The Rions Are Still Growing Up
Guitarist Harley Wilson opens up about how friendship helps The Rions stay true to themselves while living the whirlwind lifestyle of touring musicians
Words by Jack Paech | Images by Jack Moran
The Rions’ success as a band is incidental. This doesn’t mean their 35 million global streams and back-to-back sell-out tours happened by accident. Nor was it handed to them on a silver platter by a mysterious benefactor. Instead, the success of this indie-rock outfit — who’ve earned their reputation as the act-to-watch in Australia’s hard-to-crack music scene — is a by-product of their friendship.
The band formed in the hallways of Barrenjoey High School in Avalon Beach, New South Wales, thanks to an end-of-year talent show in Year 7 and a cover of ‘Say Something’ by A Great Big World. “Our knees were shaking on stage,’ says guitarist Harley Wilson (21), recalling his and Noah Blockley (vocals, 21), Asher McLean (guitar, 21) and Tom Partington's (drums, 20) nerve-fuelled debut. “We played the show and suddenly, the hardest crowd to play in front of was conquered and the world was our oyster.
“Somewhere between Year 8 and Year 10 [we] must’ve decided that this is it. If we make this work, this is what we want to do forever. And here we are, still slogging away at it.”
National attention came when the four-piece won triple j’s Unearthed High competition in 2021 with their runaway single ‘Night Light’. Since then, The Rions have graduated from playing school gigs to touring the world (the band recently returned from an EU/UK tour with pals Pacific Avenue), earning themselves fans such as Avatar actor Sam Worthington and former Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo along the way. All of this success culminated in their recent 2024 EP, Happiness In A Place It Shouldn’t Be – a collection of six songs that take the band’s sound to new creative heights.
It couldn’t be further from the music room at Barrenjoey High, where the band cut their teeth every lunch, or Asher’s house, where they’d rehearse after school. But according to Harley, the hours spent jamming without an audience is the reason they’re so comfortable playing in front of one today.
“We’d try to practice and get better, learn more covers and be prepared for any gig that came up,” he says. “Just sticking to something and being relentless about it works. If you trust yourself and devote yourself to being better at the craft, literally anything can be achieved.”
It’s obvious that friendship, however, is the engine of The Rions' vehicle. The way Harley talks about his bandmates is disarmingly authentic. Regardless of the question, the conversation always circles back to how the fast friends have been able to take whatever is thrown at them with fresh-faced optimism and well-earned faith in each other’s loyalty.
“Our bond has nothing to do with music,” Harley explains. “I’ve known Noah for longer than I haven’t. But after nearly 10 years of being in a band together, we’re more like brothers than best friends.
“A lot of the time, I forget how talented the three of them are. We’ll be hanging out and then the next day, we’re playing a festival and I’m looking around on stage going ‘Wow, I’m playing with professional musicians. [The band] hasn’t affected our friendship at all. The reason we started was to make people happy and to make us happy.”
It’s a driving ethos that dates back to the band’s beginnings as teenagers. When Harley recalls The Rions’ first-ever paid gig, there are two moments that remain lodged in his brain: the $20 note the four spent on lollies and the way performing made him feel.
“I looked out into the crowd and people were smiling and having fun. I was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re having a positive impact on people playing music. Maybe I want to do this forever?’”
Our conversation with Harley is ending. Just before he signs off, he suddenly gets a little bit sentimental: “If we broke up now, I have enough stories to tell my kids and brag about.”
However, if we’ve learned anything from the half an hour we’ve spent with the guitarist, it’s that breaking up isn’t on the cards for the band any time soon. It’s far more likely The Rions will still be touring by the time their hypothetical future children are doing high school talent shows of their own.
Teen Spirit was produced in partnership between Carclew and The Note magazine, supported by the Government of South Australia via the Music Development Office (MDO), the Department for Education and Arts South Australia. Read the full magazine online here.
