Hailing from Melbourne’s fertile musical landscape, Sunny Reyne is ready to let us see through her artistry in her debut album, I’ve Been Sleeping Too Long, out now. The release follows her EP, “Right Now,” released in 2022, encompassing a warm, rooted & soulful sound, where we follow Sunny in her explorations around friendship, love, questioning patriarchal structures, and coming to terms with death.
“The album covers themes of friendships, love, death, fear, and the moments that happen in the small hours of the day; the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the evening, when time feels sleepy and sacred but when thoughts can be at their most chaotic and heightened,” she says, discussing the album. “I am at my most creative generally at these times of day and it is when I am most able to put sense to my songwriting. This album is an ode to those moments that feel precious and where time is only yours.”
Here, we connect with Reyne to take a deep dive into the new album, discuss her creative processes, and the impact isolation had on her craft, as well as her next steps now that she’s based in London.
Listen to the album…
Read the full interview…
Hi Sunny! How are you doing?
Hey Wonderland! I’m good, thank you for having me.
When did you first start working on music?
I’ve been doing music really for as long as I can remember. I started getting into writing music when I was finishing up high school and really delved into it whilst I was at university. I do think, however, that I felt held back a bit by the constraints of jazz uni protocols within my own songwriting, so it was nice to be able to discover my own sound and style once I’d left, after I started listening to a lot of my current influences such as Nick Hakim, Meshell Ndegeocello and Lianne La Havas etc.
How has your sound evolved over time and how would you describe it?
I honestly still think I’m discovering my sound, but the process of figuring it out is really the best part. The continuous collaboration of working with people I’ve been playing with for a long time and now also newer collaborators has changed and developed my sound over time. I’ve always gravitated to soul and jazz influences, but I definitely think it’s developed a lot over time with all the new influences I tend to hear and become inspired by. At the moment, I would describe it as earthy neo-soul, with strong jazz and alt-pop influences.
Who were your early inspirations?
I remember hearing the voices of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald when I was really young and becoming instantly enamoured by the beauty and rawness in their voices, which began my immediate love for jazz. There was a lot of Sade and Stevie Wonder and The Beatles in my house when I was growing up and I do tend to pull those influences out of my own music when I’m writing now, even subconsciously. I am big on nostalgia and they are all musicians I listen to constantly, not only because of their level of ingenuity, but also as it’s such a fond reminder of my childhood and where my first roots and love for music began.
Congratulations on your debut album! When did you start working on this project?
Thank you! I actually recorded this album between the many lockdowns we had back in June of 2021, at Rolling Stock Recording Rooms in Melbourne. We managed to track every song from the album in one day, a feat I’m still amazed we managed to pull off. It’s really nice to be able to release it after having had it sitting with me for the past 2 years and it really does feel like the right time now, as it has felt like it’s given the project a new lease of life.
What themes does it explore?
It explores a lot of themes, but is mostly centred around the small hours of the day – the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the night. The title ‘I’ve Been Sleeping Too Long’ comes from the concept of those specific hours where time feels especially sleepy, but where I can make sense of my thoughts. It also ties into the idea that these songs finally feel like they’re ready to enter the world, after having had their time on the side. The songs cover themes of love, loss, fear, societal structures and the chaos of navigating these concepts in a world that can sometimes feel fractured and unstable.
How does it build upon your 2022 EP, “Right Now”?
I actually wrote ‘Right Now’ after I had finished recording the album, so if anything, I sometimes feel like the EP was a bit of a progression of the album but relayed to the world in reverse. There are a lot of differences in the sound of both projects, but they definitely build off each other. I think ‘Right Now’ was a more minimalist approach to the album and set up the album nicely in the sense that it gave it space to expand its sound and introduce a more nuanced and refined approach to my songwriting.
What was the process like of collaborating with your producer Lewis Moody?
Lewis and I work really well together. He produced both my EP and this album and I do think that both of these projects would never have seen the light of day without his guidance and push to bring them to fruition. Our ideas blend really well together, but he has the knack of knowing when the ideas are complete and when they need a little extra crafting. We had a great working flow where he would hear my initial ideas and seamlessly bring them to something much bigger and bolder, managing to envision ideas that I sometimes struggled to emulate. The EP was created pretty much completely remotely between London and Melbourne, whereas this recent album was a lot more collaborative as we were able to do it when we were both in Melbourne together, so both projects took on different approaches and sounds because of how we created them.
Is there a track you’re most proud of?
I think my favourite track is ‘Cold Morning’ because I believe it really defines what I think my current sound is. It blends my love for nu-soul and jazz in a way that I think encapsulates my ideas strongly and effectively, with a nod to a broken-beat groove that is influenced by the strong UK jazz scene. I also really love how the drums, played by Felix Bloxsom, and the piano, played by Ollie Rolfe, interact so beautifully together.
What does the future look like for you?
I have recently moved to London from Melbourne, so I’m excited to continue creating new music and performing over here.