Sunday Honey’s Elliott Willis ‘We See Ourselves As Genre Defying’

While students at arts college Collarts are encouraged to fashion their passions for the arts into potential careers, the music students at the Wellington Street campus are surrounded by tons of motivation.

Whether it’s the guitars hanging up on hooks for students to take down and play to the Gold and Platinum CD plaques lining the walls and the cabinet of ARIA Awards outside the theater, the up and coming musicians can create a building ground for their talents and focus on the end goal of having massive records adored by public and critic alike.

One of these students is Elliott Willis, frontman of indie rock band Sunday Honey. For him, music doesn’t just surround him at Collarts, it's surrounded him most of his life. “My half brother was a guitarist and so I used to always watch him play and always aspired to be like him,” he recounts as he guided me on his musical journey.

He started out by getting a piano for Christmas when he was 4, to emulating his brother by moving to the guitar a few years later, then deciding to improve his singing by enrolling in Coach Music Academy, which led him to develop his artistry further by writing his own songs, every element combining together to create the frontman of Sunday Honey.

We discuss the band’s origins while sitting in an empty classroom looking out at the music students gathered around, some playing guitars as others offer an encouraging listen. Just years ago the group's members were mingling with other classmates not knowing soon they’d be united to pursue their passions together.

One connection was already formed prior to Collarts however, between Willis and drummer Fox DeRoche. “We actually knew people in the music industry and so we met through a bunch of mutual musos, we used to do jam sessions together,” he fondly remembers. The duo came up to Collarts together in 2021 and soon Willis’s musical talents began attracting attention from his fellow classmates.

“CJ [Calum Johnson], the lead guitarist sent me a message on Instagram that he wanted to create a new band and was looking for a singer. We started jamming and we needed a drummer and a bassist, so I hit up Fox and Max Hilli.” Willis also revealed the band’s name came from Hilli.

“He used to be in a band before Sunday Honey and they wanted to change their name, so they had a big notebook full of different band names and one Max had circled was Sunday Honey but the rest of them didn’t like that cause it didn’t really fit the style of music they wanted to do. After joining us, he brought the band name up, pitched it and we all really loved it.”

The bandmates all live on the Mornington Peninsula which makes it easy for them to meet up and write together. “Usually one of us brings the chords along, Fox and I write the lyrics and Max and CJ are our buffers, they listen to us and when we get stuck, they might implement a word that might spark something new.”

When I listened to their music for the first time, I was struck by how the songs sounded, the baseline of breezy guitars and dulcet vocals felt like a nice warm hug after month on month of listening to Top 40 music. As it turns out, the sound of Sunday Honey is more of a melting pot of different genres that all connect back to alternative rock.

“We like to see ourselves as genre defying. I feel we’ve got music that is suited to all kinds of people,” Willis explains, citing how the surf rock sounds of debut single ‘Old Mate Bill’ differs from the uptempo ‘Losing Sleep’ and psychedelic reggae tones of 'In My Mind.’

The band’s musical inspirations, much like their sound, connect and go in surprising directions. “I’m very influenced by Aussie artists like Ocean Alley and Lime Cordiale, Me and Fox are classic rock fans, we love Oasis and The Beatles, he’s a big Stevie Wonder fan, he loves The Backstreet Boys, Max is very heavy metal, he loves Metallica and Kiss, CJ's a mix of all three of us, he loves Arctic Monkeys and Kiss.”

As I went through the group's discography, I noticed the lyrics seemed to be much deeper than usual indie rock ballads and it turns out that was the intention. “A big theme for us is mental health, we ourselves struggle with it and we have lots of people close to us who also struggle through it.” Willis explains to me.

“We wrote ‘Silver Lining’ (the lead single of debut EP ‘Kaleidoscope’) about a woman who deals with substance abuse. We love writing about the environment, we’ve been trying to incorporate a lot more story writing into our work. We kind of just write about whatever we feel passionate about.”

Their latest track ‘You Stay’ is a strong indicator of this statement as it steps away from their usual themes and focuses on relationships with an ulterior motive.

The track has already garnered attention from radio station Triple J, who spun it live on air. To be given this massive platform is a big achievement and Willis recognises how lucky they are.

“We’ve got a really good relationship with Triple J, they’ve played a lot of our stuff before. They’ve played ‘Old Mate Bill’ on Double J and ‘seven five zero’ on Triple J Unearthed. They’re super supportive, they really seem to enjoy the stuff we create, which motivates us to do more.”

Alongside the many music features of Collart’s Wellington Street campus is a poster on the walls advertising the band’s upcoming concert at Singing Bird Studio in Frankston, their first all ages show.

“We’ve been asked before by many people who can’t come to our 18+ shows to put on an all ages show, so we’re looking forward to doing our show for those guys and seeing what their support is like.”

“We’re also got some new things we’d want to try out on the stage,” Willis teased and when I pressed further, he let me know that not only will this be their first show with props but they will play a brand new unheard single!

In addition to this, Willis says the group have created other tracks for release this year that vary between psychedelic rock and folk “We’re just testing every water, we like to change it up and do different things and the more genres you have, the more outreach you have to fans.”

‘You Stay’ is available now on music platforms. Sunday Honey Live @ Singing Bird Studios is playing May 4 at 6PM and their brand new untitled single will be released May 16th.