Sly Withers: ‘Let’s do sly, but prettier’

The Perth-based indie-punk legends known to all as Sly Withers are set to bless our ears yet again on October 28 with their new album blossoming from their previous release of Gardens before they hit Northcote Theatre next month.

The group we once knew as an indie-punk band from the west have now taken elements of their own sound, twisted them and formulated a killer new album that pulls from genres from chillwave to folk-rock.

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The four-piece, who met and formed back in high school, took some experimental turns with Overgrown creating a lush yet loud approach in comparison to the Sly we know and love.

“We knew what we sounded like, and we also knew where we wanted to take it. We wanted to go prettier and lusher and just try things to be braver in our sound,” Sam says. “We pushed ourselves to make things sound a bit different to what they might normally sound. It was a conscious effort to go broader with the types of sounds were using.

“I think sonically everything’s evolved from what we were doing previously, and we had a lot more time with this record to really experiment and get lost trying different things,” Sly’s fellow vocalist / guitarist Jono Mata adds.

“More time to experiment meant that we got to push everything a little bit further and I think the record benefited from it.”

Although influenced by the likes of Turnstile, PUP and Spacey Jane, the band explain that they found their own distinct sound on the album as they went along.

With the help of Dave Parkin – who produced the new record – they created an album that rises and fall from track to track, showing friends and fans alike a truly versatile sonic range.

Sly gave us a sneak peak of what was to come on the album earlier in the year with ‘Passing Through’ and ‘Radio’ kicking off to our excitement. The two tracks, again, showing the flexibility the album’s set to provide.

“[The response to ‘Radio’] has been sick,” Sam says. “We got to make a big video where we all wore white like the Backstreet Boys and danced in front of an orange backdrop or whatever and that was sick too.

“It’s always good when you put out any choon that people are digging ’cause you never really know what people are going to think until it’s out there.”

‘Radio’ was the first track the Sly guys mixed with Dave Parkin – who has also worked with Spacey Jane – and they say it “really set the tone” on how the rest of the album was generated.

Jono says that the track was formed through thoughts of nostalgia and simpler times: “Radio talks about the feeling that your thoughts are getting lost in translation and you want to be heard but can’t organise the words to get your point across. I like to think that comes through in the song itself, sounding a little frantic and all over the place.”

Sly Withers, who have been present in the indie rock scene since 2013, spent eight hours per day in the studio producing Overgrown, for 10 weeks all up.

“I think the process that we had sort of working on things, breaking the songs apart and reforming them into something else was sometimes a little hard to wrap your head around,” Jono explains.

“If you’ve got this idea of a song that you think is a winning idea and that ends up totally flipped on its head and smashed, that can be a hard thing to let go of in the moment and trust in that process.

“It’s something that you only really have the benefit of looking back on with hindsight and be like ‘yeah that’s the process that worked for us’, but there were still some moments where I was like ‘yeah, nah, don’t want to change that, sorry guys. Definitely a couple of diva moments in there.”

Sam, on the other hand, found that he experienced a different struggle throughout the production of the new album.

“The whole idea of recording is a super high-pressure environment if you let it be, and I’m the kind of person that lets things get inside my head pretty easily,” he says.

He explains that recording got the best of him at times, with the pressure and exhaustion catching up to him throughout the long hours in the studio.

“Just the concept that… this could be the take that goes on the record that everyone hears for the next however many years. That kind of pressure, at all times, for ten weeks straight from 10 in the morning until six at night everyday – it’s just it’s a lot to deal with.”

Sam continues to say that although the whole process was overwhelming, the way in which Dave structured the recording days and created such a relaxed environment set an ease to his mind: “We did like, three songs a week kind of thing, and focused in on things at different times, so it felt like there was room to breathe whilst also being very overwhelmingly busy.”

Sly Withers are set to hit the road again in November with their Overgrown album tour. Joining them along the way are Moaning Lisa, with extra guests for some cities, and an extra special guest that the band are still trying to wrap their head around.

“Tyler Richardson from Luca Brasi is going to be opening three-quarters of the tour shows solo, which is a literal dream come true for us. We are still kind of processing the fact that that’s a thing ‘cos Luca are a very important band for us,” Sam reveals.

“We’re so stoked with the people that we’re taking around the country with us, and I think we’re also really looking forward to playing these new songs and seeing what they turn into in a live setting as well, it’ll be a lot of fun,” Jono adds.

“It’s the first time doing a longer-chunk set so is going to be more room to experiment with setlists and give everything a good shot.”

Sly Withers are playing Northcote Theatre on Friday November 18. Overgrown is out October 28 via Dew Process / UMA. 

This article was made in partnership with Northcote Theatre.