Local shoegaze, grunge, hip-hop, art-punk group Bitstream Bleed makes music that sounds like hope. It’s the sliver of light emanating through the curtains of a dive bar as you try like hell to get a smoke lit. It’s the light that comes off the flame when the lighter finally works, relief and sin melded together to take your pain away if only for a moment. Their music is raw, unafraid to stare into the darkness as it reaches out to consume you. But it is so overflowing with light and humanity that it quells that darkness, staves it off for another night, lets you know that the sun will come up again. Major figures within the Denver DIY scene, the band represents all that makes Denver so beautiful, the hope this city can afford those who know how to look for it. Plus, they fuckin’ rip.
Denver Dive recently spoke with Bitstream Bleed founder, frontperson, lead guitarist and overall mastermind Sunny Sundstrom about creating with authenticity, the flourishing Denver DIY scene, the origins and evolution of Bitstream Bleed, making music for the baddies and much more.
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Sundstrom grew up loving music but didn’t have many opportunities to make music of his own as a kid. He credits a small toy guitar given to him by his father when he was young as first really piquing his interest. Though Sundstrom’s father wasn’t in the picture most of Sundstrom’s life, he remembers that gift and how much it meant to him, how much it opened his ears to music in the first place. Given that his family didn’t have the means to get him music lessons or to buy him a guitar, Sundstrom turned to other outlets to express his musical inclinations, namely Guitar Hero. “I’m still nasty at Guitar Hero but that was my outlet growing up,” he said. Guitar Hero exposed him to a large amount of music he said he never would have gravitated to before but that spoke to him nonetheless, which would go on to influence the music he would make later in life.
Sundstrom grew up on a wide variety of music, first discovering bands like Nirvana and Stone Temple Pilots at a young age. In addition to the grunge, he named Biggie and Tupac as early influences. As he aged, his tastes expanded. Eventually, he found his “favorite band of all time,” Avenged Sevenfold, who he still covers from time to time to this day. He said that discovering Avenged Sevenfold helped him feel free. “It was the first time I realized I had free will to decide what I liked for me. It was scary but also so cool.” This freedom would then lead him to discover shoegaze and emo music, citing bands like Glixen and the more recent Sweet Pill as major influences on the music he makes today.
It wasn’t until high school that Sundstrom really began to play. Having had Guitar Hero as his main outlet, he knew he wanted a guitar. He expressed this to his high school girlfriend when he was 17 and she bought him a cheap guitar off Amazon. “It was a cheap thing,” he said. “I don’t even know if it had a brand. The action was way too high but it was my first guitar and I loved it. It made me feel like ‘Why can’t I learn to play?’ It was hard to learn on. One because learning an instrument is hard. You have to practice and practice. But also because the action was so high it was literally hard to press down on the strings.” Almost 10 years since picking the instrument up, Sundstrom is following his Guitar Hero dreams and he absolutely rips.
Bitstream Bleed began as a way for Sundstrom to sort of force his way into the Denver music scene. Sundstrom was living in Denver and noticed a lack of house shows happening in his area. “I decided one day to say ‘fuck it’ and throw my own house show,” he said. The first one was a success and led to him throwing them more and more frequently, directly exposing him to the Denver music scene in its purest form. “I was throwing these shows and organizing them,” Sundstrom said. “I was pulling from people who weren’t necessarily a part of the larger music scene. It was this little pocket of artists and people who I knew coming together to revel in a night together, an event together, and they always felt very special. Even people who were non-music people were coming to these things to party. They were concerts but they were parties and, in addition to that, there was always a focus on safety and behavior and how people were treating each other. That was really, really important to me.”
As the shows went on, Sundstrom realized he wanted to make music to perform at them. This is where the first iteration of Bitstream Bleed started to emerge. The Bitstream Bleed project in its earliest form “started as a rap project.” Sundstrom wanted to make and perform music but didn’t have a band. Instead, he’d make beats to rap over and perform at house shows. This instilled the confidence in him that he needed to make Bitstream Bleed a fully realized project. “I coined the name ‘Bitstream Bleed’ around January of 2025,” Sundstrom said. This led to him self-producing Bitstream Bleed’s first EP, “Color Theory,” which released later in 2025. The EP is a rap project. It’s raw and experimental, playing with metal sensibilities, melodic choruses and complex, esoteric lyricism reminiscent of early, deep-cut Rhymesayers artists such as Aesop Rock and Murs.
The album led to more shows, at houses but also some more traditional venues and DIY spots. He realized that he couldn’t keep doing it on his own and that he needed a band in order to continue to grow. One night, while at a (local singer) Keddjra show, Sundstrom met Mack Millar. They started talking about their favorite shoegaze bands, Millar citing They Are Gutting a Body of Water and Sundstrom saying Glixen and the local band Precocious Neophyte. The conversation led to them talking about starting a band. Soon, they were hanging out, Millar drumming along to songs Sundstrom had written on guitar. They decided they really vibed with each other and decided to start putting together the band Bitstream Bleed is today.
Sundstrom then “scouted” Chase Church who acts as keys player, back up vocalist and co-producer. Church, who also goes by his producer handle Half Moon, had already been building a name for himself as a prolific local producer and helped introduce them to prospective members. After playing with a bassist who has since left for personal reasons, they brought in Kathryn Fernandez — otherwise known as Bodega Kit Kat — on bass. In January of this year, they rounded out the lineup with Alisa Christiane to provide further vocals.
