Winston Surfshirt sits down with the South Western Times ahead of Here Comes the Sun next month

As the Here Comes the Sun festival gears up to take over Margaret River this month, one act will be celebrating more than just sunshine at the indie-folk one day event. Sydney soul/R&B sextet Winston Surfshirt is one of the many big names set to rock the stage at Three Oceans Winery on November 19, the group’s first live performance following the release of their upcoming album Panna Cotta. The band’s lead singer and namesake, Winston, sat down with the South Western Times ahead of their visit to the region, baffled that the group’s last trip to Western Australia was for Groovin The Moo Bunbury, back in 2018. “I can’t wait,” he said. “I can’t believe it’s been that long, I thought it had been about three years ... time has just flown.” A personal fan of Margaret River, the vocalist said he was looking forward to spending time in the area around the time of the festival. “After Groovin the Moo we went down to Margaret River for a couple of days which was just amazing,” he said. “I can’t wait, just for some consistent sun.” Though six songs have already been released from the upcoming album, the singer said he was excited to share the new tracks with the fans for the first time live since its official release. “It’ll be good fun; we’ll play some songs from (the album), a bunch of old stuff, some covers so ... it’ll be fun,” he said. “Pricie will be there, she’s featured on one of the later tracks on the album, so I’m sure we’ll do that together.” The 15-track album features 11 collaborations with artists including Kimbra, Young Franco and Ramirez, as Winston said the group wanted to try something “a little different”. “It’s always fun to get together with other people and make music we enjoy and that was the case with this bunch of songs,” he said. “I think without COVID we probably wouldn’t have this album as it is, it would be very different. “One of them we made about two years ago with Ramirez who’s from the States and he finally came over and toured a couple of weeks ago so we finally got to actually meet.” The group joins headline act Ziggy Alberts with the Dreggs, Body Type, Kiera Jas, Livvy and Pricie also taking the stage. Tickets for Here Comes the Sun are available via oztix.