SunDub

New York-based collective SunDub fuses soul and funk with reggae, honoring the style’s Jamaican origins while imprinting their distinct identity. The ensemble first appeared in 2019 via the album Burden of Love and resurfaced in 2022 with the follow-up Spirits Eat Music.

A weekly residency at a New York City bar gave rise to SunDub, assembled in 2013 by vocalist Joanna Teters, guitarist Finnegan Singer, bassist Josh T Carter, keyboardist Eric Toussaint, and drummer Ben Teters. The quintet opened its performances with reggae standards alongside soul and funk classics, then gradually introduced original songs that merged the three idioms into a singular voice. By 2019 the members had accumulated enough new pieces to enter the studio for their first album. Burden of Love, recorded with contributions from Ruff Scott, legendary percussionist Larry McDonald, and Steel Pulse’s Sidney Mills, expanded their reach and carried the band beyond New York on tour. During the subsequent two years, when COVID-19 halted live performances, the group sustained its residency through streamed sets and simultaneously raised funds for charity. In 2022 the musicians returned to the studio, once more with Mills serving as co-producer, to shape their second album. Issued late that year, Spirits Eat Music combined Teters’ soulful vocals with a surge of sunshine-indebted reggae and funk.