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Sumi.
 A faint beeping can just be heard over the phone as I talk to Sumi's lead guitarist and vocalist Daniel Gaskin. "I'm in a taxi, it's the meter ticking over", he explains. "I'm just coming home from Melbourne!"
Sumi are an odd Adelaidian band that are not quite emo, not quite rock and not quite indie. "We're going to start a genre of our own", Gaskin tells me, laughing. "We used to fall into pop-punk, I guess, but now we're nothing like we used to be. We used to draw from Jebediah - it was almost like we were trying to be them - but now we're finding our own style. I find now, because I do most of the writing, rather than looking for influences they sort of come to me from things and scenarios around me: things that are happening at the time. It's definitely good when you come back from a really good gig and you have all this adrenaline rushing around your body and you can sit down and just write and come up with amazing things."
Starting out with their first EP in 2003 with just three members they had an amazing reception at the launch: all 600 copies sold in a blink. Not only did they then nab a top-12 placing in the 2003 Youth Week's 'Rock It!' competition but they also got a place on channel Ten's show The Panel. "I didn't even know they were playing our song!" he exclaims. "A mate phoned me up and told me. It was crazy just to know that the rest of Australia had heard your music. So much stuff happened that year, it was unreal - we were only 19 at the time. I just think that most bands in Adelaide are waiting for someone to take notice, really. I think the other states need to realise that we're down here because that's all it really is; they don't believe we have the talent. Although now that there are some Adelaidian bands getting out and about, like The Hot Lies, people are starting to take notice of Adelaide and that's given the rest of us a chance."
Sumi are also getting out and about these days. "It's quite different playing in different parts of Australia," Gaskin explains. "I guess it also depends on who you're playing with too. The crowd can just be really into you because you're the sort of music they like. And you could be intro for a really good band or have just followed a band that's got everyone revved up. In Melbourne it was strange because they have over-18 and under-18 shows and the under-18 shows are always packed. I don't think that there is enough motivation for kids in Adelaide to come out and see live shows so it's a really different atmosphere."
Sumi's newest EP 'Next Year's Passing Trend' is in quite a different style to their last release. It seems that the band has gained its own particular style and identity. It's also their first EP in their current form as a quartet. "I think this EP will be received with even more enthusiasm than the last because I guess we are better known, plus we're a bit older and a bit wiser. Now that we have four people it was something I believe that we really needed to do. I hope the wake of this one will be as great as the last."
And the future? "I'd love to be able to bring out an album!" he laughs. "It would be great to be heard nationally but I guess you're always going to have that rock dream in the back of your head to get big." He scoffs quietly, "And anyone who says they don't is lying. But I mean we're happy playing music at the moment, so that's it. I guess we'll just see how far that takes us but you can always wish it were bigger because that's what we want to do with our lives. I'm not one for working in an office job: I just want to play in my band."
Jess Law
 | Sumi launch 'Next Year's Passing Trend' at the Enigma Bar on Fri 15 July with Tiltmeter, Short Term Gain and Matt & Rachel (late of EdisonMusic). |
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