On Finding Their Sound And What Comes Next: In Conversation With The Rions
- Lara Walsh
- 1 hour ago
- 6 min read
The Rions are an indie-rock band hailing all the way from the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Amongst a scene that is known to produce bands that hold both a local intimacy and a global resonance, The Rions are quickly becoming one of Australia’s major success stories. Since meeting at a Year 7 talent show, to releasing their first album, Everything Every Single Day (2025), the group has been nominated for Australia’s Best New Artist (2024) and Australia’s Album of the Year (2025). Blending a lyrical sincerity with upbeat melodies, the band stand at a turning point as their audiences continue to grow and their shows become increasingly popular. Their 2026 global headline tour kicked off in February with 20 stages across Australia, and many more across Europe, bringing the Northern Beaches summer sound to festivals and venues across the world.
STRAND was lucky enough to sit down with Asher, Harley, Noah, and Tom before their Friday-night show at the Islington Assembly Hall to discuss their newest album, Everything Every Single Day (The Deluxe Edition).
How do you think growing up in Sydney has shaped your music?
Noah: There’s quite an Australian-Northern-Beaches-sound – I almost feel like growing up there made us want to explore our options outside that as well. It is also interesting to see where Sydney sits on the musical spectrum compared to the rest of the world. For example, being in London and the UK more generally right now, there's so much music coming out of it, so it’s weird to see where else you can go from Sydney in that sense.
Harley: We live an hour out of the city, so it wasn’t until we really felt like we were grown-ups that we could venture into the city and actually see other shows and artists. We’re all kind of isolated up north of the city, and I think that created this preconceived idea of who we were going to be as a band before we realised that the world isn’t the town we’re from.
You guys have blown up pretty quickly online. What have been the biggest challenges moving from local shows to much bigger stages?
Harley: There are so many aspects of difference. On stage, it’s a different ballgame because you’re trying to up the stakes of what you were doing. There’s an atmosphere we’ve found playing big shows in front of big crowds. It feels like there’s more permission to be yourself, or be a character, or be whatever you want. There’s less judgement when there are more people – there’s more freedom the bigger it gets.
Asher: As a whole, the bigger shows are infinitely easier for us to play than the smaller ones.
How do you think the experience of playing live changes the way you feel and understand your music?
Asher: I think songs get put in a new light when you play them live. For me, there have been times when I would rank songs and one I hadn’t liked as much suddenly becomes a favourite after playing it live. ‘Shut You Out’ was a pretty under-loved song among us, just based on the other songs that existed, but it’s risen in the ranks.
Tom: There are also times when we’ll be in the studio writing a song that’s a lot slower and maybe not something we’re super eager to play live, but the experience of just the song being out and its meaning and intention is the reason we love it as opposed to the live aspect of it.
What has changed the most since your earlier songs, and what do you see changing in the future?
Noah: So much has changed. I feel like every time we write a new project, it’s going to be completely different to the last, just because we experience so much.
Harley: Every time we go back to write, our perspective and the people we listen to as artists change. So that, as simple as it is, has been the driving force between what we are now, what we were then, and what we will be in the future. There’s not much else that will change besides the fact that our perspectives, influences, and life experiences will probably be different in the future. It’s a very simple change between songs, whether between the ages of 16 and 17, or 22 and 30 – it’s still time.
Who and what has influenced you the most as a band?
Harley: The longest-lasting one, sonically, is Sam Fender. We’ve learned to take different pieces of inspiration from him. At some point, it might have been how good his lyrics are, or how good the guitar parts are. For a lot of artists, we trace it back to the blueprint eventually. We don’t really mean to, but with The 1975, who we take a lot of inspiration from, we hear songs by artists like Blue Nile and realise, ‘wait, they’ve taken inspiration from them.’
It also all leads back to the Beatles. Sonically, they are very different to what we gravitate towards these days, which is why it was fun to have a song like ‘The Art My Mother Likes’ on the album – let's just kind of try as hard as we can to make it Beatles-y.
Do you have a song as a band that has the most meaning to you, or is it more personal preference?
Harley: I think it’d have to be separate. I feel like the reason we have so many songs that sound so different is that the four of us have a different energy to bring to each song. I just love the whole album. I feel as though it was a very proud achievement from what we had released in the past. We strive to create something that is a strong representation of us, as a collection of songs – writing a song that we all connect to and is the unanimous favourite would be doing an injustice to our taste.
Tom: I think that’s what I find to be interesting about ‘Tonight’s Entertainment’ because we went into that writing about us four as a collective and just an appreciation for our experience within the band.
What would you like listeners to take away from listening to your music for the first time?
Tom: To want to listen more, but also connection and emotion.
Harley: I think it would be the ultimate compliment to hear a song of ours that they find so emotional and touching that they will never listen to it again. They’re like, ‘damn, that was so emotional, that was so me, that I don’t wanna hear that again.’
Noah: I also love it when other musicians like our music. Even our tour manager represents a lot of musicians, but continues to say that he likes our stuff. He says there’s no skips (but I don't believe him).
How have you found European crowds compared to Australia?
All: attentive, very attentive, so much silence.
Tom: When Harley would finish a song on the piano, he could hold that chord for pretty much as long as he wanted. He could put his foot on the pedal and let it ring out, and it was only when he took his hand away that they would start to clap – there’s no conversation and they’re all dead focused on what you’re saying on the microphone.
Harley: There’s been times we play shows in Australia where we’re talking about the song and the whole room is just chatting amongst themselves. That’s fine – have a good time – but it is interesting. We’ve had the best mix of European characteristics on this tour. We were already prepared to have minimal reaction and talking during the whole set, but then we played the shows, and we realised this is actually kind of nice. We can talk about the songs, or we can joke among ourselves, and they can decide if they like us as people or not. Then we found, after playing most of our songs, the cheering, even though the crowds were small, was way longer than at home.
Asher: Another thing I’ve noticed in European crowds is they’re not even looking back at you. A lot of them are just looking at your hands and how you’re playing your instrument.
Tom: To wrap this whole thing up, if an Australian crowd was at these shows with no lights in a tiny little room, it would probably be the worst gig of all time. The European crowds were sick, and they really got around it.
Listen to The Rions on SoundCloud, Apple Music, and Spotify.Keep up with them through their website and Instagram.
Edited by Daria Slikker, Editor-in-Chief
