We are honoured to premiere the new single ‘Somersault’ from Western Australian Queensland-based troubadour Ben Lunt. Starting off with a yearning, sparse introduction, highlighting Lunt’s distinctive vocals, the track launches into a luminescent jaunty song that seems to infuse the bright Australian sunshine in every note, tempered by the thread of yearning melancholia in Lunt’s vocals.
Lunt says of the track:
I remember playing in my usual rehearsal space late on a winter weeknight, feeling it was a pivotal moment in my life around the time I wrote this song. Tossing up whether to chase my dream of music or progress on with an unrelated professional career, paired with a longing to go back up north of Western Australia to escape the Perth winter with mates (like I had previous years), I came to write the chorus:
‘Well I was feeling down all winter long, I wanna drive away and put on a summer song. And when we’ll hit the blue, we’ll set it off. We’ll all dive in, doing somersaults.’
This portrays a typical scene of me and my mates running into the blue ocean on one of our road trips and at the same time using ‘dive in’ and ‘somersaults’ as symbolism for starting a new and unpredictable journey.
Looking at the structure of the song Somersault, I intentionally wanted to begin with that raw intimate feeling, hence the light picking and intro lyrics. Then as you progress into the tune it becomes a little more exciting with a collective encouragement of “we’ll all dive in” taking you to the end.
There is an ebullient folk blush in the genetic makeup – framed by the delicate harmonica and thrumming acoustic guitars – more than a little of the sense of euphoria and freedom in expression found in bands like Royel Otis. It’s a heady production that tempers a sunshine-soaked sparkle with an element of reflection – a nostalgic, immersive journey.
‘Somersault’ is out tomorrow and will be available to download and stream here.
You can expect to hear more from this rising artist. He has recently teamed up with legendary Sydney based producer Tim McArtney (Hockey Dad, Adam Newling, Angus & Julia Stone) to record a slew of new singles for release this year.
Lunt has also announced that he will be performing at the 2025 Nannup Music Festival (28 February to 3 March) with an impressive line up including Charm of Finches, The Kill Devil Hills, Oceanique and Joan & the Giants.
