Talking To: Greatest Hits

Concocting a delicious mixture of sunshine pop, psychedelia and self-confessed sarcastic lyricism, Greatest Hits are the newest Anglo-Australian talent you’ve been missing out on up until now.

Led by the charismatic Ryan Cooper and an international collective of friends, the group seem to have started strong and not had the chance to even think about stopping. With their first release gaining airtime on BBC Radio 1, their second a Triple J premiere, and an extensive tour with Paramore’s Zac Farro, it’s clear that Greatest Hits are more than a little prepared for their next rodeo.

Music editor Emma was able to break apart their packed itinerary in order to ask about influences, pet peeves and future plans.

Hey! How’s life going in the sunshine? What’s happening in the world of Greatest Hits?

The sunshine is glorious, not gonna lie. We’re very lucky. Although, we’ve been locking ourselves away in a dark room for the last few days writing new music. Our skin will probably thank us for a break from the UV. The sun here is brutal! We didn’t age a day when we were living in the UK.

Tell me more about the band’s name. What’s the story there? My Spotify searches temporarily got very convoluted

Haha, yeah that happens. The algorithm Is actually a little more favourable towards us these days, but for a while there, it was all Phil Collins. The start of this band was kinda unintentional. I got home at 2am, full of energy, and threw together some groovy demos. The next day we just joked about finishing some more songs, and releasing a “Greatest Hits” album. We had no intention of taking things further, but a promoter friend heard some demos and asked us to play a show. So we performed as “Greatest Hits” for the first time.

You toured your home turf last year with the one and only Donny Benet, or Mr Experience to some. How did you deal with so much raw sexuality in such a short space of time? Does he carry the same amount of unbridled sensuality offstage as he does on?

I mean.. there were a lot of cold showers to try and calm all that sizzle. It’s overwhelming for sure. And extra spicy live.

Speaking about the Don, I felt your first EP Vol. 1 carried quite a lot of influences from him, whereas Volume Two is to me much more evocative of acts such as Babe Rainbow, Jack Stauber and Sticky Fingers. I may be completely wrong though. What and who has been the biggest influence on your evolving sound?

There’s a pretty clear Venn diagram of where our tastes meet! Artists like Talking Heads and Paul McCartney along with European acts like Mauscovic Dance Band, and Altin Gun. Then things split off and we all enjoy our own niche, but generally we’re all open minded when it comes to music and try not to disregard anything!

What does your creative process look like? I’m a big fan of how each of you hold individual talent while alternating role of lead vocalist, for example.

Yeah, it’s real nice having everyone bring their own flavour to the table. We mostly work on song ideas separate to each other, and all the ideas go into a big shared folder. If there’s anything in that folder that we’re stoked on, we’ll get it finished. It’s quite a melting pot at that stage - everyone throwing in ideas to get the song across the line.

How has it been releasing music in the age of coronavirus? Do you feel it’s impeded your progress or helped it?

It’s done both actually. It’s provided some forced breaks, where all we could really do was work on the songs. We’re kinda terrible at over-committing, so this has been a nice lesson. On the other hand, all of the cancelled tours and rescheduling gives you pretty serious whiplash. Anyone doing music, pursuing something creative, or starting a business has felt their fair share of disappointment. It’s a tricky time to build momentum, but you just got to focus on what you CAN do.

What’s the most stupid thing that’s been said to you about Australia(ns)? Do you get riled or laugh it off? As an outsider I’ve always known Aussies to be unbeatably good-humoured.

I think people seem to think that every single person here surfs. You do get the old ‘put another shrimp on the barby’ a fair bit also. Or people say, ‘I’ve got a cousin who lives in Australia… Steve, do you know a Steve?’. I guess we live on an island, but people forget it’s a bloody huge island, basically the size of Europe!

What’s your plan for the next year? Is a visit to the UK on the cards perhaps?

Ooh.. a visit to the UK is DEFINITELY on the cards for us. We have some pretty exciting stuff lined up for this year.. can’t talk about it just yet, but keep your eyes peeled on the socials for some treats .

We’re so keen to get back over there. It’s been forever. Henry our bass player is British and hasn’t been able to get home for like three years, so he's a bit homesick for sure. We’re so keen to hit some of our favourite pubs and restaurants from when we were living in Leeds.

Right now we’re working on more new material than ever before! I guess it’s the one benefit of having everything else in our lives postponed or cancelled!