A Chat with The Sunny Smiles Three (29.10.25)
Describing their music as “vaguely acoustic music for the vaguely thinking person”, John Parkes (vocals and guitar), Alaric Lewis (bass) and Simon Smith (drums) share moving melodies as The Sunny Smiles Three. We speak with Parkes about their album, Some Everyday Hazards, what music means to them, advice for new artists, and much more.
OSR: Rather cliché, but how did The Sunny Smiles Three come about? What drew you all to music and to each other?
Parkes: I’ve known Simon the drummer for a very long time (lost to memory really), and it just happened that when I wanted to do some things with a band that wasn’t “a rock band”, Simon was starting to use a much more acoustic drum sound, and he was up for doing something. Nowadays (in contrast to his days with The Wedding Present), he often uses anything but sticks to hit the drums and often drapes them with various kinds of materials and objects to produce slightly different sounds. We vaguely knew Alaric from other bands and have friends in common, so we asked him if he might be interested – and it turned out that accessing the rounded, melodic side of him (he also plays in punk bands so he has other sides!) worked. But the short answer is, I knew the people, asked the people, the people said yes! I have no idea how Simon and Alaric got into music; for me, it was having an older sister with a really good (though small) record collection heard through the bedroom wall.
OSR: The band is named after the fundraising scheme, “Sunny Smiles”. What prompted you to use this name, and what significance does it have?
Parkes: Since a lot of the songs are about death and ‘dark and slightly weird stuff’, calling the band The Sunny Smiles Three is kind of ironic, irony being one of the things we like. But the original charity fundraising scheme (from the 60s and 70s I think), while being well intentioned, falls into the category of ‘things you wouldn’t do nowadays’. So it’s kind of retro and a bit dark. Just to explain, the Sunny Smiles scheme involved you turning up to school with a booklet full of small black and white photos of some of the children who were being looked after in National Children’s Homes. People chose the photo and handed over money for it. You’d collect the money and hand it in. Unfortunately, it kind of became a beauty contest – kids would buy the ‘attractive’ pictures and not buy the others. As I say, you really wouldn’t do that now…
OSR: What does music mean to you?
Parkes: Life is a metaphor for music! It’s pretty all-consuming and somehow can be a way of magnifying and clarifying, soothing and riling up. It’s an odd thing how it feels so important. And one thing I always want to mention is that it’s not just entertainment; in fact, often it feels nothing like entertainment at all. Maybe it’s entertainment plus?!
OSR: You recently released your album, Some Everyday Hazards. What can you tell us about the album? Is there a backstory or particular themes in it?
Parkes: It’s the second album, a moving on from our initial ‘folk-tinged’ phase. We had a pile of stuff to choose from and put some time and effort into choosing the tracks to flow together (in the old-fashioned album side 1 / side 2 way). There are story elements and musings on life but with some slightly odd stuff verging on the supernatural – ‘Mr Fodgety’ is a kind of ancient imaginary friend, ‘Enter Dr Beak’ is a tale of folk beliefs, ‘The Ark’ is vaguely about the Ark of the Covenant, ‘Can’t See it All’ is about not being able to understand everything and ‘Building’ is about moving towards death! But there are also a couple of old-fashioned relationship songs too.
OSR: It’s often difficult for musicians to choose a particular song, but which is your favourite track on Some Everyday Hazards, and why that track?
Parkes: I’m not sure I’m a musician (the other two are more so, probably) – I always think of musicians as people who know their scales, etc. and aren’t just winging it all the time. But with regard to the songs, it’s not easy untangling a song from its background and the various circumstances around it – I like ‘Primitive Grassland’s because it was recorded completely live – but my favourite song is ‘Enter Dr Beak’ or possibly ‘Little Richard’. ‘Dr Beak’ has great chords and lyrics in my opinion, and it just fell together with the perfect bass and drums. ‘Little Richard’ is a favourite as it (in my opinion again) summarises our feelings about rock and roll and being in a band and what we want to do in just over 2 minutes! I mean, “if we rise to our full height, maybe we’ll catch Joni Mitchell’s smile”! Oh, and they’re probably the best tunes.
OSR: If you could change anything about Some Everyday Hazards, what would it be and why?
Parkes: We might pump up the mastering process a bit, but that’s a kind of technical thing. And we’d lose the white stripe down the middle of the gatefold on the CD! But apart from that, nothing really.
OSR: If you had to recommend a song to a new listener, which of the tracks would you recommend and why?
Parkes: They’re all different! But maybe ‘Mr Fodgety’, which gives an idea of the overall sound and the kind of things we sing about.
OSR: Do you have any advice for emerging musicians?
Parkes: I think you need to decide what you want out of music / being in a band – you can either make the music you really want to make and/or push the boundaries a bit, or decide that you want to get paid or even make a living out of it. If you’re really lucky, maybe both will be possible. And occasionally look at the success you have achieved rather than the things that other people seem to have achieved. You might be living through the best bit – don’t miss it, it might not happen again.
OSR: What can we expect from The Sunny Smiles Three in the future?
Parkes: Doing some gigs would be nice, but we’re rarely together for long enough for that to happen, especially as gigs are booked so far in advance. But we have more stuff recorded, so there’ll definitely be more stuff being released. More music, more videos (we managed a video for every track on this album), more of everything, hopefully.
OSR: Do you have a message for our readers?
Parkes: Ooh, blimey…please just keep keeping your ears open, I guess. And pay for stuff you like if you can afford it! And thank you for your attention.
Many thanks to John Parkes for speaking with us. Find out more about The Sunny Smiles Three on their official website, Facebook, X, Bandcamp, Soundcloud and Spotify.
