Track By Track: Sun City drive us through their bright new EP, Daytona

Just last week, Perth-based summer-house duo Sun City unveiled their brand spankin' Daytona EP - five tracks perfect beachy good times and sunshiney dancefloors. And now just a few days later they've unveiled for one of its highlight singles, Castaway feat. Yeo. Today we're excited to share both with you, along with a little track by track from half the group, Tobias, giving a bit of insight into the Daytona EP. Scope it all out below, and catch 'em live in Sydney at the Beach Road Hotel on April 1, and Evergreen in Perth on April 22.

In My Skin Again

In My Skin Again was a super late addition to the record. We took a tag team approach with the production on this track, rather than working side by side (our usual MO), and we’re stoked with the result. The production features multi-tracked vocals with deep layers and sweet harmonies. We also dusted off the piano, something we haven’t used since our first EP back in 2011. An upbeat bass line and some subtle bongos keep the pace.

The lyrics tell the familiar story about that one person who has the ability to cast a hypnotic spell on you just at the sight of their face. No matter how much water is under the bridge, it will always be just that, water under the bridge… And then you’re right back there where you started. Which is probably where you wanted to be all along anyway.

Always

Always is the most chilled track off the record and it’s really driven by the bass line in the verses. We experimented a lot with careful control of the vocals, using them as emotively as possible - something we’ve never really tried before. In the choruses the synths really open up and drive the energy of the track - which kind of takes us back to our roots a little. The lyrics are full of trop-pop goodness and wax on about the ups and downs of mixing distance and love.

Castaway feat. Yeo

Castaway was a collaboration with our good pal from Melbourne, Yeo. We met a few years ago when when we played together at the old Espy Hotel in St Kilda (RIP). When the record was at a super rough demo stage, we let him sift through the tracks and pick something out that he was vibing on for a top line and the track kind of grew organically around that.

Musically, we went for chilled but upbeat coastal summer vibes using a bunch of different crisp synths coupled with some almost tropical style percussive elements. The bridge/breakdown features an old guitar we hadn’t used in years and some soft pianos, with Yeo’s smoooooth vocals (which we also layered and cut into the pre-chorus). Check out dat video clip:

Daytona

In true Sun City style, the EP title track copped a last minute re-write to bring back the piano (is it a thing yet?). We’ve tried to keep it punchy at just over three minutes with a nice wide, layered bass line that floats under the rhythmically squashed piano progression. Lyrically this track is all about that catch you off guard summer love.

This one was inspired by a special little place on the coast, that almost sounds like Daytona. Bet those press shots made you think it was about that 1990s arcade racer tho.

Wake Up

Wake Up has come on a journey with us, we’ve toured this track live in a whole heap of variations all over the country and even as far away as South Africa (tru)! In it’s final incarnation on the Daytona EP we’ve used layered analogue synths, using their oscillators throughout the first verse to really give them some movement. The drop is our favourite part, where we get to put our heads down and jam out. We’ve used a little vocal sample that we reversed to make the lead synth line in the second half of this section, before rolling into the second verse. The track is musically all about high energy, summer dancing and lifting you right back up to where you belong.

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