Artist Spotlight: Sunny Reyne

Sunny Reyne is a young rising Australia local absolutely glistening with potential, carrying an infectious energy enough to make anyone smile on a rainy day. Last month, we got the fantastic opportunity to chat with the up-and-comer before listeners start to really catch on. The gifted musician hails from Melbourne, and her smooth vocals will have you swaying and humming as you walk down the street. Her trademark neo-soul sound means she wouldn’t seem too out of place in a playlist full of the pioneers and greats that came before her – think Erykah Badu, Solange, and Lauryn Hill, but Sunny shines with her own subtle, disjointed grooves and synthy production. Whilst comparisons don’t do any favours for expectations, if you’ve got a keen ear for any alt-pop, soulful vibes, then she’s most definitely worth your time. Or if you simply want something of a therapy session through music, “the EP plays into the theme of the complexity of the human mind and the frequent inability to control it.”

For all our UK readers, the EP was birthed in a creative space with London based producer Lewis Moody, which certainly helped bring the contemporary soul sound to fruition. Amongst support from BBC Radio 2, Jazz FM, and Worldwide FM, Sunny has meticulously timed the release of this project perfectly, showcasing her artistry to full capacity, whilst getting even more eyes on her. The nu-soul and jazz scene in Melbourne and wider Australia continues to bloom into something beautiful, and Sunny is no exception. 

With an impressive run of singles leading up to the EP, the project is now here in its entirety – it’s just a shame the sun’s disappeared here in the UK, because as her name suggests, her music is great for the hot weather. But no better time to catch up with the talented voice, alongside the release of her EP Right Now itself, released via Bridge the Gap. The 4-part exploration highlights the ‘determination to exist more presently’, with songwriting and vibrations akin to Lianne La Havas, Arlo Parks, and Bel Cobain. She excels in minimalism, but that’s not to say her music is basic, it’s layered, intricate, and heartfelt. We caught up with her before the release, but all the music we discussed (which she wrote herself) is now ready to stream or buy, so make sure you give it all a spin…

Nice to meet you, Sunny. Thank you for joining me. 

Thank you for having me.

How are you doing?

Good. Yeah, I'm good. I'm getting excited for all the EP stuff to start. It's getting close, close enough now that it feels a bit more real than I think it has before at any point. So, definitely exciting.

Yeah, I just got done listening to it as well. Congratulations, it sounds really good! Perfect for the UK right now, we've got our last bit of sunshine before autumn, so it's quite nice to have some relaxing sunny music to listen to. So, tell us a bit about yourself for the readers. What do you do? For people that might not be familiar.

Yes, so I live and have always lived in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve been into music I think for forever really and I’ve always been writing, I guess. But I really got into it when I went to uni. I studied music and was doing all that there. Really got into writing around that period of time I think, and kind of developed that a little bit more throughout lockdown. There was a lot of time to do all that kind of stuff, and I started with Lewis Moody, who produced the EP - and he's from Melbourne as well, but now lives in London. We got into writing a lot of stuff together. He would make it down a couple of times during lockdowns and everything, and we worked on a bit of stuff. But yeah, this EP has all mostly been done over Zoom, kind of via the digital world a little bit, which has been an interesting process. But yeah, I kind of really wanted to start getting into doing my own thing and putting my stuff out. So, I've been singing for ages, and I always have, I dunno, music's always been in my family as well, right? And people always ask me about my name and whether it's real or not - but it is! I think a lot of people think It's like a bit of a stage name. It is my middle name actually, Sunny's my middle name, but I go by Sunny with most people. I don't know, my parents wanted to call me Sunny Reyne, I kind of thought I would be destined to end up as a weather girl or something haha. 

Well, there's always that as a backup option I guess. But yeah, the music's going well it seems like, so that's good. So, a lot of people reading this as well are likely from the UK so if people aren't aware of you yet, why should people listen to you?

