The Charlottetown band Sorrey, named after its guitarist and singer Emilee Sorrey, burst onto the scene in 2016 with their EP Thick as Thieves. 

The group played at the Grad Club on Nov. 1, with their upbeat sound and youthful energy. They’ve recently released their first full album titled In Full Bloom, which they’re now playing as they tour Canada.

David Hayman, the band’s creative director, calls their sound “free-wheelin’-dark-prom-stoner-dreaminess.” This captures the young and angsty feeling of their songs, which remind listeners of heartbreak and high school crushes.

One song on their new album, “Full Bloom,” is the last one they wrote for the project, but it encapsulated the mood they were going for so well that they made it the title track.

“The scene of that song is all about waiting for the right moment for you. Somebody who wants to take a [gap] year off school might relate to that song, or somebody who wants to ask somebody out,” Emilee Sorrey said in an interview. “It’s about doing it when it’s right for you as opposed to doing it when outside forces tell you to.”

She says when that song wrapped, it really felt like the album had come together, which was coincidental given the song’s name—after completing this song, it felt like the album had fully bloomed.

In Full Bloom is the band’s first professionally recorded album, and Emilee Sorrey called it “a true step up” for the group. This is something they’ve wanted for a long time. The musician, born and raised in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, moved to Charlottetown, P.E.I., in 2007. That’s where she met Colin Buchanan, producer and bassist for Sorrey.

“I’d played music since I was a little girl,” Emilee said, “but I’d never really played in a collaborative sense. It was all solo stuff.”

She was familiar with the music scene in P.E.I and she was aware of Buchanan’s work as a producer for other bands. Before the pair met and became friends, she had wanted a chance to work with him.

It was Buchanan who later connected her with the other members of the group: Andrew Murray on guitar, Bruce Rooney on keyboard, and Luke Pound on drums.

The group got together in 2016 and their first EP, Thick as Thieves, won Canada Music Week’s Pop/Urban Album of the year in P.E.I. that same year. 

Emilee was thrilled with their success.

“After the EP, I was surprised. I wasn’t sure how it would go or if people would enjoy it. It was a six-song smaller effort, but as soon as we put that out […] we had no trouble booking more and more shows,” the singer said.

Although Sorrey has begun to adopt a collaborative process in their song-writing, Emilee comes up with most of the ideas.

Originally, she wanted to name the band Emilee, but her bandmates urged her to use her surname instead, telling her that it sounded cooler. She’s happy she took their advice, stating that if she’d gone with her first name, she may have been “pigeonholed as a solo singer-songwriter.” 

Instead, Emilee asserts that Sorrey is a project that thrives on the teamwork of all its members, not just her ideas alone.

This was the group’s first time playing in Kingston, on their biggest tour thus far. They’re excited to take their new album on the road and have been happy to discover new fans who already know their songs. 

Sorrey is a band that’s already coming into their own. Just as their album title suggests, they’re in full bloom.