Denver-based experimental indie pop singer and producer Eman El Saied — better known as Sunstoney — makes music that allows you to give yourself permission to be your true self, all of you, unabashed and beautiful. In this day and age, it is all too easy to bury oneself in pretense and comparison, to live in a way that you believe someone else wants you to, to hide who you truly are, keep yourself tamped down and away from the sunlight. Sunstoney’s music helps those who hear it shed all of that. It’s music to grow to, that brings you into the sun so that you may sprout from the shit that has come before — the past mistakes, the broken hearts, the dreams that have yet to pan out — and grow into all your glory towards the sky and all the possibilities it promises. Intricate and personal yet almost universally relatable, Sunstoney’s music is alive in a way that makes you want to grab your life with both hands and shape it into whatever you want it to be. With the recent release of her first full-length album EVERYTHING IS FLEETING, which dropped on September 18th, El Saied’s voice has never been clearer, the fleeting moments that make up a life made eternal.
Denver Dive recently spoke with El Saied about how Sunstoney has evolved over many years, the message she wants to convey with EVERYTHING IS FLEETING, teaching herself how to produce, how she found liberation after searching for it for some time and much more.
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El Saied described growing up with a home full of music. Half Ethiopian and half Sudanese, El Saied was raised on a lot of music from those countries, naming Ethiopian jazz and pop as her “entry points” to music. When she and her family moved to the States in the late 90s, the music of where El Saied was born was still very much prevalent in the household but what was played at home expanded to include artists such as Bob Marley and Sade. She also described her mom as “this amazing singer” who sung in their local church choir. Though El Saied always had an interest in music, she said that being the youngest of three sisters prevented her from singing herself, saying that she would be told “Shut up” by her sisters whenever she would try singing around the house.
As a result, El Saied took a rather indirect path to creating music. While attending the University of Richmond, she worked as a concert photographer, shooting everything from big gigs by well known artists to shooting basement shows for 50 bucks. This allowed to her see the inner workings of the music industry, how artists operated while also being exposed to an incredibly wide range of music. In 2015, she went through a particularly brutal breakup, the kind that makes you evaluate everything. Her friend recognized the toll the breakup was taking on El Saied and introduced her to a producer that was looking for a singer. El Saied joined the project and though it only lasted about six months and didn’t offer her much agency beyond singing what she was told to sing and shaking a tambourine, it simultaneously introduced her to music production and got her addicted to the stage. It showed her that she could go off and make music on her own. She said, “I was addicted to performing and talking my shit. One day, I was just like “Okay, time to learn Garage Band” which then led me to Ableton. That’s how Sunstoney was born in Richmond, VA.”
Though she taught herself how to make beats and produce songs, El Saied attributes a lot of her other beat maker friends with helping her learn. She said she’d shadow other producers, watch how they built beats, the craft of it all. She’d pair this with watching tutorials on Youtube and eventually learned how to build songs of her own. As she learned, she also slowly started to acquire the gear required to produce on a professional level, saying that it took “years and years” to collect and be able to afford everything she needed.
The Sunstoney project has existed for nearly a decade. However, in its early years, life seemed to continually get in the way of El Saied’s ability to focus on the project. She worked in marketing after she graduated which forced her to put music on the back burner. As is the case with many artists really coming into their own in recent years, COVID put the life that was interfering with the music on hold, allowing El Saied to focus on creating. She said the pandemic forced her to confront herself about the project, saying that one day she had a moment where she said to herself, “‘Okay, you haven’t had a job for eight months. Are we doing this or what?'” She dove all the way into making music which eventually led to her releasing her first EP, 2021’s “In Your Apartment.” “I’ve been addicted to releasing ever since,” she said.
Sunstoney’s early sound is quite different from the experimental, intricate pop music El Saied makes today. She described the early sound as “bedroom indie pop” that dealt with very personal themes such as her broken heart, her restlessness in quarantine, where she found herself in her life. Though these are universal themes every person in today’s world has experienced at one point or another, she said her early music was very personal, very much a form of therapy, a way to process all that she’d been through. It instilled in her a confidence that she could do this, that she had what it takes. “Don’t sleep on yourself,” she said.
She described “In Your Apartment” as a bit of a mess, saying how she thinks it’s poorly mixed and feels like a “trauma dump.” It was an effort to figure it out, a test of her abilities. She said, “I didn’t know shit. I didn’t have the money to pay an engineer. I just thought, ‘I have all these breakup songs. I have all these relationship songs. Let me trauma dump into several songs.'” The EP is a solid first effort, melancholic and vibe-y while showcasing much of would come through on her later releases such as 2023’s “2079” and 2024’s “The Mirror is Calling.”
Sunstoney’s sound changed rather drastically after “In Your Apartment.” She moved to Denver in 2023 and transitioned from more traditional indie pop to this complex, funky, almost ethereal sound reminiscent of artists such as Little Dragon, Remi Wolf and Hiatus Kaiyote, some of her biggest influences to this day. This change in sound taught her an incredibly valuable lesson: Sunstoney is El Saied’s project and she is free to do whatever she wants with it. The releases that followed also became more collaborative, with El Saied naming her “bestie” Owen Martin —of the Richmond-based band Knifing Around — as a major part of helping her really define Sunstoney, with Martin helping her with production and anything else she needed which allowed her to evaluate what she really wanted to say with her music. Their collaboration led to “2079,” about which she said, “It felt like an exploration of figuring out what my angle is towards this pop, R&B thing? Because I [had just done] the lo-fi, SoundCloud R&B girl thing. And I kept arriving at the self-discovery, self-affirmation, talk your shit, empowering thing.”