I think there’s a big correlation between music over in the UK. That kind of new soul, neo soul, jazzy type thing. It’s very much the same sound that we have here. There's kind of a, I dunno, the scene here is definitely big enough that it feels like a really great community when it's here. But I guess we've got that thing of being, you know, halfway across the world. So, I think there is that huge connection with the UK and it's always a natural progression from Melbourne to London or the UK. I do think it's just a sound that seems to work really well over there. And I don't know, I guess people like Allysha Joy have really lent into that as well. So, I just think connection is so strong.

No, definitely. When I went traveling after I finished college, I went to Australia and I thought it did feel like quite similar to the UK in a lot of ways in terms of like art and people’s style. So yeah, in terms of music there's definitely a connection there. Definitely a lot of similarities… So, tell us a bit more about the new EP. Obviously it must be very exciting, are you nervous to release it at all?

Yeah, definitely not to the point that I'm freaking out or anything. But there'll always be nerves involved in any kind of release, especially as it is my first release that I've done. I mean, I put out like one single that wasn't accompanied by anything else a couple of years ago but didn't do much with it. I was just like, ‘oh, I'll write a song and put it out and that's that’. But this is my first sort of thing that feels more real. So, I mean I've been working with a team at Bridge the Gap over in the UK and they've been amazing with getting it around over there especially - and Eric who runs that company he heard it and heard that connection a little bit as well and just really nurtured that relationship with the UK. Yeah. So yeah, I'm definitely nervous to put it out, but in a way that's also exciting. I think that kind of does trump that a little bit more. And I'm gonna be over in the UK when it's released as well.

Really?

Yeah, doing a bit of stuff there, so that's gonna be exciting just to be amongst that and to get over there will help the EP. 

Do you have any plans to do any shows or any small gigs while you're out there? Or is it just more for you know, promotion and stuff?

Yeah, I think we have a loosely locked in gig at the moment. Not sure if it's set in stone. But yeah, definitely have plans. I’ll be doing some interviews, got some shows hopefully coming up over there. Yeah.

Very good. And so, what about the process behind making the EP? How did it all come together? Why did you choose the two singles that you chose for the release? 

Well, it came together after last year, mid last year. Back to that thing of working with Lewis on this stuff. He actually recorded a whole album's worth of songs that we were gonna release first. But when I was kind of talking to people about putting it out, I kind of came to the idea that I wanted to start with something a little bit smaller - to start with an EP length record. I had that to kind of, I don't know, start off a musical thing and then to grow from there. Lewis and I got together last year to do that record and then when we decided we wanted to do the smaller thing, the EP, I wrote these songs for it, I think they all came together around the start of this year. So, a lot of it was done just at home in this studio that I have here, which in turn made the sound of it a little different to what I kind of always naturally write in. It's more almost like beat-tapey in a way. More so than anything else I’ve done cause the instrumentation isn't really live. A lot of its sampled stuff. All the drums are sampled. It's not really what I'd go for normally, but I really like the direction we took with the singles. I just think when we first, well, when I first wrote them, for me at least, they were the strongest ones that stood out. I guess they had more of a hook in them potentially that I really lent into a little bit more. I think they came almost the most easily when I wrote them. It was a little bit more fluid in the terms of its process. And when I wrote them and then sent them to Lewis, he said the same. He was like, ‘yeah, these ones are really strong’, and they just felt right for it. The rest kind of tied them together nicely, I think to round the EP out a bit more.

So, you said about some songs being left like on the cutting room floor, or not necessarily on the cutting room floor, but as part of a bigger album, and then you decided to make the EP so, do you have any plans to release those further down the line or is that sort of sessions from this EP that might not ever come to fruition?

No, I definitely have plans to put that out. I wrote it with the album in mind, I had that kind of infrastructure, and I reckon next year or the year after I'll definitely release them in the form that they're currently in. Those songs were definitely something entirely different. I wrote them knowing that I wanted something different to what I'd already had, and that they'd gone a bit of a different direction. But no, they weren't tied at all into the songs that I've already made. They were part of their own process, I guess. But yeah, I'm in that stage of trying not to listen to the songs that we've done because I'm worried I’ll get sick of them. I’ll be putting them out like a couple of years after they've been made, cause peoples sound changes all the time, but I think it's nice in a way that I'm accidentally one step ahead of myself in that. 

