Conversations with Champagne Sunday

Today we’d like to introduce you to Champagne Sunday.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
We started the band together in Ventura, CA in 2005. We were both in our bands, and both were falling apart. Jessi was dating a guy who insisted that we at least “try” to play together, even despite our vast musical differences (grunge rock vs singer/songwriter and theater styles).

So we joined what was left of the two separate projects, and created Champagne Sunday. We were a five-piece at the time, but over the years, as we toured the country and honed our show, members came and went, and we eventually realized that we did MUCH better as a duo. In 2009, while living and touring in our RV, we landed in Tacoma, WA, and just fell in love with the place.

After gaining a pretty substantial fan base in that area, we ended up moving there permanently in 2012, and that’s when we began to develop our style, which we call “Glam-Folk”. We quit our other jobs and made music our full-time source of income in 2015, playing predominantly in the Pacific Northwest, and touring the country in the Summers. After a lot of influence from some of our musical friends, we decided to start exploring the Nashville scene, and on this last trip (May of 2023), we felt like we found a musical community in the East Nashville scene. Now, we’re going to be coming back every few months, and the tricky part is going to be getting rid of us.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The biggest struggle for a long time was just trying to figure out who we wanted to present to the audience. Our internal dilemma between having a full band or staying a duo was always in the foreground. A band presents as more “exciting” to audiences and matches the huge energy we provide.

But the duo was more sustainable and lucrative. Because we are married, and together all the time, we can do all the writing and rehearsing that we want, whenever we want. Getting other band members to commit to that was always an obstacle. Finally, we just figured out how to make the duo sound as full as a band might when we needed it, but then could bring it all down to one ukulele if the song called for it. Being a duo has afforded us a unique ability to present our show in spaces ranging from tiny living rooms to giant stages. Since we committed to the duo format, honestly everything has been smoother.

Another struggle has been, and maybe for many artists, the ability to capture in audio form the same energy and intensity found at a live show. No matter the quality of the recording, the producers, the studio, etc., we constantly hear the same thing: “Your albums are good, but… they just don’t do justice to your live show.” What I think this means is that the energy and warmth felt at a live Champagne Sunday show, which is electric, is super hard to capture in a recording. We are about to begin the process of recording our tenth album, so who knows, maybe this will be the “one”!!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
When we met, I asked Jared, “What do you want to do… what is your ultimate goal?” He said, “I want to make a living playing my original music.” I loved this answer because it aligned perfectly with mine. We never sought out fame or fortune. We just wanted to be able to pay our bills while we gave something special to our fans and got to perform. I believe there are a few things that set us apart from other acts. The first, and most important, is our intense love for one another. When we started dating, our bassist said, “Oh no. NEVER tell anyone you’re together. You want to keep the shroud of mystery around you.

Make people think they may have a chance with either of you.” I knew immediately that that was not gonna fly. As artists, we prefer to be as transparent and open with our audiences as much as we possibly can. How in the world would we do that if we were hiding the very thing we were most passionate about? Our love showed up in everything we created, all of our lyrics, our photos, our interviews, and eventually the band itself. Once we realized that, at the core, Champagne Sunday WAS US, the transformation to the act you see now began. The separation between “band” and relationship” became smaller and smaller, until finally, we were the same thing.

Our audiences have witnessed our dating, our marriage, our travels, the addition of our son, and his first appearance on stage with us. We have laid bare the entirety of our relationship for everyone to witness because it is 100% of our art as well. We craft our shows as an homage to the human heart and all of its feelings about love, laughter, brokenness, disappointment, and celebration. We do so while showing all sides of it from within our love. We are unique in our joy for all things. We share our stories with the fans as though we have built a bonfire in the middle of the stage and are just passing around a guitar and a bottle of beer and celebrating this exact moment in time together. We try not to take any opportunity to be on stage for granted, as we are aware that it is both a privilege AND a responsibility to perform with the entirety of who we are and to convey our message with integrity and entertainment, sometimes difficult to achieve. That leads me to the other part of our show that we are most proud of, our undeniable ability to entertain.

We are HUGE performers and we will give an audience an experience they will not soon forget. Whether my husband is surprising an audience with a trombone solo, an accordion accompaniment, some gorgeous crafted piano piece, or shredding an electric lead guitar solo on an acoustic guitar, people are constantly stopping in their tracks to watch him and cheer for his multi-instrumental abilities. He is a cerebral and warm performer, respectful of the “silence” of music and the nuance of melody, and audiences love him. And then there’s me. The child of two entertainers from the ’70s, who has spent more time on a stage than off.

I am an entertainer through and through and have spent my whole life baring my soul to audiences through song, comedy, honesty, and error. Nothing is off limits as I read my audiences like books and craft my interactions based on what I feel people want (or need!). Like me or not, you will never be bored at a Champagne Sunday show, as my years of theatrical training and desire to be the center of attention play perfectly well into my chosen profession. You can often find me wandering through audiences serenading them from my wireless mic, sitting on laps, stomping on bar tops, or just holding our son’s hand as he joins us on stage for a few choice tunes. And that brings me to the last thing that sets us apart, our songs.

Not because we possess the unobtainable musical prowess of Prince, have the voices of angels, look like Adonnises, or write like Shakespeare. (I mean…we’re still pretty happy with ourselves!) No! It’s because we can create, through our songs and stories, a bridge of connective tissue between our listeners and us. We find the light amidst the darkness, honoring each part of the human condition as proof that we are indeed alive! We do not dwell on the negative, but we do not dismiss it either. We allow ourselves to connect with any human being willing to grant us their ears, and we revel in what likens us to one another, shedding light on our similarities and differences as all part of the reason to celebrate.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Yes. Lately, we have been pushing a narrative to accompany one of our new songs, “Don’t Wait”, and that is this:

Whatever version of yourself you want to show to the world, do it! Do not wait. There is not enough time in the world to live one more second as an unauthentic version of yourself.

Have any of us truly perfected this? Probably not. But we can sure try. Go out and get that tattoo. Ask that person on a date. Dye your hair, eat the donut, wear the heels, speak your truth… Celebrate that perfect YOU!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.champagnesunday.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/champagnesundaypics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChampagneSundayMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/champagnesunday 

Image Credits
Barbara Potter and Angeline Marie