ON THE RISE
Summertime by Sifuentes is an album that has multiple layers. Jim Sifuentes created this album after and in the midst of some very trying life situations. From a cancer diagnosis to losing a job he had for 19 years, the album is nothing short of a testament to the power of perseverance. He also wanted to share his gift of music with his children and his friends.
“My cancer diagnosis at 50 was a bit of an awakening for me of the tenderness of life, being in and out of a situation and being able to overcome it. Additionally, six months after losing my job, I had a heart attack. With all this going on, I realized I wanted to get back into the music. I wanted to get back with my brother who grew up making music with me and put some songs out at this point in both our lives so I could do something with the talent I have since I didn’t do it when I was younger.” he said.
The album includes songs Jim, who’s now over 60 years old, wrote when he was a teenager as well as ones he wrote just last year. This a testament to his songwriting skills and musical ability. These songs, no matter how many decades apart. still paint a narrative within the sequencing of the album. As a songwriter and storyteller, Jim’s album crafts an auditory journey of where he was mentally and sometimes even physically, at various points in his life.
“I made the song ‘The Memory’ when I was in my 20s and visiting my old neighborhood. I wanted to add a brass sound that was reminiscent of Glenn Miller for that one as an homage to my parents who enjoyed listening to him. My colleague and collaborator Matt Riggen did that part of the song for me. There’s another song on there called ‘Mary’ that I wrote for a girl I was dating when I was 19. I actually was able to perform it for on stage at that time in my life and that’s an unforgettable memory.” he said
Some songs on the album have both sentimental and practical value.
“The track ‘Rumors’ is one me and my brother recorded when we were the age we are on the cover of the album. That was between the 80s and 90s. I decided to add that one to the tracklist because I had 11 songs and my goal was 12 and that one just naturally fit the tone of the album.” he said.
Other songs paint a picture of the reality of life when it’s clouded in uncertainty, a feeling many twenty somethings can relate to. This one has a significantly darker melody than the other songs on the album which have an upbeat pop rock feel to them.
“I wrote ‘Searching for the Day’ when I was 19. I didn’t know what I wanted to do outside of being a musician and people were asking me if I was going to college and what I was going to do with my life. And, at that point, I didn’t really know. I never forgot those lyrics.” he said.
Jim Sifuentes collaborated with his brother Bill and multitalented musician Matt Riggen to create the sound of the album. His brother is a musician and songwriter in his own regard and Matt is a colleague and collaborator that Jim met while in the Chicago Park District. Throughout the album, the three of them play multiple instruments and each one brought their own ideas and expertise to the songs.
The sound of the album is Beatles inspired with Jim growing up studying their music but now he can listen to them for pure enjoyment. Many of the songs on the album have a lighthearted uplifting atmosphere to them as Jim sings of enjoying the summer, love and the aforementioned topics across the album.
“I grew up on The Beatles. I wanted to do something that compliments them and is true to that sound but do it in my own style and my own way. Paul McCartney is my biggest influence and I was thinking ‘Would Paul McCartney and John Lennon be proud of this if they heard it?’ he said.
Jim’s love for the bass is directly connected to his love and admiration for Paul McCartney.
“My goal was to make melodious basslines that compliment the songs just like he did.” he said.
The importance of the bass goes all the way back to Jim's younger years which is a full circle moment considering this album encompasses multiple moments from his younger years and life overall.
“I’ve had that bass for about 40 years. When I was a freshman in high school, I got put on academic probation and my Mom told me I needed to get on the honor roll and if I did, she would get me something. I asked her for the same bass that Paul McCartney used. I didn’t know how to play it at that time but it was something I really wanted. She told me that if I made the honor roll for the next three and a half years, she would get it for me. So that’s what I did and for financial reasons, I didn’t get it until about four years after I graduated but I still got it and I still play it to this day.” he said.
When speaking to Jim, his love for life and the music shined through with every story he told and every word he said. He shared that his mission statement for life is
“Create and play a melodious song of love with your life.” With the album out now, all the people who were not aware of Jim’s wide ranging musical ability are fully aware now and he is happy to share it with them.
Music has been the source of happiness and comfort throughout Jim’s life. Even with everything he’s been through, it was always there for him.
“...I got fired in July and in January I had a heart attack. But the music came back. I picked up my guitar and I said ‘Darn it, I love music.’ It actually brought me back to life. I never lost my optimism. It gave me life in a whole new way. All throughout my life when things were going haywire, especially when I was younger, I’d go to my guitar and express how I was feeling…I came back to music and music revived me. It’s like it partnered back with me. It was always there.” he said.
By putting this album out, Jim has continued to move through life with a positive forward thinking attitude.
“Given where I’m at and what I’m doing at this point, I’m happy with the result and where it’s going. It’s also a testament to people my age that no matter what challenge you have, keep living fully and go after what you have to go after because I’m going to do it until I can’t. That’s what I’ve been doing and I still feel good. I have a choice every morning to decide if I’m going to decide to feel good to decide to feel well and I always choose to feel well.” he said.
Summertime by Sifuentes is available on streaming services now.
You can see more of Sifuentes and his love for music by keeping up with him on these platforms.
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
