The Australian master-of-all-trades will release his debut album Sunrise Chaser on November 9th, and it's a bit of a collaboration-heavy affair..
"Rowan is the most gentle and friendly man that I know and he is so giving and encouraging and all of those things," said Sydney's HANDSOME in a recent interview with us, talking about the impact of Joyride on her recently released No Hat No Play EP. "But I think down to the nitty gritty, he's a really great pop writer - he's great with sounds and so quick with production." Over the past few years, Sydney legend Joyride has established himself as one of Australian music's finest names, whether it's through his own work - as Joyride, The Meeting Tree, One Day and whatever other projects he's directly involved with - or his work with others, popping up on releases across Australian hip-hop, electronic and pop since way back in 2010-ish. He's basically a master-of-all-trades when it comes to Australian music - dare I say the hip-hop Diplo of Australia but without the ego - and it's making us feel real good seeing him crush it in the spotlight recently with his own solo project, Joyride.
The journey of Joyride really took a step up back in 2017 with Kings & Queens, since followed with last year's Auntry Tracey's Cookies and this year's Blue Batmans, but now he's taking it even further, ending his year with the announcement of his debut album Sunrise Chaser - which will arrive on November 9 via Dew Process/Universal Music Australia. As Joyride explains, it's a "collection of stories about being 20-something legends on the weekend in Sydney’s Inner West. It explores different genres like a Bluetooth speaker on a bender. It explores the emotional spectrum that exists between Friday and Monday, including the bits we maybe try not to explore all the time," intertwining his signature humour and songwriting skillset with a bunch of special guests. Sarah Corry from leftprojects, HANDSOME, Nina Las Vegas, Bree Tranter and Ali Barter all pop up across the record, which also includes some pretty hefty production/writing credits: Hermitude, The Meeting Tree, Holy Holy's Oscar Dawson, Kingswood's Alex Laska, and Horrorshow's Adit among them.
He's kicked off the album announcement with another single too, combining his work in hip-hop/R&B, electronic and pop for a dizzying banger titled 6AM. It's a bit of a genre-bounding epic, kicking off with a more R&B-leaning tone through his vocals and some soft synth work, but after a brief, two-bar break-down, it kicks into this more house-y, maybe even RÜFÜS DU SOL-esque twist which introduces a nice dance element into things. "The visual aspect of this record has been as important as it's been fun,” says Joyride on the single's v-great video clip, viewable below. "Stories aren't just told, they're seen and heard and felt and smelt. If I could've brought you with me to all the situations the album is based around, then I would have. Unfortunately, I didn't. So instead I have used video, sound, emotive language, metaphor, vibe, essence etc to bring you there to where I was."
Pre-order Sunrise Chaser HERE.
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