Circles Around the Sun

The Arc of Circles Around the Sun

The pivots — what forced Circles Around the Sun to reinvent.

1. 01

   The Intermission Accident

   Justin Kreutzmann commissioned Neal Casal to create filler music for the 2015 'Fare Thee Well' intermission reels. Casal assembled Dan Horne, Adam MacDougall, and Mark Levy to jam out instrumental passages in a handful of days. The resulting tracks caught fire over the stadium PAs and generated enough hype to force a proper commercial release as 'Interludes for the Dead'. It transformed a throwaway soundtrack gig into an unexpected, fully operational touring outfit.

2. 02

   The Studio Deepening & Tragedy

   By 2018's 'Let It Wander', they were writing like a locked-in psych-funk collective rather than an ambient side project, leaning heavy on MacDougall's vintage synths and sprawling, unhurried rhythms. In August 2019, shortly after finishing tracking on their self-titled album and cutting an EP with Joe Russo, Neal Casal took his own life. The band released the self-titled record in 2020 as a posthumous statement of Casal's final, flawless guitar passages. It closed out the original chapter with a heavy, groove-laden farewell.

3. 03

   The Post-Casal Dancefloor Rebirth

   Refusing to bury the project, Horne, MacDougall, and Levy brought guitarist John Lee Shannon into the fold to stabilize the lineup. Records like 2023's 'Language' and collaborative work with harpist Mikaela Davis stripped away the loose, jam-band meandering in favor of tighter space-disco and funk arrangements. Shannon played with precision rather than imitation, allowing the rhythm section to push the music straight onto the dance floor. It proved the band could evolve into a distinct, living entity without erasing where it came from.

Influences

• Grateful Dead — The entire project was born from an explicit commission to accompany the Dead's 2015 'Fare Thee Well' stadium runs. You hear it in the open-ended improvisational architecture and modal explorations that anchor their rhythm tracks. They took Garcia's cosmic bounce and stripped out the vocals entirely.
• Can — Dan Horne and Mark Levy consistently cite Krautrock rhythm engines as the core blueprint for their locked-in rhythm style. The unyielding, hypnotic motorik pulse directly drives the hypnotic pacing on long tracks like 'Saturday's Children'. It keeps the jams focused instead of descending into aimless soloing.
• Fela Kuti — The band leaned heavily on Afrobeat rhythmic interplay when constructing their extended, multi-layered rhythmic pockets. You hear it in the hyper-syncopated basslines and percussive counter-rhythms on 'Let It Wander'. It turns their improvisations into polyrhythmic endurance tests.
• Giorgio Moroder — Adam MacDougall's heavy reliance on sequenced synth arpeggios directly pulls from Moroder's pioneering Munich disco productions. You hear it all over the pulsating, synthesizer-driven foundations of 'Language'. It dragged California psych directly onto the 1970s euro-disco floor.
• JJ Cale — Neal Casal openly modeled his laid-back, fluid guitar delivery and relaxed pocket after Cale's Tulsa sound. The understated, low-heat picking throughout 'Interludes for the Dead' reflects that lean-back, porch-funk minimalism. No shredding needed when the tone is that greasy.