SANCHEZ BY THE SEA Finds Light in the Dark on “Windowsill”

Pomona’s own SANCHEZ BY THE SEA closes out their 2024 album Untitled (But It’s About You) with a gut punch. “Windowsill” isn’t just the last track; it’s the breaking point where heartbreak, memory, and resilience all crash into each other.

The song feels like replaying every bad decision and every breakup in one night, that spiral where your past keeps knocking at the window. Sanchez’s raw, aching vocals cut straight through, while the stripped-down production gives the song space to breathe, and to hurt.

What makes “Windowsill” different is the human touch woven in. Sanchez layered in real soundbites from friends who carried him through grief. In the acoustic version, collaborator Aries Romeo Aziz is heard reflecting on being lifted out of depression, a moment so real it shifts the track from heartbreak confession into lifeline. Suddenly, it’s not just Sanchez’s story, it’s anybody’s who’s been swallowed by the weight of loss and needed a voice pulling them back up.

The indie alt textures stay minimal but intentional, acoustic lines, raw delivery, and silence where silence says more than another layer could. Cameos across the record include Jill Sullivan of Chipped Nail Polish, but it’s Romeo’s presence here that makes the closer land like a final exhale.

At its heart, “Windowsill” is grief and reflection wrapped in a fragile kind of hope. It doesn’t sugarcoat the heaviness, but it shows there’s still light cracking through. For anyone replaying the ghosts of a broken relationship, SANCHEZ BY THE SEA offers proof you’re not alone, and that even in the darkest rooms, someone’s still calling you back to life.

“Windowsill” closes the album with incredible emotional weight. Why did you choose it as the final track?

I had originally planned for ‘San Andreas Road’ to be the closer, with it being about the pleasures of solitude and how beautiful life can be. I think it could be interpreted as having moved on from the troubles of the relationship painted in the album. But then I started to picture the whole album more like a collection of memories, where starting at a certain point leads to an endless string of reminiscing, regretting, and overthinking. 

In a way, Windowsill to me feels like the moment when it all becomes too much, and instead of dealing with your problems, you lash out and let all your thoughts and emotions pour out of you without a filter, only for you to end up endlessly apologizing for taking it out in such a way. ‘San Andreas Road’ is essentially the calm before the storm that is ‘Windowsill.’ The use of real-life soundbites adds such intimacy. How did the idea to include them come about?

I think it’s mainly influenced by my love of rap & hip-hop. I’m sure it’s done in other genres too, but with those specifically, I’ve always enjoyed various clips, sound bites, and skits you’d find on songs by N.W.A., Beastie Boys, and Kendrick Lamar, of course.

I used the ones in the songs specifically to add a glimmer of hope to a pretty bleak song and to add to the idea that there are always people who love you enough to stick with you and help you out of whatever hole your mind is in. How did collaborating with Aries Romeo Aziz shape the impact of both the main and acoustic versions?

When it comes to the main version, I genuinely couldn’t imagine it without their vocals on it. I showed them the demo, and they loved it so much that they asked me if they could cover it once it was out, but I thought, “Heck, why not just get on the real thing?” 

It was really fun and we spent a few sessions over Discord working through their bits which I think really brought the song together. As for the acoustic version, I really wanted to include that specific voice clip of theirs as another reminder that there’s always hope for anyone who can relate to Windowsill.

The song captures the feeling of living every year of your life at once. How did you translate that into sound?

I think the main way I captured the feeling was with lyrics that could encompass more than one memory. Things like “I should’ve never gone to that party,” I feel, could bring up more than one instance where that feeling of regret could be relevant. Aside from that, I think lyrics being genuine memories from my life, with a vague relation to each other, being poured out in a sort of quick-fire way also helped achieve that feeling.

What do you hope listeners feel when they reach the end of Untitled (But It’s About You) and hear “Windowsill”?

I hope listeners feel fulfilled and satisfied by the end, like they listened to a very good season of TV. 

Hopefully, the bombastic nature of ‘Windowsill’ will fill them with the urge to sing or scream along and let all their troubles disappear, even if just for the duration of the song.