South Summit are the Perth-based indie-rock-meets-reggae band who are carving out new territory in the Australian music scene. During their tour with Tash Sultana and ahead of Spilt Milk festival shows, we caught up with the five-piece to talk about their creative process, coastal roots, and how they’re shaping the sound of a new generation of Australian music:

For those who don’t yet know, introduce us to South Summit. How would you define yourselves as a band and the music you’re making?

Hey we’re South Summit (Nathan, Josh, Fynn, Nemo and Zaya) and we are a 5-piece band from the West Coast of Australia. We make alternative rock music, but we like to experiment with genres, blending reggae, hip-hop, & RnB sounds throughout our music catalog. Playing live shows is our favourite part about being a band, we love bringing positive vibes at our shows and connecting with people all over the world.

We love your new track TOP OF THE HILL. Tell us about where you wrote it and what inspired the song?

We’ve had the demo for this song banked in the archives for a minute, so it feels good to finally get it out in the world. Like many of our other tunes, it was written in the backyard with an acoustic guitar really stripped back with just chords and lyrics. We then took it to our brother Marlon from Six60 who helped turn the demo into life, then tracked it at the old faithful Blackbird Studios with Dave Parkin. 

How do you think being from Perth and Australia in general shapes your sound?

We love the tight-knit community we’ve built in Perth. We’ve been fortunate enough to always have a strong hometown backing and that means the world to us. Whenever we play in Perth, it’s always the loudest and proudest. I think being from Australia definitely has had an effect on shaping our sound. It feels like we’re hidden away from a lot of the world, but us Aussies are quietly cooking something special over here different to anything the rest of the world has to offer.

Who do you work with on your music with that help to refine what you do? Producers etc?

We work with Dave Parkin from Blackbird Studios here in Perth. We’ve been working with him for a few years now, he’s a great mate, producer and writer.

Is this the beginning of an upcoming project… What else can you tell us?

We’re not too sure what we can tell ya, don’t wanna get in trouble with our team! But, we do have some big plans in the works, more news soon...

We love the visuals. What was on your moodboard for this EP and era?

Thanks! We’re really trying to create solid visuals for our music and with Top Of The Hill we spent a long time planning out the visuals that accompany the song. We’re working closely with our creative director and mate Brendan Cecich, also based here in Perth, to make all the visuals and glad ya love em!

You joined Tash Sultana on their tour. What is the South Summit live experience like?

It’s all about good vibes. We try to play every live show a little bit differently, whether that be changing the setlist to suit the vibe of the crowd in that city, or even just switching up how we play songs to keep 'em interesting! We always try to echo good vibrations through our live shows, and make sure everyone's having a great time in the crowd. To be involved in this tour is a wicked experience, one that we’re super grateful for.

Has Tash’s approach to music inspired you at all?

Yeah, in a way. Our music and their kinda falls under a similar bracket, both being influenced by rock and reggae. Their outlook on not “following the pack” and trying to do things on their terms has definitely been an inspiration to us, something that we deeply respect as it can be difficult to craft your own path through all this stuff! 

Which artists have been exciting you recently? Who have you been listening to?

The Aussie music scene has been thriving recently, which is great to see. We’ve been jamming some new music from Ocean Alley, The Dreggs, Slim Jimz and Kurilpa Reach in the tour van recently!

What’s something you’re passionate about right now, aside from music?

We’re big into our sports, so being finals season it's been an interesting few months! Josh is a die-hard Swans fan in the AFL, (it’s been a bit of a long year!). Zaya and Nemo are big NRL fans, following the Cowboys and Rabbitohs respectively. Nathan is into the EPL, and is a big Everton fan, while Fynn gets into his F1 and watches every race religiously.

What’s next?

We’re very busy on the road until the end of the year, which is sick! Stoked to be playing our two biggest headline shows to date in Sydney and Melbourne this November for our ‘Eastside Tour’. Also stoked to be playing this years Spilt Milk Festival which is touring all over Australia. Around these, we’ve also got these Tash AUS shows, shows in Adelaide, Cairns, Logan, and heap more to be announced. Absolutely frothing to be playing back in Australia again after a few months off!

Listen to South Summit HERE.

@southsummitband