Sweet Trip

San Francisco natives Sweet Trip carved out a niche for themselves in the late 90s/early 2000s alternative rock scene with their seamless amalgamation of saccharine pop hooks and glitchy production techniques, creating a unique-sounding, genre-bending style that walked the line between indie pop, shoegaze, and IDM. Formed in 1995 by producer and songwriter Roberto Burgos, singer and guitarist Valerie Cooper, and bassist/drummer Viet Le, the group made their official debut through Junior Varsity KM’s Darla Records with 1998’s ambient album Halica. Following the release of a collection of remixes titled Fish - Remixes and Versions (1998) and the more dance-oriented EP Alura (1999), plus a series of changes in their lineup, Sweet Trip returned in 2003 with their sprawling opus Velocity : Design : Comfort, which contained the shoegaze-y fan favorite “Design: 2: 3.” After being absent from the scene for a prolonged period of time, they distilled their influences into a pared-down, more straightforward pop album, 2009’s You Will Never Know Why, only to vanish in the ether once again shortly after. Over the course of the next few years, the growing interest in Sweet Trip’s music led to a series of vinyl reissues of their earlier albums, which have since attained cult status. In 2021, Burgos and Cooper surprised their fans with “Walkers Beware! We Drive Into the Sun,” a teaser from their upcoming fourth full-length, A Tiny House, In Secret Speeches, Polar Equals.