Yeah, that's good. Good head start. And are you in your like bedroom/studio right now or is this your own studio space or, what is it?

It's like a studio space in my house. Yeah.

Oh, nice. Right.

It's, I mean, not a big space, it's like a small room, but yeah, lots of stuff in here.

Is that where you've done most of your recording then?

Yes. So, all this EP was done in this room. It's just covered in like a bunch of keyboards. My partner is a keyboard player and just fills the space with keyboards, which is great. But yeah, it was all done in here on a very crappy condenser mic that I had, and when we first recorded the stuff, I quite appreciated the sound of the mic that I was using at the time. But you know, it was me singing like this, this cupboard behind me, surrounded by coats and stuff to try and get a better sound. But, in the end, Lewis refused to let me use those takes because he knew I had to use a better mic. So, I ended up recording the vocals at a friend's studio instead. 

Well, maybe we can get the demos one day as well! So, you're obviously influenced from a range of sounds like soul and jazz, like you said. So, what makes up your influences in terms of writing and creating music - what artists did you maybe grow up around that have had an imprint on your work?

I mean, I guess talking directly about this EP and this writing process, most of it is that UK sound. My favourite artists are all from the UK. I mean it's coincidental in the sense that, it's not like I'm seeking out UK artists or anything. But people like Lianne La Havas. 

Oh yeah, she's amazing. She's so good.

Yeah. My all-time favourite, I think. I just think I really appreciate her style of writing because it's nothing too complex necessarily. It's really beautifully done and her production again isn't too complex, which I tend to gravitate towards myself - keeping it fairly stripped back. But I’m just really looking into great vocals, really nice guitar sounds, that kind of thing. So, she's a huge influence and has been for a long time now. People like Noya Rao are another band from the UK. They're smaller, a lot smaller, but…

Yeah, I've not heard of them, but I’ll have to listen to them.

Yeah. They're really great. They have a sound to their music that I love. It's kind of like a crunchier sort of beat heavy kind of music. I really gravitated towards that sound as well growing up. My high school was like a music high school, a kind of artsy high school and I was there studying jazz from like year nine. I then studied jazz at uni as well. So, jazz has been a huge thing from when I was young. It wasn’t necessarily prevalent in my house, like it wasn't a huge part of what my parents were listening to as well, but I tended to seek out that kind of music from a really young age. I think that has helped me move in that kind of soul direction as well. It grew from that love of, you know, all the great jazz vocalists. 

Yeah, definitely. Obviously, you said a lot about your UK influence. This is more just a personal question… So, have you heard of Sampha or Blood Orange, those are my two favourites from the UK.

I have, yeah. I love them. They're great. I should get more into both of them, but I love what I’ve heard. 

They're very good, yeah. So, you're from Melbourne, and I've only been there once before just for a few days, but it did feel like a very creative arty place compared to a lot of other cities in Australia. So how do you feel about living somewhere like Melbourne? Like how did that influence your music?

Yeah, I love it here. I think the art scene is really strong. The music scene… I think, like I was saying, it's a small scene but I feel like the people that are doing their thing in the art community are all really phenomenal. I think we also have amazing venues here. It's a city that you can see multiple gigs playing on any kind of night, which I think can be rare in a lot of places. In a lot of places It's not always the case that there's always something on that you can go to. The venues are really great, in all kinds of sense like theatre, art, dance, that kind of stuff. It's a really great city to grow up in in terms of that. I think it influenced my style because I was just around those kinds of people from a young age for sure. I think I kind of went in that direction of doing music at school and whatever, and naturally those people were around me. But I think there is such a strong sense of community as well. Everyone kind of knows each other because it's small and Melbourne's such like a little city really. Maybe it's the fact that we are so far away from everywhere else in the world as well that we just have that strong sense of community and connection that keeps us all together.

Yeah, definitely. And so obviously you said it's a small music scene, but who are some favourites in the Melbourne music scene that you think deserve a shout out, or deserve some attention?

