South Summit Talk ‘River Days’

Founded on the creative coast of WA and guided by the tangy westerly breeze, Perth’s South Summit have arrived with an emotional and invigorating new tune River Days ready to pull listeners into their story. River Days is the next step for the five-piece, who spent weeks with producer Dave Parkin (Spacey Jane, Tired Lion) refining the track, ensuring it retained the raw emotion of the initial demo.

Catchy, heartfelt and memorable River Days is a groove that demands attention, grabbing audiences by the hand and taking them on a sonic journey with a winding narrative. With Dave Parkin’s guidance the band was able to take the song up another notch, crafting an instant classic behind singer Zaya’s earnest storytelling. Nemo (rhythm guitar/ vocals), Zaya (lead singer), Nathan (drummer) from the band gives Hi Fi Way greater insight to the single.

How exciting was it to hear your new single premiered on national radio?
Nemo: It’s definitely a good feeling to see our music being played not only locally but across the nation. We are very stoked and grateful for the opportunity and also thankful for the massive support everyone has shown us along the way. Words can’t explain how much we love our fans and the people who have helped us get this far! We definitely look forward to the future and are very keen to get our music out there for the world to hear.

What is the story behind the single River Days?
Zaya: River Days is a story about the abuse of alcohol and how it can change the people closest to you. It is drawn from many personal experiences and deep emotions. The song is an attempt to show the very personal journey I have taken. “Save me from the river”, is a cry for help. Help to be spared from seeing those closest to me change for the worse, help to save them from alcohol and help to stop me from treading the same path.

Can you believe on reflection how much work goes into making a single?
Zaya: Being quite early on in our careers we are essentially still learning a lot in what the process’s are in creating the final product of a song and I don’t think that will ever change. Reflecting back on our time in the studio with River Days we really had to dive into a certain state of mind so we could really bring out the essence of the song so we were patient in realising we didn’t have to rush anything. So much work was done leading up to the release by everyone involved and it really shows in the final product.

Sonically, how would you describe the music of South Summit?
Nathan: The good thing about our music is that we don’t really have one particular genre. We probably fit under Alternative Rock, but we have many indie, blues and reggae sounds that come out of our playing. Most of the songs that are already out there are more laid back, catchy vocals and stuff like that. But we are also working on a bunch of other cool stuff that is a bit more upbeat, and we are experimenting with heaps of these new ideas in our live sets and planning on releasing them in the near future.

Is the band building towards and album or EP?
Nathan: Now that we have a solid body of work that we have released, we plan to spend a lot of 2022 writing and recording songs to release throughout the year. ‘River Days’ was the first of those singles and we plan to keep on going just recording songs and getting them out there for people to listen to. An album is definitely a huge goal for us in the future.

How did the band meet?
Zaya: Bass player Josh and Drummer Nath were good mates in Highschool and used to jam together and not long after decided to put a band together. Josh was kind of the link between the band getting together as he met lead Guitarist Fynn through WA Performing Arts school and vocalist Zaya through friends of friends. Zaya at this time was making music with his brother Nemo and when approached by Josh to join the band got Nemo onboard.

Who are some of the musical heroes you look up to?
Nathan: As a band we look up to the likes of Pink Floyd, The Police and Bob Marley to name a few. These bands were globally successful and continued to create music that they loved which is something that really inspires us. As for some of our Aussie heroes, bands like Ocean Alley, Spacey Jane and DMA’s motivate us to really push ourselves and commit to being in a band because we can see the opportunities that homegrown bands have for success through things such as Triple J and Australia’s renowned music scene.

Did the band lose much momentum last year due to the pandemic?
Nathan: As we are based in Perth WA, we were lucky that the COVID lockdowns did not effect us as much as the eastern states. We formed in early March 2020 and we were able to use all the spare time to practice and write music. The pandemic also didn’t stop us from playing live gigs too, as WA was not subject to many restrictions. This meant we could play heaps of gigs when we were just starting out, which helped us a lot.

Are you looking forward to being able to tour more broadly around the country this year?
Nemo: Once the boarders are open, we will definitely be looking to go over East to play some shows, and hopefully expand our fan base. Touring around Australia is something we are looking to do and hopefully something we can achieve this year coming. We would love for people to hear our music and I think this is the best way possible.

What’s next for South Summit?
Zaya: We’ve got a lot of exciting news coming and a lot planned for the future so we’re just going with the flow and taking things as they come. In saying that, the ball is rolling pretty fast so we’ve been flat out lately. With a few more headline shows to close out 2021, 2022 will kick off pretty huge with a couple festivals and exciting content we’ve held off for the new year.

Interview By Rob Lyon

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