Following on from a year that saw them named as “indie role models for reconciliation”, as well as triple j’s 2022 “ones to watch”, South Summit have well and truly surpassed the expectations placed upon them.
Culminating 2022 with a Falls Festival slot in Perth, alongside BIGSOUND, Springtime Festival, Day On The Lawn, Rolling Sets and NYE On The Hill appearances, the unassuming indie-rockers have made a name for themselves across Australia, with a nomination for triple j Unearthed ‘Artist of The Year’, alongside landing #4 Most Played on the station, the icing on the cake of last year’s accolades.
Sophomore EP ‘Creatures’ provides South Summit the opportunity to bookend this formative chapter of their story, with a culminating body of work pulling inspiration from the challenges and adversity they’ve faced and overcome in the year preceding. Featuring acclaimed singles ‘Promise Me’, ‘Tired of Waiting’ and ‘Runaway’, the EP also adds three new tracks, with the release being opened with ‘Yaama’ (hello), and finished with ‘Yaluu’ (bye). Focus-track ‘Changes’ is notable, with frontman Isaiah Reuben diving into personal turmoil, realizing that obstacles & change is inevitable; giving in to this and working to move forward, growing into someone stronger and denying stagnation.
The band explained, “‘Changes’ refers to these songs being their own sound and their own creature. The EP itself is a collection of all these songs we’ve been making as individual pieces, into one body of work. It’s a token of appreciation to the fans who have supported us through a huge year, a release that defines the last year of our journey as a band. Going from a local band in the Perth scene to growing to find some recognition nationally, we’d like to thank all of those who helped us get there."
"This EP was done in blocks of days in the studio spread out months apart, usually working on 1-2 songs at a time. This allowed us to focus strongly on each song as its own piece of work. The majority of the recording was done with our go-to producer Dave Parkin at Blackbird Studios in Perth, we love his process of recording and it seemed to really click with us as a band. While on tour in Sydney we realized we had a bit of free time in the week so we came to an agreement to record with Callum Howell at Forbes Street Studios in Sydney. We stayed for 4 days to record our new track ‘Changes’. The idea behind recording in this totally new space was to try something different to what we were used to and just see what happens."
Working with long-time collaborator Dave Parkin (Spacey Jane, Tired Lion) for the majority of the EP (all tracks excluding ‘Changes’), the band took band-room jams, and fleshed them out to broader pieces of work, before working intently with Parkin to scalp them into the tracks heard today. ‘Changes’ is the work of Forbes Street Studios (Billie Eilish, Elton John, G-Flip) producer Callum Howell (Ocean Alley, Flume). With the band in Sydney, they took the groovy & soulful track to him, allowing his expertise in arrangements and tonal choices to shine through.
Previous single ‘Promise Me’ launched South Summit from their precipice of talent to a breakout act - ones to watch for 2022. Tastemakers triple j also added ‘Tired of Waiting’ to full rotation, supporting it across air & online. Duly nominated as triple j Unearthed ‘Artist of The Year’, the band found support from MTV Australia, as well as Spotify editorial, with ‘Local Noise’, ‘Fresh Finds’ and ‘Original Storytellers’ adds. Accumulating 1.2 million streams online, South Summit’s fanbase is deeply engaged & growing rapidly, with the band packing East Coast stages across Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Wollongong, alongside 600+ SOLD OUT shows in their Perth Hometown.
Focused intently on spreading positivity through their work, South Summit also took to visiting schools, prisons and youth detention centers across WA for NAIDOC week last year, providing inmates and attendees with an opportunity to share in their performance, cultures and a chance to connect with the band over a shared passion for music and creativity.
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