Sunshine draws on the bright, tightly arranged world of early 1960s pop, with clear nods to girl-group harmonies and the upbeat, melodic optimism of the era. Its sound is deliberately concise and direct, designed to feel immediate and recognisable without tipping into novelty or parody.
In development, Sunshine highlighted one of the more surprising challenges of working with AI. Early generations consistently exaggerated cheerfulness, pushing the ident towards cartoonish exuberance or overly modern pop phrasing that undermined its period character. Capturing the restraint and discipline of early-60s pop required careful control – tightening structure, simplifying harmony, and resisting the AI’s instinct to over-perform optimism.
The final version reflects that balance. Within the Fred On the Radio catalogue, Sunshine functions as a bright, confident signpost, particularly effective at openings or resets where clarity and uplift are needed. Its evolution demonstrates that lightness and simplicity are often the hardest qualities to achieve, and that historical styles demand as much editorial judgement as more subtle contemporary genres.
I suppose the reason I’ve called this ‘Donut’ as opposed to ‘Ramp’ is that I’ve kept the backing vocals at the beginning, but the ideal place for a VO or presenter to speak is after those backing vox have finished. I did also save a Ramp version without the backing vox, for production purposes only.