by Joey Chalita & Clara Atkin

Photo provided by Highline

Home-grown in Sydney, Highline is a local band of four passionate and musically talented university students who are making sizeable waves in the Aussie music industry, using their lyrics, melody and ambition to make their path uniquely their own.

Now you might be thinking: okay cool another small Sydney band…why should I care?

Trust us: you will want to get behind this band. You want to be that friend who says: “Oh yeah I listened to them back when blah blah blah.” This is your moment (and of course Highline’s moment). Highline’s formula for success is there: their lyrics are meaningful, their team camaraderie is outstanding and they really do care about the music.Their unique execution comes with the slow building of local fans.

The band consists of four high-school mates: Rhys Hope on lead guitar, James Priest on Bass, Jim Osborne on drums as well as lead singer and lyricist Sam Rigney. We sat down with Sam to discuss the bands’s success and tribulations so far.

CHASING HIGHLINE

An interview with a band breaking into the Sydney music scene

Interview by Joey Chalita & Clara Atkin

V: Do you guys go by any one particular genre, or do you consider yourselves more of a blend?

S.R: We take a bunch of different influences. We’re definitely indie rock, but we take influences from pop and alt-rock. The alt-rock label gets thrown around a lot, as well as indie with the catchiness of some of the choruses that are common with that sort of style.

We are constantly trying to change what we do and who we’re trying to emulate and draw influence from. I guess there’s no real concrete answer, but we’re definitely a part of the indie rock category on Spotify and Triple J.

V: Would you guys consider yourselves a boyband?

S.R: No, definitely not. (laughs) No, nah. No… I don’t think we’re anywhere near attractive enough to be called a boy band.

V: How did you guys come up with your band name and what influenced your choice?

S.R: When we started working together in early 2019, we were so pushed for a name. We went through all these shocking names, like Junior was one, but we never really got into that one. However, in New York there’s an old monorail platform in the city that’s overgrown, and it’s this blend of old rusty train tracks and a boardwalk. It’s called the Highline, so that’s where we got the name. There was no other real band called it, and we were just like, yeah, “we hate this one the least”. So we just ran with it. We didn’t really love the name at first, but then it became us.

V: Did you guys have any inspiration from other bands? Particularly from the Sydney music scene?

S.R: Well, Oasis but particularly, DMA’s in terms of all four of us admiring one act. Going to the same school, we had known them since we were 15, and I’ve just followed them forever. The journey they’ve gone on in terms of creating their first EP and taking off, to smashing out of the Sydney scene and then really dominating over in Britain. It has been very inspiring to see what’s possible.

V: It’s safe to follow what’s been done before and what’s been successful, but have you taken steps to take risks and do something new?

S.R: Yeah, definitely in terms of the structure of our songs, you know, we’re not playing any crazy stuff in five/four time just yet or anything. But we’re always trying to differentiate ourselves from acts that have gone before us; we don’t want to be tainted as the next DMA’s. And, we don’t want to be one of those bands that just copy Sticky Fingers.

So when we write songs, we try to keep that feedback in mind and try to be more original, whether it’s the soundscape, the structure of the songs, or the meaning of the lyrics. We definitely try to carve out our own reputation. We’re trying to work on our sound and develop our own sort of niche within that broader genre. Especially with me, I try to sort of sing with my own kind of voice. We do get compared to a lot of other acts as well, which is very flattering, however at the same time, we do just want to be our own thing.

V: Yeah, I know you guys are definitely not afraid to do really long songs as well, which I really love…

S.R: Yeah (laughs), I mean our longest is a song called ‘Busy’; to which is definitely our favourite song we’ve ever made. The two-minute guitar outro is by far the most fun we ever have had playing both, in rehearsals and on stage. So we’re definitely looking to do more stuff like that down the line. We’ve got some new songs coming out this year that go down a bit more of a unique path, as opposed to that stock-standard verse chorus verse chorus bridge formula.

V: How long has Highline been operating/producing music?

S.R: Well, we met in school, jammed in school a little bit, and then we did a gig straight out of school. It was like a battle of the bands thing. But I guess we played our first official gig at open mic nights, in March or April 2019.

We’re about to enter our fourth year, which is cool. We’ve got a lot of fun stuff planned. But it feels shorter because we’ve missed out on so much time and so many gig opportunities because of COVID. We counted about 15 gigs we had to change or cancel.

V: Aside from COVID, how have you found breaking into the Sydney music scene?

S.R: I think the Sydney live music scene is definitely growing. It’s getting stronger, and there are some great gig organising groups like Music and Booze Co. And you know, people are pretty kind, the venues are pretty lovely and very supportive. It’s really cool meeting all these other bands and making friends; it’s a nice little community to be a part of.

We have really close friends who supported us in our first few gigs. When we started playing open mic nights in Newtown, there was this really full-on punk band called Sling who brought us to support one of their shows, which was our first supporting gig.

From there, we bounced from the Townie to the Valve Bar, and then we played the Vanguard and Freedom and Lansdowne and Mary’s. So we’ve just been climbing up the venue ladder. And now we’re playing at the Lansdowne again on the 10th of February. Which we can’t wait for. We’re announcing that next week (cheeky wink).

