Local Spins spotlights the Lansing-area rocker who releases ‘Rock and Roll Will Save Us All’ next month, plus debuts fresh tracks from other Michigan artists.
The Redeeming Power of Rock ‘n’ Roll: Sean Anthony Sullivan and band. (Courtesy Photo)
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Sean Anthony Sullivan was born into music and born to play music.
“I basically grew up with an instrument in my hands — piano since age 6, guitar soon after,” said Sullivan, who was raised in Charlotte, Mich., inspired by a musician father and band director.
“It’s something I was just always exposed to and I always loved. It was just always something I was tapped into in that world. … For me, it’s really about that community aspect and getting in a room with each other, whether it’s performing with others or who we look at when we’re playing music. We’re all in this together having a feeling and experience and joining in something together.”
So it’s no surprise that with a life revolving around music his band’s debut album would have a title that boldly declares, “Rock and Roll Will Save Us All.”
A Lifetime of Music: Sullivan (Courtesy Photo)
“The theme is around urgency, and what I mean by that is the need to feel something right now,” said Sullivan, a software developer by day who spent time in Oregon before returning to his home state.
“It’s kind of a reaction pushing back to this world we live in where people are relatively preoccupied and coping. Really for me, on my spiritual journey, its been about now is everything and experiencing something today.”
Since finalizing his gritty rock trio in 2023 with longtime friend Casey DeMott on bass and vocals, and Luke Lindsay on drums and vocals, that band experience has translated to invigorating live performances.
“We had a show not too long ago where we got off the stage and somebody said, ‘Man, you guys are like a pack of wolves up there.’ It’s because we love much the motion and the movement and the groove of everything that’s going on.”
VIDEO: Sean Anthony Sullivan, “Cry for More”
A RECORDING WITH ‘LIVE-IN-THE-ROOM’ GROOVE
Capturing that live sentiment was also the goal of the trio’s debut studio album that’s slated for release on Nov. 7.
Recorded at Fort Wayne’s Sweetwater Studios, Michigan’s Willis Sound and Sullivan’s own Sonicwagon studio in the Lansing area, most of the songs “were hammered out on stage before they took their final shape on the recording,” he noted.
“Each track began with the band live-in-the-room and carries the same sweat, groove, and swagger as our stage show,” he insisted. “We didn’t hit ‘record’ until the feeling was absolutely right and the groove was right, and we were just feeling exactly what that song was meant to be.”
Those songs – billed as “built for road trips and late nights in clubs” – reflect the mix of artists Sullivan found kinship with as a young musician: Chicago, The Rolling Stones, Steve Marriott, The Black Crowes, Warren Haynes, Jackson Browne.
Sullivan: ‘Have guitar, will travel.’ (Courtesy Photo)
“Terry Kath of Chicago was my Hendrix,” he conceded. “My musical influences have always been those that make you feel something and wake up your soul. My earliest influence was right at home. My dad used to play ‘Johnny B. Goode’ on guitar, and the way he made that Chuck Berry riff sing, with the amp hitting me in the chest, I was obsessed with that feeling.
“Because my dad was a band director, he always taught me about the power of performance and experiencing music together. He gave me access to that culture and instruments and equipment to learn and experiment. As a developing musician, I grew up with promo records of marching band arrangements in hand. I fell in love with the idea of true melody through those.”
A week after the record’s official release, Sullivan and his bandmates will open for the Pat Travers Band, a special event for Sullivan who’s long admired the iconic Canadian blues-rock guitarist. The Nov. 14 concert takes place at The Vault in Saginaw; details and ticket information online here.
“The mentality is, ‘Have guitar, will travel.’ There’s really no stage or venue we don’t want to be at because we just want to get out there and meet rock ’n’ rollers at the end of the day.”
This week’s episode of the Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase featured two tracks from Sullivan’s new album – “Eyes Glued (To The Pavement)” and “99 Degrees.” Listen to the interview and those songs below, along with the full radio show podcast featuring new music by Pablo Eskobear, The Vital Hive, Celeste Allison, LVRS, The Dangling Participles, Julian Bugbee and Dovetail.
PODCAST: Local Spins Michigan Music Showcase (10/3/25)
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