Sun Organ: The Purveyors of Sludge-Pop
By Olivia Lee
12/8/25
There is no other buzzword in music that irritates me more than “shoegaze.” This isn’t a diss to the genre, but it’s hard to view it as anything more than semantic satiation when the label is often slapped onto any band making rock music with copious amounts of reverb.
However in Philadelphia, bands like They Are Gutting a Body of Water, knifeplay, and others have been genuinely reshaping the genre’s sound for a new generation, one that’s fueling the shoegaze revival among Gen Z.
But fitting Philly’s Sun Organ into the shoegaze scene feels wrong. Sure, they’ve got the dense guitars and the hushed, atmospheric vocals of the genre but the self-proclaimed “sludge-pop” band mutates these familiar characteristics into their own sound; something that feels slightly apocalyptic, yet disarmingly sweet.
Sun Organ performing at the Vera Project (Photo by Lauren Lee).
I got a chance to speak with Sun Organ members Tim Jordan (vocals, guitar) and Alex Ha (drummer) right before their performance at the Vera Project, where they were opening for They Are Gutting a Body of Water alongside Toner. Talking right outside of the Vera Project away from the commotion of the show revealed their easygoing nature as Jordan took thoughtful drags of his cigarette in between questions while Ha finished up his meal before going on to perform, a moment of calmness before stepping into the spotlight.
Read more for Sun Organ’s thoughts on the transcendental nature of their music, breaking out of the shoegaze label, and their experience touring the West Coast for the first time.
How did you all meet and what inspired you to start making music together?
Tim Jordan: Well, the band’s had a bunch of different forms. Me and Alex started playing together like five years ago, when we started playing in Nyxy Nyx. Then Alex started playing drums for Sun Organ at that time. Pat Conaboy (guitarist) has been in Sun Organ since the beginning. And then Sam joined, like this year. So that's, like, the current lineup of the band. There's been a bunch of friends, like, from Philly who've been in and out. But yeah, it's been making music in Philly as I've been there, since 2009.
I've been making music since I was 17. Yeah. So at this point, I don't even know. I just started doing it, and we're still doing it.
Your music is very dense, how do you balance the heavier sounds and what kind of sonic textures do you try to emphasize?
Jordan: I don't know how to answer that. I like heavy guitars?
Alex Ha: I feel like shoegaze was something we got pocketed into.
Jordan: Yeah, I don't really consider us, like a shoegaze band technically. I see why we kind of get lumped in, but I don't think we seek out to make shoegaze music really ever. The songs are all kind of like collages. So pretty much just play guitar over guitar parts, over guitar parts, until things start to make sense, you know?
If you don't really consider your music shoegaze, what would you label it as?
Jordan: I would label it as “sludge-pop.” And that label makes sense to me, because I like heavy music and I like pop music and I want them to be married and make some sort of heavy sludgy pop music.
What is your songwriting process like? Do you come up with a riff first or do you come up with a lyric or melody?
Jordan: Pretty much riff. I start with guitar almost, 100% of the time, and just toy around with playing guitar until something sounds like it could be a song. And then I just chase that until it's either successful or semi-successful, or I'm done dealing with it.
When I was listening to your music, I found it to be very transcendental and an out-of-body experience type thing. And it kinda pulls me out of reality sometimes. Do you experience something similar while performing or is it more of like a grounded, physical experience for you?
Jordan: Maybe a little bit of both. It's definitely physical, but I feel like it also does take me somewhere else mentally. Playing music is the most exciting feeling ever. I don't know if it's either/or.
Ha: We get really heady and talk about the live performance and what we're doing together. Definitely feels like a little bit of both, but definitely it is physical in the way that we're playing and trying to get better.
Jordan: It's very present, you know. And I feel like we do best when we're all present with one another. If we can be present together and... in space, in our own universe, that's maybe it.
You mentioned this was your first West Coast tour. How have you been enjoying it so far?
Jordan: It's been fucking awesome. Sam couldn't fly out, he was on another tour with his band Hooky. So he met us in Portland, that was the first show that we were able to play as a full band. The shows have kicked ass. They were bigger shows at bigger venues.
Ha: But just getting across the country has been just beautiful. Just a lot of time to just hang out with each other and get down on that level before we got here to play these bigger shows.
Do you guys have any plans for a new album or any upcoming projects soon? What's next for the band?
Jordan: We're definitely gonna go home and finish writing a record. I imagine we'll probably release something next year. But yeah, just same as it's always been. Release a record again, try and tour again, trying to do the stuff as much as we can. Till we can't. That's the plan, probably. Forever.