Following “2079,” Sunstoney’s sound continued to expand, to take bigger swings, greater risks. Sunstoney as a project really does feel like bravery, a young artist putting all of herself in the music, putting herself on display for the world to see. After “2079,” El Saied realized that most of her music had been about herself, her experiences, highs and lows, but that the people around her also have stories of their own. “The Mirror is Calling” is El Saied’s first foray into stepping outside of herself, to include stories her friends and family told her. This is both literal and metaphorical as El Saied tends to include lyrics that are direct quotes she’s been told or overheard in her writing but she also creates fictional stories that feel lived, real, that people can truly see themselves in. In doing so, she’s able to create a sort of sonic reflection of what it feels like to be alive in today’s world, all its beauty and chaos melded together in some truly inventive pop music. This is why Sunstoney has made such an impact in Denver and nationwide. Her music lives within those who hear it and the people listening are a part of the songs. The songs feel huge, contain entire universes but also are able to make listeners feel seen, understood, like they aren’t alone and never have been.
El Saied’s songwriting process usually starts with the beat. She chooses a BPM and builds from there, usually based on a prior idea but she said a lot of the times the songs evolve into something totally different from what she had in her head. She tends to record voice memos of lyric ideas or a melody that comes to her and then finds the right beat to pair them with. The whole process and its evolution has given her autonomy, allowed her to grow as an artist, to find a voice all her own, beholden to no one but the voice in her head. When performing, she used to just get up there by herself with a drum pad and a mic. She now has a backing band, many of whom also play in local shoegaze band Bitstream Bleed. She says this has let her feel more like she’s connecting with people, the band and the audience alike. It shows how much she’s evolved as an artist, how her vision has grown alongside her.
El Saied also attributes her time in Denver to influencing her current sound. Once she moved here three years ago, she quickly immersed herself in the city’s ever-growing music scene. In addition to working on her music, she returned to concert photography, shooting shows for publications such as Westword and more. The city has welcomed El Saied and Sunstoney with open arms. She said, “I think being here has made me push myself even more because of how open and inviting people were to my shit. I was almost in denial for a little. I’ve thought, ‘Is it because I’m the only black girl doing this shit right now? We’re in a predominantly white state. Why y’all fucking with me? Is it because I’m a brown girl doing this shit?’ But I also recognize that the community here is way different than any other scene that I’ve ever been a part of. Back home, I have to beg people to come to my shows. Out here, people say ‘Oh when is it’ and pull out their calendars. It’s way more supportive out here to the point where I want to do better and keep pushing.” She went on to point how artists in this city support each other, spreading the word and going to each other’s shows. She said, “It’s definitely made me want to give more of a fuck and also go to more shows to support.” Even though she’s relatively new to the scene in the grand scheme of things, Sunstoney’s quickly become one of the most talked about artists in Denver, having played very well received sets at venues like the Hi Dive and at festivals such as Blucifer’s First Rodeo. She’s not slowing down anytime soon so keep your eyes peeled for any upcoming shows.
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It has all led here, to the release of Sunstoney’s first full length album EVERYTHING IS FLEETING. The album, which came out on September 18th, continues El Saied’s exploration of huge, universal themes. Co-produced by Owen Martin, which marks the first time he and El Saied have collaborated since “2079,” the album feels bright and vital while also being undeniably vibe-y, the kind of music that feels like sunshine, like color. It’s music to wrap around yourself. For El Saied, the album is the latest step in her constant search for liberation, something she hopes listeners feel when they hear it. She said, “I honestly want people to be like, ‘I feel this and I’m fucking freed from whatever shackles of relatability.’ Obviously, I want people to connect to it, come up with their own observations, whatever. But I think I want to instill a sense of confidence, like you’ve got it. The thing that’s holding you back, you can get through it. The toxic person or relationship that you’re in, you can walk away. The concept of being liberated and feeling free from the bullshit is the main message. We’re all going through some shit. We all are battling some shit. We just need someone to be like, ‘Here’s the door. You can walk out anytime,’ which I think is one of the most liberating things that you can experience.”
This message comes through clearly on the album, each song an exploration of confidence, self-actualization. However, El Saied is not one to avoid the hard shit, the work it takes to even consider the idea of embracing yourself fully, all the years and pain that one has to fight through to get to that point. By exploring these concepts, El Saied has crafted an album that feels unbelievably mature that overflows with creativity, empathy, pain and joy. It’s truly a remarkable work of art that every person alive can see parts of themselves within. It also bears mentioning that the video for the album’s lead single, “WAITING TO BLOOM,” was shared by SZA earlier this year, proving that Sunstoney has the potential to blow up to national or even international recognition.
Sunstoney is making some of the most exciting music in Denver and that’s saying something given how many incredible artists call this city home. It’s music that makes you feel like yourself, that helps you accept the parts of yourself you don’t like, helps you reckon with the past and all that that holds so that you can look to the future, clear-eyed, head held high, and know that there is brightness to be found in all of us. It proves how much beauty a person can bring into this world if they just allow themselves to do so. Don’t sleep on Sunstoney and don’t sleep on yourself.
Stream EVERYTHING IS FLEETING here!
Follow @Sunstoney on IG to see more and to learn about everything El Saied has coming up!
