Over the past 4 years Sunshine Coast brothers Sametime have been on a sonical exploration to find who they are as a band. With their artistic influences evolving as they head into their early twenties, they’ve really honed their sound and vision to capture who they want to be as artists moving forward. Their new EP ‘Maybe We Should Get High’ captures that assertive confidence and highlights their coming of age moments with getting drunk and doing things we maybe shouldn’t do as a form of escapism.
Sonically inspired by the likes of The 1975, The Jungle Giants and Charlie Puth, this EP creates a vibrant soundtrack to drinking on a sunny afternoon that leads into a big night of partying and blurry memories. Each song is centred around an anthemic hook that you’ll want to experience live and scream out in a sea of people. With a Queensland tour slated for October, the dynamic duo are planning a whole lot of dancing and celebratory vibes as they head into this new chapter for the band.
I recently chatted to Tim Aitken and Sam Aitken from Sametime about the anthemic energy behind their new EP ‘Maybe We Should Get High’, explored the contrast of lyrics behind ‘Nothing Can Change’, and discussed recently playing a stadium for the first ever time. Check it out BELOW;
THOMAS BLEACH: Your new EP ‘Maybe We Should Get High’ is a upbeat and playful collection of tracks that really feels like it’s been created to sing along to at a live show or festival. What do you think is the most surprising thing people are going to hear and learn about yourselves from listening to the EP in its entirety?
TIM AITKEN: I think people will be surprised to hear us stick to one genre. If you look at our Spotify releases, it’s a little all over the place and that’s due to us being young and constantly changing our minds over the years. We wanted to release this EP to let people know that we’ve found a genre that we both love, and that this is the type of music we want to make and release.
SAM AITKEN: People will probably learn that I like to go out and get shitfaced every weekend with my mates.
TB: ‘Something To Feel’ is an absolute anthem in its own right. Can you explain how this track creatively came together?
TA: We actually wanted to write a ballad since all the songs we had written with our collaborator Fletcher Matthews had been uptempo.
SA: When we first finished the track, it was a little lackluster and we actually put it on the shelf for a couple of months. It was only when we wanted to make the EP that we took it back off the shelf and put it back on bricks. By back up on bricks I mean….we just sped the song up and all of a sudden we had a tune on our hands.
TB: The synth and chord progression gives me big Charlie Puth meets The Jungle Giants vibes. Who or what were you referencing while you were working on this track?
TA: We weren’t directly referencing anyone I don’t think, or at least I don’t remember. Charlie Puth and Jungle Giants were amongst a whole bunch of artists we listened to whilst making this EP though.
TB: ‘Nothing I Can Change’ then gives a bit of a recent Jonas Brothers vibe with some early 2000’s thrown in there too. Was this a quick song to come together or did it take a while to hone its sound?
TA: Shout out to the Jonas Brothers!
SA: ‘Starstruck’ by Years & Years was the initial reference track for this song. This song definitely took a solid day to write mainly because it took us ages to write the chorus. We were working remotely with Fletcher via Zoom and we had the chord progression on loop for what felt like hours.
TA: I actually took a break and grabbed my guitar and left the room and just went back to basics and wrote the “Waking up on Monday, thinking that it’s Sunday” line. After that the chorus came together in 3 minutes and the song was pretty much done. This song had no revisions or anything just finished writing and it was ready to go.
TB: There is quite a contrast in the lyrics in this song compared to the upbeat production with “I’ve been feeling nothing even when I’m falling” and with the sentiment of the song ringing that there is nothing you can do to stop the way you are feeling. So when you hear those lyrics back now, where does it take you mentally and physically?
SA: We love upbeat bright music with lyrics that leave a sour taste in your mouth. One of our favourite bands is The 1975, and they love to do that and they’re probably a reason we do it too.
TA: I was watching a Kevin Durant interview the other day and he was asked what else he wants to do in life after basketball. He said something like he doesn’t want to chase happiness, he just wants to continue living in the moment or something like that.
That’s pretty much what this song is about, realising that we’re only here on Earth for a bit and then we’re off and there’s nothing we can do about it. I think our generation has the highest percentage of existential crises probably due to being able to see what everyone else on this planet is doing. We’re told what should make us happy and what shouldn’t whilst becoming totally desensitised to our actual feelings. This song is about breaking out of that thought process and just living in the moment.
TB: Your new single ‘Moving On’ is a bit of a coming-of-age tune. So if you could insert this track into any movie or tv show of your choice, what would you choose?
TA: Shameless!
SA: Sexlife, Episode 3 around the 20 minute mark.
TB: You will be kicking off a QLD tour in October with dates in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. What song do you reckon will be the biggest challenge to bring into the live realm from the EP?
SA: Yes! We’re super keen to be playing live shows again, let alone a cheeky little tour. As it stands, ’Til Ur Not OK’ is the trickiest because I sometimes get the lyrics mixed up. We probably wrote 3 different versions of the song before we finished it, so I still have some of the old lyrics stuck in my brain.
TB: Earlier this year you guys played Suncorp Stadium for the Queensland Reds and Brumbies halftime show. What did playing that show teach you about who SameTime are as a live band and how you want to keep growing because playing a stadium is a whole different thing in itself, right?
TA: It taught us that we sound good going through stadium speakers and we could definitely get used to that. It also taught us that we can overcome our gear not working when we need it most. It was a super strict time frame that we had to play and at the start of the first song I noticed that our in-ears weren’t working properly, making it difficult to hear ourselves and the click track to keep us all in time.
If you watch the footage you can see my facial expression change from excited to worried in like 1 second. We’re all professionals and have been doing this for awhile so we got through it unscaved, but definitely left a little brown mark on my nice white jeans.
TB: With your live shows full of high energy, what has been the weirdest or funniest thing you’ve seen when you’ve looked out into the crowd mid set?
SA: I know for me the weirdest but coolest experience was the first time we ever got a crowd of like 250 people to all get down and then to all jump. I was just surprised they listened to my lanky ass, but it was sick!
TB: Let’s play a quick game of rapid fire questions. Are you ready?
SA: Lets do it!
TB: The emoji that best describes our new EP ‘Maybe We Should Get High’ is…
TA: A combination of the party face, vomit face, tired face and the repeat symbol
TB: The song that nearly didn’t make the EP was…
SA: I would say ‘Something To Feel’, only because after we wrote it we didn’t go back to it for months and it was just one day we decided to fix it up and BAM now its on the EP.
TB: The colour of my toothbrush at the moment is..
SA: Black and Grey
TA: Black and Purple
TB: The weirdest hobby or obsession I’ve picked up during lockdown has been…
SA: I never thought I’d say this but I am now obsessed with Golf.
TA: I started growing sunflowers and I can now cook a mean pesto chicken pasta.
TB: Pineapple on pizza is…
SA: I eat pepperoni pizza with perri-perri sauce from Dominos for $6 and it makes me happy. If pineapple on your pizza makes you happy then do it, I personally don’t mind it.
TA: I think it doesn’t matter, whatever tastes good for you, you should eat it and if someone has something to say about it, tell them to fuck off with a mouthful.
‘Maybe We Should Get High’ is out now!
Sametime QLD Tour Dates
Friday 1 October 1, Caloundra Music Festival, Sunshine Coast
Thursday 14 October – The Zoo, Brisbane
Friday 15 October – Solbar, Sunshine Coast
Sunday 17 October – Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast
Saturday 30 October – Valley Fiesta Festival – The Wickham, Brisbane