Once the band was fully formed, they started chasing down shows, playing houses, DIY venues but they also quickly stepped up to festivals. Their first ever show all together was at FreeFarm, a DIY festival held in Elizabeth, Colorado. The band recently came full circle as they held their one year anniversary at the festival’s most recent iteration. They’ve been making waves this year, playing major sets at festivals such as Blucifer’s First Rodeo, FreeFarm and SoupStock and don’t look to be slowing down anytime soon.
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Bitstream Bleed’s current sound feels like less of a departure from Sundstrom’s solo efforts and more of an evolution. They have left a lot of the hip-hop sound behind in favor of a more grunge-punk, shoegaze sound albeit with a bit more brightness than is typically found in those genres, a result of each member’s respective input. “I start the writing process,” Sundstrom said. “I write most of the songs as shoegaze songs and then they add to it. It’s like they are decorating these songs that I write. I think the thing that really makes us a shoegaze project is probably the fact that I’m adding either fuzz or this ethereal quality and then the keyboardist is always adding these ethereal leads or sonic landscapes. We all come together and play the songs and workshop them until we’re happy. I might be the director but I don’t want to take the credit because it’s all these folks bringing their amazing creativity together.”
Sundstrom also said that while the band is decidedly a shoegaze band, there are some departures from the genre the band makes that gives them a “more mainstream appeal.” They try to avoid drenching the vocals in reverb, for example, a hallmark of shoegaze. “I want people to actually be able to hear what we’re saying,” Sundstrom said. They also incorporate pop elements not typically found in the genre, bright keys parts, relatable lyrics, huge choruses. Sundstrom said he thinks of the project as “hope-core,” willing to look into the darkness but always striving for the light.
This version of their sound can be found on their most recent EP, “Solar Eclipse,” released earlier this year. The album reflects everything Sundstrom is trying to put forth with Bitstream Bleed. “[Bitstream Bleed] itself is about the solar eclipse,” he said. “It’s about how our lives reflect nature, specifically a solar eclipse, and how we go from the darkness to the light. Sonically and symbolically, I like to embody those lighter themes.” It’s that duality that makes Bitstream Bleed so interesting, this dark sound meant to be listened to with your head tilted towards your shoes but marked by these moments of light that feel like coming up for air, like the dawn after a long night. “Solar Eclipse” represents the era that Bitstream Bleed finds itself, the sound that it will define itself by.
Bitstream Bleed wouldn’t exist without the Denver DIY art and music scenes, of which Sundstrom has long been a major figure. He’s a founding member of The Ally Art Collective, which supports upcoming artists and musicians in the city. He’s also involved with the beloved collective The Terrible Wise, who have been making a name for themselves due to their sheer dedication to promoting creativity in Denver. He credits these organizations and collectives for bringing the Denver art and music worlds together, giving bands playing out there on their own a home, a community, a place to feel safe. “I think that the the Denver music scene right now has so many good people who are in charge of things. We have so many good leaders right now, which is what I think makes it feel so special and so good.”
Ultimately, Sundstrom said that “Bitstream Bleed is for the baddies.” He said “Everyone in the band is a baddie. The fits are always going to be incredible. The music is going to be real. It’s music that can help you feel yourself.” He said that this is because of how authentic everyone involved in group — whether that’s the band members, the clothing designers, the stage artists, everyone — approaches creativity. Sundstrom said that in addition to staying true to himself, he’s constantly inspired by the scene he finds himself in. He said, “I am always going to be authentic to myself. I just want to create the most me thing that I can. As long as I’m doing that, I can’t really ask for anything more of myself. The place that I create from, I feel like I try to embody the life of an artist. I try to pay attention to my surroundings and my feelings and the things that I see and I write a lot about that kind of stuff. In addition to that, I’m treating it as a craft. It’s a daily practice for me. I treat it like it’s my job and I’m constantly learning and that learning influences what I’m creating. I’m always looking to be inspired by not only just music that’s happening around the world, but in the Denver music scene. I’m going to these shows and I’m blown away by the talent. I’m talking to these people and I’m asking questions.”
Bitstream Bleed embodies everything that makes the Denver music scene so damn beautiful. Their music is raw, authentic, and, most of all, achingly human. The members of the band are unabashedly themselves, so real and true that they make all who see them, who hear them, know that it’s okay to be who they are, whoever that is. They are a shining light in our scene and the world is a better place because they are in it. They are constantly doing something new so don’t sleep on them.
Sundstrom has also asked to include a long list of shout outs which are as follows: Emily Besset AKA Bran3world, Sunny’s partner and also one half of the creative directing team for Bitstream Bleed alongside Sunny; The aforementioned Terrible Wise; FreeFarm; SoupStock; The team behind Blucifer’s First Rodeo; The Hi-Dive; The Skylark Lounge; Recording engineer Danny Pauta; Recording engineer Hayden Hallatt; and the photographer @mooseniac. These are just a few of the many people that help Bitstream Bleed do what they do and are all major contributors to the Denver scene as a whole. Go check ’em out.
Photography Courtesy of Bitstream Bleed.
Follow Sunny @bitstreambleed!
Stream “Solar Eclipse” here!
