Chugiak’s SunDog ready to rock Salmonfest

It’s their biggest gig yet and the Chugiak-based band SunDog cannot wait for their chance to showcase their unique blend of classic rock and heavy metal at this weekend’s Salmonfest in Ninilchik at the Kenai Peninsula Fairgrounds.

The trio that comprises the young band – Phillip Giannulis on percussion, Deven Lynd on bass and Abi Sparkman on vocals and guitar – have been jamming together for a little more than two years but only hit the local Anchorage Bowl performance circuit a year ago. They are all 20 years old.

Salmonfest is a big deal for them.

“We have been looking forward to this for months now,” Giannulis said. “Honestly, we did not even think we were going to get in, but we applied and said, if we get in, that would be amazing. If not, there is always next year.”

Turns out for 2017, the SunDog gets “amazing.” They were selected and notified earlier this spring.

SunDog takes the River Stage on Friday at 3:10 to 3:50 p.m.

Expect the bulk of the band’s set to feature their original music with one cover song – most likely “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads – to finish out their Salmonfest debut, Giannulis said.

Their set might also include a fairly new tune – still unnamed – that they have only played a few times at their most recent gigs.

For simplicity’s sake, the trio has given the song their band name as a placeholder until they figure out just what to name the tune that Giannulis describes as an encapsulation of their total sound.

“The beginning is pretty laid back chill with a bit of bouncy but then it gets toward the middle and it gets going really heavy and sort of explodes in to a big jam session at the end,” Giannulis explained. “It is what we, as a band, do best. We start with the structure of a song and then on stage we break awy from that and just jam and then use visual cues between the three of us paying attention to eachother to know just when to bring it back to the main structure of the song. We leave a lot of room for improve in our sets.”

The new song with the placeholder name features vocals by Lynd who wrote the song.

“This is a song I’ve been working on even unknowingly for as long as I have been playing bass guitar,” Lynd said. “I have always been a big fan of the apocalypse – it is a minor obsession of mine – and always wanted to write a song about such a thing. The inspiration actually came from a buddy of mine who told me of his idea for a Robinson Crusoe/Howard Hughes character in space. So, it’s from the perspective of someone who is choosing to stay on a dying Earth as opposed to leaving with the rest of the chosen elite.”

Of course, expect to hear the band’s most popular tune which is the combination of two of its originals: ‘Too Close to the Sun’ and ‘Numb Thumb’.

Both songs were written by Giannulis and Lynd and feature an instrumental melody that is driven by heavy drum and bass. The two songs together last more than ten minutes.

Sparkman, who does 95 percent of the band’s vocals, said she and her two partners are thrilled to play Salmonfest but also look forward to the networking opportunity the event bringing more than 60 acts, including Jewel and Rusted Root, together represents.

“It is one of the biggest festivals in Alaska and we hope to come back,” Sparkman said.

Listen to SunDog’s four-song demo extended play, “Not Your Grandpa’s Devil Music” online at: sundogak.bandcamp.com.