The Sonic Dawn

The Sonic Dawn is an eclectic Danish retro-rock combo with a knack for pairing jazzy, sitar-laced pop with cavernous, psych-blasted acid rock. Emerging in 2013, the band quickly established itself as a vital regional live act, and released their debut album, Perception, two years later. They began to turn heads overseas with subsequent releases like Eclipse (2019) and Enter the Mirage (2020). Formed in Copenhagen in 2013 by childhood friends Emil Bureau (guitar, vocals, sitar), Jonas Waaben (drums), and Niels "Bird" Fuglede (bass), the trio's bluesy blend of psych-rock and pop quickly caught the attention of Levitation Records, who issued the group's debut 7", the Roky Erickson-inspired "Down the Line," in 2014. The band moved to Nasoni Records for their first full-length outing, 2015's Perception, which added Erik "Errka" Petersson on organ/keys, and was promoted via a lengthy European tour. For their sophomore long-player, the Sonic Dawn set up camp in an old farmhouse by the North Sea, writing by day and recording at night. The resulting Into the Long Night arrived in 2017, and was released via Heavy Psych Sounds. The band turned inward for long-player number three, 2019's Eclipse, parsing through a series of personal tragedies and delivering their most personal, though no less catchy and kaleidoscopic, collection of songs to date. The group wasted little time getting back into the studio and released the nervy follow-up, Enter the Mirage, the following year. ~ James Christopher Monger