The Breakdown with Sunnyboyy | A Top 8 Scene Interview

Straight from New Jersey, this project started by Patrick DeFrancisci is bringing alt-rock vibes that need to be added to your playlist STAT, with a large side of realness.

​

It’s rare to find an artist who actually makes you stop and think... sunnyboyy did that instantly for us. The vibe of the music is super cool all around, but what really hits us is the honesty in the song writing: tunes about the real stuff we’re all dealing with, and what’s going on around us, especially in a world that feels like it’s barely holding it together. That's what the sunnyboyy self-titled EP (released in September of this year) is. Let’s get into it:

​​

sunnyboyy: "This EP really is a continuation from the split EP we released with our friends in Lazlo in early 2025 and the Tired of Trying EP that was released in 2023. Many of these songs have been rummaging around in my brain as early as 2019 but I just couldn’t figure out a satisfying way to consider them finished. This EP is part social commentary, part my introspective songwriting journey trying to identify and understand all sorts of alienating emotions I’ve experienced throughout my life and my best attempts to make catchy, guitar driven pop rock tracks."

​

sunnyboyy breaks down three songs from the self-titled EP:

 

1. Force Fed

​

sunnyboyy: "The sample in the beginning is from 1976’s “Network”, a really unbelievably relevant story in 2025 that I won’t spoil for you, just go watch it. This song is about all of the “conventional wisdom” that is forced upon people throughout their lives, the really tiny boxes people try to pack everything neatly into. Realizing it’s all just bullshit is almost a revelation. With mass layoffs happening yearly at this point the concept of do good in school, go to college, get a job, work hard and you will be rewarded with a stable life is basically a myth for many people and plainly, that’s bullshit."

​

2. Carry On

​

sunnyboyy: "When we play this song live I always say “This song goes out to anyone who works for a living.” One thing I’ve learned from working in New York City for 10+ years and generally living around the greater NYC area (I grew up in North Jersey about 30 mins from NYC and have lived in Jersey City for the past decade), many people don’t. Our communities and especially the NJHC community that I’m proud to have cut my teeth in do need to work for a living and we need to support each other especially during this fascist clown show of a regime that is currently in power."

​

3. Wrong, Already, Again

​

sunnyboyy: "The perspective of this song is directly inward. It’s my attempt to write a catchy kind of “slacker anthem” with a hopeful hook. Crippling insecurity is something I’ve dealt with my entire life. Constantly second guessing myself, and feeling like no matter what I do, it’s wrong are just familiar emotions but thankfully I found someone (my wife of 4 years and partner for almost 10+ years) who gets those complicated feelings and knows exactly what I need to talk me off a ledge when life gets too overwhelming. Namely, “wasting away with you” which typically consists of a 2 movie day and planting ourselves on our couch with our dogs."

​​

TOP8'S TAKE?

​

Sunnyboyy is releasing the kind of music we genuinely need right now, especially in a world that feels more and more dystopian by the day. We love the rawness of this EP, the realness of what he’s saying, it’s grounding, and the fact that artists like him use their platform to talk about what actually matters. Even when he is tackling heavier topics, the sun still shines through sunnyboyy’s music. Lines like “I don’t wanna wake up, can I stay asleep instead, I don’t wanna face the world today” brush up on depression, yet the music behind them is anything but depressing. It’s the perfect mix: songs you can relate to, but can also fully jam out to.

 

Support the realness. Spin sunnyboyy.