Sly Withers' Sam Blitvich knows the dichotomy of a working holiday all too well.
While the band has been "relaxing" at home in the lead up to a busy tour schedule, which includes their regional(ish) headline tour and festival spots at Spin Off and Splendour In The Grass, Blitvich has been chipping away at new material."Normally the way it works is Jono [Mata] or myself write a song by ourselves, and then we'll bring it to each other, and then we'll work on a bit of a demo together, and then eventually we'll bring it to the full band, and then that'll kind of inform it even more," he explains.
"The stage that we're at now is still very much the writing by ourselves and me and Jono showing each other some stuff – we're super, super early in the process."
The band released their self-titled debut album in 2016, but it wasn't until they signed a deal in 2019 that things really began to take off, with 2021's 'Gardens' and 2022's 'Overgrown' both hitting the ARIA Top 10.
It remains to be seen if their next album will continue with the theme of the previous two, although Sam says he would love if it does.
"It would be beautiful to do a trilogy, I would adore that so much – as a big movie fan and stuff as well, particularly, that would be just so satisfying. But I don't think we're going to force it if it doesn't feel natural," he says.
"'Overgrown' was kind of a sequel to 'Gardens', so that's kind of why the imagery kind of stayed pretty consistent, and there was lots of references to 'gardens' on 'Overgrown'. So we'll see where we're at in about six months or so, but fingers crossed."
The band's 'Regional(ish)' tour will be their second headline tour this year, with the band keen to make up for lost time after being locked in WA's strict COVID bubble for much of their previous album release cycles.
The restrictions did help them prepare for some aspects of touring, however, like tacking on a matinee show to their schedule in Launceston with the first 'Regional(ish)' show sold out.
"I'm actually curious as to whether if that whole COVID period of playing double session shows every night didn't happen if we would have even said yes to the whole idea of a matinee," Blitvich says. "But yeah, it should be really fun, we love Tassie. It's always a bloody pleasure to spend time over there."
The band's headline tour noticeably skips Adelaide this time, but they will be heading there for this year's Spin Off festival in July, alongside Thelma Plum, Hockey Dad, Noah Cyrus and Hilltop Hoods. "I'm particularly excited for seeing Thelma play," Blitvich says.
"Everything Thelma's put out for the past, like, five years has been my favourite stuff that's come out that year, or some of it, and I got to see her play with the band a month or so ago in WA and that was amazing, so yeah, I'm very, very excited."
Sam recalls a "wholesome" experience the band had in Adelaide this time last year, when they were on tour there with Teenage Joans.
"Tahlia [Borg] from Teenage Joans' beautiful mother Lisa invited us all over to her house for this big lunch that she cooked up for us all, all the bands on the tour, up in the hills and stuff," he says. "Lisa was MVP of that whole tour and every other time we see her."
There won't be time for home-cooked meals on this trip, though – the band will be backing it up the following day with their appearance at Spin Off's sister festival, Splendour In The Grass. "This is the third time we've been announced for Splendour but we still haven't played it," Blitvich says.
"The first year was 2020 when it was cancelled for the pandemic; the second time was last year, and we were meant to play on the Friday and we'd loaded in to the stage and we were getting ready to get up there when we found out our whole day had been cancelled because of the weather."
Sly Withers play Splendour In The Grass (Byron Bay) which takes place 21-23 July as well as Spin Off Festival at Adelaide Showground 21 July.
Sly Withers 2023 Tour Dates
Thu 1 Jun - Solbar (Sunshine Coast)Fri 2 Jun - Miami Marketta (Gold Coast)
Sat 3 Jun - The Northern (Byron Bay)
Thu 8 Jun - Newcastle Hotel
Fri 9 Jun - UOW Unibar (Wollongong)
Sat 10 Jun - ANU Kambri (Canberra)
Sat 17 Jun - Froth Craft Bunbrewery (Bunbury)
Sat 24 Jun - Six Degrees (Albany)
Sat 1 Jul - The River (Margaret River)
Thu 6 Jul - Volta (Ballarat)
Fri 7 Jul - Pier Bandroom (Frankston)
Sat 8 Jul - Torquay Hotel (Torquay)
Fri 14 Jul - Uni Bar (Hobart)
Sat 15 Jul - Royal Oak (Launceston)* two shows
Splendour In The Grass 2023 Line-Up
LizzoFlume (AUS Exclusive: 10 Years Of Flume)
Mumford & Sons (AUS Exclusive)
Lewis Capaldi
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hilltop Hoods
J Balvin
Sam Fender
Idles
Little Simz
Slowthai
Tove Lo
100 Gecs (AUS Exclusive)
Arlo Parks
Ball Park Music
Iann Dior
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
070 Shake
Pnau
Ruel
Loyle Carner
Benee
Marlon Williams
Rainbow Kitten Surprise
Hooligan Hefs
Peach PRC
Palace
Dune Rats
Tkay Maidza
Noah Cyrus
Skegss
Sudan Archives
Cub Sport
Meg Mac
X Club.
Claire Rosinkranz
Jack River
The Smith Street Band
Lastlings
Jeremy Zucker
Young Franco
Sly Withers
May-A
The Vanns
Telenova
Vallis Alps
Jamesjamesjames
Kaycyy
Rvg
Teenage Dads
Balming Tiger
Automatic
Harvey Sutherland
Gali
Del Water Gap
Royel Otis
Shag Rock
Big Wett
Mia Wray
Memphis Lk
Gold Fang
Milku
Sumner
Forest Claudette
Full Flower Moon Band
William Crighton
Hellcat Speedracer
Triple J Unearthed Winners
Plus Mix Up DJs
Tseba
Crybaby
Latifa Tee
Foura
CaucasianOpportunities
Luen
Mowgli
Dj Macaroni
Crescendoll
Spin Off Festival 2023 Line-up
Hilltop HoodsPNAU
Tove Lo
BENEE
iann dior
Hockey Dad
Thelma Plum
Noah Cyrus
Sly Withers
The Rions
