How Sunny War went from shredding Slayer to honing her standout acoustic style: “Guitar can be a new thing forever if you let yourself be experimental all the time”

Folk music has often been a quiet form of rebellion, but on Sunny War’s sixth and latest album, Anarchist Gospel, the singer-songwriter transcended the typical constraints of the genre. And it was the virtually limitless canvas of DAW home recording that inspired her to pursue a more experimental approach.

“It really changed how I wrote, because before I would just record me and my guitar into my phone, and if I had an idea for a song, I couldn’t really layer,” War says.

After spending time exploring Logic software during tour breaks, though, and working with virtual instruments, she chased her muse deeper into the music than ever before. “I spent more time [on pre-production] at home, where I could record harmonies and add bass and program drums, and really try to imagine what the song sounds like.”

Where she landed is both familiar and new territory for War. On I Got No Fight, subtle reels of guitar feedback weave through the background while she drives the song with her unorthodox fingerpicking. She collaborates with Americana guitarist and producer David Rawlings on a trio of songs, including the street blues of Swear to Gawd, but her acoustic guitar serves as the main support and lead instrument throughout the album.

War went from shredding Slayer tunes with friends in middle school to being homeless and busking with an acoustic guitar in her late teens and early 20s, as she drifted with gutter punks in Venice Beach and San Francisco. But before then, she had fostered an interest in playing music from watching family members and friends jam – and that led to her thumb-and-forefinger fingerstyle approach.

“My uncle and my dad’s friend were the main musicians I saw playing all the time, and that was a bass player and a banjo player,” she says. “So I wasn’t around somebody strumming enough. I was just trying to make sounds, and I think it’s because of the banjo players that I was like, ‘This sounds cool.’ I was just doing what he was doing.”

Despite her more adventurous arrangements on Anarchist Gospel, War still finds the simplicity of her Guild dreadnought captivating. “The thing about guitar,” she says, “is that it can be a new thing forever if you let yourself be experimental all the time with it.”

• Anarchist Gospel is out now via New West Records.