Tash Sultana is one of the most acclaimed Australian artists of their generation, but they’ve not always enjoyed an easy relationship with their home country’s music media.
To celebrate the release of their powerful new EP Return to the Roots – which lives up to its title with its retreat into the soulful jamming that first lit their love of music – Sultana sat down with Rolling Stone AU/NZ for an in-depth interview, and they didn’t shy away from pondering the disconnect they’ve often felt at home.
“The way I’ve been embraced overseas is totally different to how I’ve been embraced in Australia,” Sultana said. “Australians will fucking champion the living fuck out of an American artist, but not their own.”
Like Tones and I early in her career with her global smash hit “Dance Monkey”, Sultana felt boxed in with their viral hit “Jungle”.
“You have a big hit, and people pigeonhole you to it,” they recalled. “But it goes beyond fucking ‘Jungle’… There was a long part of my journey that wasn’t covered. Media were stuck in the past, and that really frustrated me. So I turned the camera back on.”
Sultana has been praised for their approach to dealing with the music industry just as much as their music itself.
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When the mainstream wouldn’t let them in, Sultana built their own ecosystem with Lonely Lands Records, Lonely Lands Agency, Lonely Lands Studios. “I never fit in with rock, or soul, or folk, or hip-hop,” they told Rolling Stone AU/NZ. “So I just focused on my own shit. And that’s how Lonely Lands started. No one wanted to take me in, so I built my own space. Now everyone wants to be part of it.”
This approach continues on Return to the Roots, with each track being accompanied by a mini-doc and a live session filmed in their Lonely Lands Studio, mirroring the vibe of their early lounge room videos. “I wanted to be the first one to get the word in before the campaign started,” they said. “To be quite honest, no one else is doing what I’m doing.”
Sultana’s third EP sees them tapping into a wide variety of influences from reggae to pop across six tracks.
“My goal for Return to the Roots EP was to capture a feeling that I used to have when I played music for no other reason than pure, honest, unfiltered art,” Sultana said recently. “This is the best record I’ve made. Not because it’s perfect – but because it’s real.”
The EP arrived after the release of singles “Milk & Honey”, “Hold On”, and “Ain’t it Kinda Funny” – a reimagined version of a track written by Sultana as a teenager and featuring Canadian musician Dallas Green (City and Colour).
Shaped by a love of artists like Jeff Buckley, Bon Iver, and, fittingly, City and Colour, the track reflects where Sultana is today – both as an artist and as someone approaching 30.
“That looming milestone makes you reflect,” Sultana said after the track’s release. “There’s this pressure that you’ve somehow ‘aged out’, but it’s all bullshit. 30’s young. Life’s only getting better. I wouldn’t relive my early 20s for anything – and that realisation bled straight into this song.”
Green added that “working with Tash was an absolute joy. We first connected last year and hit it off right away”.
Tash Sultana’s Return to the Roots is out now.
