It's taken years of steady work to get to this point.
Sons of the East are enjoying the fruits of their labor these days—the byproduct of relentless touring and a love of harmonies that travel as far as they do.
The Australian indie-folk trio—comprised of Jack Rollins, Nic Johnston, and Daniel Wallage—have quietly racked up over 700 million streams and have found themselves on bills from Sydney to New York, Madrid to London. Their sophomore album, SONS, captures that journey in full: songs born on the road and aimed squarely at connection.
We caught up with guitarist Daniel Wallage to talk about the long arc of their success, how life on tour shaped the new record, and the balance it takes to keep their momentum alive night after night.
Analogue: From the outside, there's so much going on with global tour dates and some great opportunities, but I think a lot of people might not realize this isn't an overnight thing. It's been 10 years since the first full-length, but you go back even farther than that.
Daniel Wallage: Yeah, we did a bunch of EPs. They seemed to be all the rage when we started but they dwindled a bit. Now we want to release more albums.
Analogue: How much of this still feels surreal?
Daniel: I think of the touring side of things, I don't think we ever expected to be traveling the world playing music. That was always a dream. And now, we've we've done a few tours across Europe and North America and some other spots. We still just want to do more. I think there's always another milestone. You hit one and then that just makes you want more.
It's a bit of an Australian thing as well, where we always appreciate everything that's happening around us, but we obviously still want to keep making those jumps—getting into bigger venues, more festivals, have more people hearing our music. That's kind of the goal with each release.
"We've had cool moments, but for me, it's the in-person thing where you see people singing the words, especially if it's in their second language."
Analogue: When did you first realize this thing was really taking off?
Daniel: I think there are a couple of moments that come to mind. I mean, I remember the very first small thing that happened was we put up a video. This is very much in the early days. We put up a video of us playing a song that we'd written. This was a long, long time ago, and I remember all of our friends and family watched it, and they were like, 'Fuck, this isn't that bad.' [Laughs]
We were all 18 or 19 years old, and it was this, 'Wow, they all expected some horrendous music and they all were surprised.' So that was the first little thing. And I think the video got 5,000 or 10,000 views on YouTube quite quickly. We were like, 'Oh, wow!'
For the big moments we've had, I think that was maybe our second show in Barcelona. We'd done quite a big jump in venue size, and we started playing the first song and the whole crowd just started singing every word. The whole band looked at each other. That still happens now. If it's in a place we've never been before, that still always makes me just smile and well up a bit.
We've had cool moments online and stuff, but for me, it's the in-person thing where you see people singing the words, especially if it's in their second language. It's really cool to think, 'Wow, we're from Sydney, Australia, and now we're in Madrid or Barcelona or Vancouver, New York, and you people are singing the song!' They create their own memories with them. That still gets me every time.
Analogue: Given the frequency that you guys play out, did that influence the new album? Did constant touring shape the music?
Daniel: Yeah, totally. Last year and the year before, I think we did about 110 or 115 shows throughout the year. We started in Australia and we did about 35 shows here, playing a lot of the smaller regional towns, before we headed off to Europe and then to America and Canada. We knew that when we got home, we weren't going to have that much time.
So while we were on the road, we actually started writing a lot of the songs. I think we got back from tour, and everyone opened up their voice notes, and there were just thousands and thousands of voice memos of ideas from soundchecks and the back of the tour bus. Some were more formed than others, but I think that all the traveling we were doing did influence the type of music we were writing and how we were writing.
We were together so much. So we were bouncing ideas of one another the whole time. Then once we got back into our studio in Sydney, we were like, 'All right, let's try to flesh this out.' We had a lot of ideas. And it was cool, because when we were listening to them all, we'd say, 'Oh, that was in Atlanta! That was in Munich!' It was cool to realize the idea was from the other side of the world, rather than just everything being done in the studio at a certain time.
Analogue: For you personally, does your writing change on the road? If you're at home, you can just attack things as they come to you, but that's a different thing in transit.
Daniel: It's definitely a challenge, because there are definitely times when you've played eight shows in a row, and the last thing you want to do is pick up a guitar and try to be creative. So we find things happen at soundchecks when you've got everything set up and good to go, and you're just waiting for the crew to get everything finalized. They're just setting up, and you're sitting there with just an acoustic guitar.
I think on this tour, we had a bit more of a drive because we knew when we got home, we had to get this album done, versus making it up as we went. But I think it's also beneficial because on tour, you have the whole band there. If someone was playing something, someone else would often just go, 'That's cool.' Then they'd get the phone out, start recording, and maybe try a melody. So for this record, there were a lot of different avenues coming into it from previous records where we've been in one place trying to finish it.
Analogue: We're talking about the frenzy of activity around the band. How do you avoid burnout? Do you actively talk about that? Is that not a thing because you're just so in love with all?
Daniel: Maybe seven years ago, when we were a bit younger. But now we're very aware of burning out when we're on the road. All of us do a lot of singing, and Nick and Jack especially sing so much. So when we're doing 50 shows across two months or something, the voices become quite delicate. So I think the boys are very good at being aware of when we're feeling a bit run down and stuff.
Everyone tries to get to the gym a fair bit and do a lot of exercise when we're out. Also, I think the joy of touring is a part of it; being able to get outside is such fun for us. We love exploring. So if we've got a few hours before soundcheck, everyone's out and about exploring the city, whether it's going to get a coffee, hitting the gym, or going to some stores, I think that is what keeps everyone fresh and alive on tour.
But it's definitely something we're conscious of, and we're always trying to be very healthy. Put some nice healthy snacks, lots of fruit and vegetables on the rider. Lots of green tea, lots of lemon. I think we're pretty good these days. We're always finding new tricks. And when we tour with other people, we're always learning new things you can do to be better to keep yourself feeling fresh.
You want to make sure every night you're putting on the exact same show. That's always been our thing. You can't change the show for one night, even if there are only 10 people in the crowd. We still want to put on the same show that we did to 10,000. So we always want to make sure we have that energy every single night, and I think the whole band does a pretty good job of that.
VISIT: Sons of the East
