In the Green Room: The Sundials
Self-proclaimed flair-pant party rock act The Sundials are at no risk of slowing down. Dropping their new single ‘Bareback Riding’ off the back of playing huge Tassie festival Good Gumnuts, the band chat to The Note about it all.
Image supplied
Congrats on the new single, ‘Bareback Riding’! What does the title tell us about what the track has in store for listeners?
First and foremost, it’s strictly about riding horses, obviously. This is actually one of the earliest (and silliest) Sundials songs still in our sets, and was the first born completely out of a jam… as we’ve played it more and more over the years, more “bits” got added in… it makes it fun to play live and, of course, they’re all in the recording.
Your last track, ‘Live for you’, was released back in May last year and really connected well with live audiences. What made this track the right song for your comeback?
Haha. Well, we intended to record a few more times by the end of last year, but we got the opportunity to play a pretty big festival in Tasmania. So priority one became the logistics for that - single launches were put on hold. Now that we’re back from TAS, we’ve already got a few more planned…
You’ve got local acts Astral Blue and TOWNHOUSE supporting your launch at the Exeter on April 11. What made these bands a good pick for the launch?
TOWNHOUSE are one of our favourite Adelaide bands right now. They’re unique. And Dan is an incredible showman. I love that they’re focusing on these contained Eps. They’re cool enough to be popular, but unique enough to be in their own lane. Astral Blue are already pretty special. They’re almost brand new and have been cutting their teeth at all the jams and open mics in the city – they’re already dope. Whenever we book shows, we go out of our way to find great new bands for the opening spot. If you haven’t seen Astral blue, you’re going to be impressed
Your shows are known for being fun and energetic. What vibes do you want the audience to bring to this show?
Haha, thanks for noticing! Well, in this case, cowboy vibes. Anyone who brings their best cowboy duds to the show goes into a raffle to win our new merch!
You recently performed at Good Gum Nuts Festival in Tassie! How was that exciting experience for you guys?
I’m happy to say that recently we’ve been playing, even headlining, a lot of local festivals like High Fever Fest and Among the Vines. I love them and they feel like big house parties… but flying to Tasmania to support a 3-day festival headed by Dope Lemon and Sneaky Sound System? That’s a huge leap. We played two of the days and our first spot was at 8:30pm, in between The Jungle Giants and Rum Jungle. As soon as Rum Jungle finished, we started playing and an avalanche of people exploded in, and it felt like being struck by lightning. When you’re playing in pubs, you have to give a lot to an audience to get anything back — and that’s okay — but a festival crowd just rolls up and smashes you with energy. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever felt before
If you could perform at any festival that you haven’t already, what would you pick?
There are some really cool big festivals happening around Australia, and I hope we can get out and play a few more of them soon… but honestly, I’ve gotta say Dougstock. It’s a special kind of festival that’s only about five years old and every year it gets bigger and better. I think we’re high-energy enough to really rock that set and impress people.
If you could sum up this new single in three words, what would they be?
About Horse Riding. (Joking... raunchy blues rock).
Are there any upcoming projects from The Sundials we can look forward to in 2026?
Well… I suppose lately, we’ve been using single launches to raise funds for big adventures/tours. But we’d love to finish recording an album… If we’re lucky, and frugal — we might have an LP ready to release by Nov/Dec…
The Sundials are celebrating the release of ‘Bareback Riding’ on Saturday 11 April in The Exeter Beer Garden with locals TOWNHOUSE and Astral Blue. Tickets on sale via humanitix.com.
