Hailing from Brooklyn New York, Tuff Sunshine’s unique approach has led to a revolving door of talented musicians collaborating with the band, both live on stage and in the studio. While singer-songwriter Johnny Leitera is the one constant, helming the project since its inception in 2012, the likes of drummer Linda Pitmon (The Baseball Project, The Minus 5, Filthy Friends), bassist Turner Stough (Shilpa Ray, I am The Polish Army), Rich Hutchins (Live Skull) and founding member Ani Cordero (Cordero, Os Mutantes, Ras-putina) have all contributed, leading to Time Out New York describing the sound as “…cool emotive indie fare that skilfully fuses funky soul with wiry postpunk.”
Indeed, Leitera’s ability to produce literate, cerebral lyricism and concoct this with a DIY, no-frills approach to production has also drawn praise from Pop Matters, American Songwriter Magazine, Louder Than War, The New York Times, Magnet Magazine, Impose Magazine and many many more.
With Leitera solely taking on writing and recording duties from 2020, resulting in the acclaimed album Yesterday Suit , 2022 saw Tuff Sunshine embark on a series of single releases, beginning with ‘Legwork’, ‘The Story Ends’, ‘Elevator Eyes’, and culminating with third single ‘Thank the Pilot/Suicide by Papercuts’ in 2023. The final single ‘No Juice’ in 2024 is a that song epitomizes all that is good, warts and all, about Tuff Sunshine: ambitious, reflective and magnificently trippy. No Juice finds Leitera in superb form as he creates another off-kilter masterpiece, complete with adventurous arrangements and idiosyncratic songwriting.
These singles and 4 brand new songs culminate to the new Tuff Sunshine album Vanity Matrix. Leitera explains; “The Vanity Matrix is the intersection of the hollow promises of social media stats, aging in public, comfortable hiking shoes and praying that when your time comes it’s as quick and painless as possible.” As the lead album track ‘Vanity Maxtrix’sets the tone for this collection of Leitera’s broad story telling. As well as track ‘I Will Meet You At The Bell’ as Leitera explains “The Bell is actually a fantastic pub in Bristol (UK) that I always wanted to use in a song, and I love the ambiguous meaning of the name in this context (bar? after school? metaphorical conclusion?). Also ambiguous– is this a meeting between friends or lovers? The refrain at the end seems to imply the latter…or is that a late-night admission to a cab driver? At this point the narrator isn’t 100% certain…”