Allysha Joy has always been like - I've always been a fan of her music. She's great. She's living in the UK at the moment. I think she did that neo soul sound really well. She’s been doing it for a while now and she's great. Who else am I really loving at the moment? People like Gemma Fay as well. She is more in the folky realm of stuff, but she has a beautiful sense of musicianship. There's so many, there's a lot of stuff happening here in that kind of lane. Oh… actually, Emma Donovan is one of my favourite vocalists at the moment. She has this soulful sound to her voice that is so raw and emotive as well. She's definitely one of my favourite singers.

Okay. And so, you're obviously building your name in Australia right now, so do you have any plans to tour the whole of Australia as well?

Yes. I would love that as well. I think after I put this out,I'm definitely gonna lean into that as well. I mean, there's still so much of this country that I haven't seen. The cities are kind of small but there is so much to see in Australia. So yeah, there are plans that I'm trying to get to at the moment to do some tours around Australia for sure.

Obviously you mentioned some favourites that you've got from the UK. Is there any that you'd specifically like to work with on music in the future? Like some dream collaborations maybe?

Yeah, I'd love to do collaborations with people, like do you know Jordan Raki?

Oh yeah, he's great. He's great. Yeah.

People like him would be amazing. I'm a big fan of his, he was also originally from Australia too. Probably people like Tom Mish as well. Anyone in that kind of world, and I think Jordan as well has done some really cool collaborations.

Yeah, he's really good. I love his song Borderline and the whole album that that's from, and his collaborations, and the same with Tom Mish. Yeah, they're both really good. So, what about dream producers and instrumentalists? Like if you could have anyone produce on your track, what would they be contributing to the instrumental and why would you pick them?

Three instrumentalists? That's a tough question. I feel like even though she's a singer, working with someone like Lianne, who has such an iconic guitar sound would be amazing. I reckon someone like Yussef Dayes, his drumming is incredible, and I think he has a very specific sound that is like, as soon as you hear it, you know who it is and I think that's rare with instrumentalists. So, I definitely think he'd be up there. It's a shame, Tom Misch was meant to come down to Melbourne recently, but he ended up cancelling that tour. But it would've been amazing to see that I think. If we're talking like dream people, someone like Pino Palladino who is a really well-known bass player from America - he played on all the early D’Angelo stuff.

Oh really? Nice.

He's done a lot of stuff recently like Jacob Collier, that kind of thing. He would definitely be a dream collaborator cause he's got that sense of groove, and is one of those people that everything he does is really impressive. His son, actually, plays in Tom Misch’s band.

Yeah, they all kind of go very nicely together as well. Like they definitely contribute to an overall sound that would work really well. Like the use of Yussef on the drums. He’s so good. Like on that Tom Mish collaboration album he had, and in his own work it's always very recognizable.

For sure.

So whilst you've been sort of up and coming, who's been like the wildest sort of co-sign that you've had so far? Like a shout out that you didn't expect?

I think I got a play on Jamie Cullum's BBC show, which I think out of all the things I got, it was obviously really cool that he was into the stuff. And again, he's someone that I've really loved, I've been a fan of his from when I was young as well and he does that really beautiful crossover with that jazz soul thing. So, knowing that he was into the stuff and that he was digging it, I think it was really cool having that support for sure.

Nice. And what's next after the EP? What are your big sort of goals for the next couple of years? What do you wanna achieve for music in the next couple of years?

I think my main goal is to just keep kind of pushing stuff out, getting into a good flow of riding stuff as well without bombarding anyone at any point. Next year I've got plans to actually move over to the UK for a little bit, for a longer period of time. Spending next year over there because I've been working with a lot of people over there. At the moment, I wanna nurture that relationship that's happening at the moment because I think it's strong and it's something I really wanna get into. But yeah, it's just about collaborating with a lot of great people I think is a goal of mine - to write with a lot of, a lot of people. And to just play a bunch of shows, play a bunch of festivals and yeah, hopefully push that through over to the UK and the broader scene as well. I'd love to go to America too to kind of work on some stuff.

Very nice. And yeah, thank you so much for talking with me today. Everyone makes sure to check out Sunny's music and is there anything else you wanted to say to everyone?

Just thank you for having me and for checking out the music and I'm glad that you're into it.

Yeah, thank you so much. Have a lovely day.

You too. Bye.

Check out the EP here.