V: Favourite show so far?

S.R: For me, it was the show at the Oxford Art Factory.

It was the first time dance floors were back. I think we had near capacity of 200 people there at the Factory, and it just felt crazy. Everyone was going insane. It was one of th first times where we had released a song and people started

actually singing it back, which was really exciting for a new release. And I don’t know, it just really kick-started what was actually a pretty good year, in 2021, despite the COVID cancellations. We’ve got some great support, and it was a really exciting launch to our Off Track EP campaign.

V: You guys cover a lot of different life experiences in your songs and a few of them are about love. So, do you think heartbreak leads to the creation of good music?

S.R: I don’t know if you want to call it good. But it definitely leads to a lot of inspiration. The songs that you are probably referring to were definitely about a breakdown of a relationship that I had after our first EP in 2020. I had all this inspiration and all these emotions that were poured into songs and lyrics.

V: It’s a very relatable experience…

S.R: Yeah, I mean, that’s what I always want to do when I write songs: try to get people that can relate. I’m 22 now, and all these stories about young love and all these complicated emotions are what I think everyone has experienced in some way. Remembering a past partner they had at some early stage of their life.

The songs I’ve written have always been about trying to get that empathy with the listener. And I think we’ve done a pretty decent job of that so far, and will continue to do so.

V: So you’ve mentioned an ex, has she listened to the music?

S.R: Yeah, yeah (laughs), she’s definitely listened to it. Yeah, I copped it a little bit after the song came out. There were a few questions about a few lines here and there.

But um, look, she definitely knows it’s about her. And we’ve chatted about that. I think she’s actually been actually quite supportive and real nice about it.

Photo provided by Highline

V: And you are all university students?

S.R: I study part-time, the rest study full-time, and a couple of the boys are on academic scholarships. They’re all very switched on.

I think a lot of the reason why we love making music is because it helps balance our studies. It’s a big point of difference in our lives that I don’t think a lot of the uni students get to have. I mean, it’s stressful as anything, and we fucking fight about a bunch of stuff all the time, like artwork and songs and things like that. But it is still a really great thing to put your energy into, and we make it work with uni because it’s just so much fun when you get to play.

We’re not going to be dropping out. Yeah, everyone’s still pretty risk-averse, and we know we can’t be playing gigs all the time. When we have a free day, I like to stay active, try to learn and go to uni, work and be self-sufficient, but when it comes to nighttime, we just do what we love.

V: And recently with your song, ‘Shy Today’, you worked with Jack Niagara, who is pretty up there. So, how did you get to work with a producer like him?

We emailed Jack in 2020; we really wanted to work with him because he had worked with DMA’s.

We reached out to him, and he heard our stuff and really liked it. On top of being so good and so kind, he works so hard. He had success recently with Pacific Avenue and the Terry’s. He is such a good bloke, as well as a great producer. So we were lucky enough just to email him and ask, and after listening to our stuff, he took us on.

It’s all about knowing where to find these guys and having the courage to sort of reach out and say like, “Hey, can you do this for us? I know we’re unknown, unsigned and very small, but please check us out cause we do have the room to grow.”

ARTS & LIFESTYLE Photo provided by Highline

V: How many hours a week do you put into Highline?

S.R: In terms of writing a new song, it sorta just happens, and I’ll do it after a night out or something. In the morning, it’s a bunch of sorting out things related to admin. We’re always talking about new artworks, new ideas and new gigs. So I couldn’t put a cap on it. I’d say leading into a gig you’d be rehearsing three times that week. So that’s like six to eight hours of rehearsals.

It’s funny; you can stress out about it so much and rip your hair out fighting with each other, but in the end, it’s so worth it when we play the songs we’ve been working on. So we all are definitely soaking it in as much as we can while we are young and still able to do it.

V: What advice would you give to other people also trying to pursue music in Sydney?

S.R: Just get started. Talking about doing shit is easy and, I mean, it’s so cliche, but getting together and playing and just playing poorly (laughs) is important.

You have to keep going. We’ve spoken to people in the industry who have slacked off, and they eventually just stop. And I think it’s easy to get started and put out one song, but you’ve got to keep going. If you love it enough, you’ll do it.

V: Why should people care about Highline?

S.R: I mean, we work really, really hard on our music to make it as original as possible. Every line is thought through at least three times. I write a lot of the lyrics, and we like making songs that are catchy and that people want to dance and sing along to. But at the same time, we also really want to garner respect from those who are musically inclined.

We don’t want to be known as just another garage rock band (laughs).

Yeah, I’d say that I don’t know too many other bands in this sort of space that really care and put a lot of effort into their demos and each and every individual line like we do. Not to say they don’t, I have no idea, but I just know that we really do care a lot about it.

Single cover provided by Highline

V: Can we look forward to any music coming up?

S.R: Yeah, we’ll be releasing a song in the first week of March! (big smile).

So yes, definitely more music, more content, more shows. We’re planning to hopefully go more inner-state over the next few months, as well as do shows in Canberra and Melbourne and places like that...if they’ll have us.

So we’re just going to keep going and try to put out as much music as we can this year!