay tuned, and you just might get to witness me publicly navigate a panic attack while zorching a shambling heap of malfunctioning instruments. Latest news & events are posted on typical social outlets, so follow however you prefer: Facebook, Insta, BlueSky, or navigate the nexus of all things SSS at solidstatesunlight.com.
