decided to form a band

In 1992, guitarist Dan Hoerner and bassist Nate Mendel met when they became housemates at the University of Washington . After jam sessions , they decided to form a band and sought a drummer, eventually deciding to invite William Goldsmith . Goldsmith played in many bands but decided to join the duo’s project. They went by 3 names before settling on Sunny Day Real Estate. They released a demo tape under the name “Empty Set”. Post-release, the band changed their name from Empty Set to Chewbacca Kaboom, upon realization that a band with the name Empty Set already existed. However, when another demo tape was released, the new name earned them little attention, and it was yet again subject to change, this time to One Day I Stopped Breathing. The band eventually settled on the name Sunny Day Real Estate. Mendel stated the band’s name “was just a random thought that popped into my head that came from a Talking Heads song, ‘ (Nothing But) Flowers ‘”. He felt that since the band’s outlook on the world saw that every possible thing was becoming a commodity to be bought and sold, it was possible that one day, people would even start selling sunny days. The lyrics made him ponder what could be sold as property, and come up with the commercialization of sunny days.