Artist Interview – SUNNY.
SUNNY. are an Australian singer-songwriter duo. Having written songs together for years, they recently decided to step behind the mic and release their own music. Read below to hear how they met, their dream collaborations, and more!
Who makes up SUNNY.?
SUNNY. is made up of longtime friends and songwriters, Melodie Wagner and Ben Tan. We both grew up together in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia.
How did you meet, and when did you start working together?
We met at a youth group in 2010 and started writing together from around 2012 to now, We were both in local bands and constantly doing sessions together so naturally we had a great working relationship.
What made you decide to transition from songwriters to performers?
Actually when COVID hit and we were all locked down, we started writing a bunch of songs originally to keep ourselves sane and then to potentially pitch to other artists. Over time and the more we created we realised we truly identified with the sound and lyrics and it felt right to release them ourselves. No regrets so far!
Why did you choose the name SUNNY.?
Funnily enough when we started writing all these songs all the ones we thought were good and sticking (to be released soon!) were written on sunny days, and the songs that were pretty average were on the cloudy rainy days! Melodie suspects she has mild seasonal affective disorder because her mood really varies on what kind of weather it is, moving from Sydney to London in the last year might’ve been an interesting choice for that reason.
Recently, you released your debut single ‘Boring People’. What made you choose this song to be your debut?
Boring People was the first song we ever wrote together for this project so it seemed fitting that it would be the first to be released. We also thought it was really relatable to what a lot of people have and are going through so we wanted to start the story there.
What inspired ‘Boring People’?
We’re really proud of the writing and what inspired it was our own relationships we’ve both been married to our partners for years and I guess when it felt like the world was ending we wanted to write a love song that glamorized normal, consistent, seemingly boring but exactly what makes us and so many other people happy.
Where are some of your favorite places to write music?
Well last summer Melodie moved to London and I (Ben) currently live in Sydney, Australia (soon to be in Nashville!) , so we meet up in London, Sydney, Nashville and LA to work on SUNNY. as well as writing for other artists. It’s really fun changing up where we write, sometimes it’s a basement in central London and sometimes a house in the canyon in LA, it keeps it interesting! Currently we’re dreaming to write in Stockholm because we’re big Swedish pop lovers!
Who would you like to one day collaborate with?
Ben – I’m the biggest Ashe and Holly Humberstone fan! Would be a dream to collaborate with their teams.
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Mel – Gosh I have so many. I’d love to write with Devonte Hynes, Hope Tala, Christine & The Queens, Lykke Li, Tove Lo the list goes on !!
What are your biggest hopes for SUNNY.?
Big question! Creating music that we love and people resonate with is a dream! For some people it’s fame and fortune but I think for us we want independence, and creative freedom and to one day create avenues for others to do the same. We have long terms visions of having a global hub of writers and artists who all collaborate together… At this point it feels like anything is possible, which is cool.
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