In conversation with Souldrop
If you’re looking for some tunes with “a twist of psychedelic lemon,” Souldrop is the band to check out this music month. Massive sat down to chat with Souldrop’s lead vocalist, and former Massey student, Anna Bennetto to talk about the quartet in light of their latest hit chuuune, ‘Jive’.
The band formed throughout high school and has continued to produce their dreamy tunes to date, even with members being dispersed amongst Wellington and Christchurch.
Hey Anna! Who the hell are you guys?
Kia ora, we are Souldrop! Made up of Anna Bennetto [me] on vocals, Fin Gilzean on guitar, Finn Perring on bass, and Elliot Millar on drums. We play and release music… sometimes…
How did you awesome individuals get together to form Souldrop?
Well, we formed in 2016 for Rockquest in Christchurch. From then we’ve been developing our sound and just enjoyed playing together, quite sporadically might I add.
How do you define your sound, and what inspires it?
We take a lot of inspiration from a range of styles to make a smoothie of sound. We experiment with soul, surf rock, reggae, Latin & funk with just a twist of psychedelic lemon included. Hopefully, we’ve got a song out there for anyone and everyone, especially the stuff we’ve got on the way… Oh yeah, we’re pretty excited.
What have been some memorable moments for Souldrop?
Hazy Days tour in 2017 was definitely a highlight, driving around the country in a van and sneaking me (Anna), into a bunch of venues due to being a couple of months off of 18. The one venue we actually didn’t end up playing was in Wellington, shout out to the Rogue and Vagabond, with the same bouncer who still freaks me out to this day. We pushed through though with a spontaneous flat gig at the mighty Marion Street apartments, what a night.
Other than that we’ve had the privileges of playing alongside a wide range of talented musicians from New Zealand and Australia, highlights including Great Gable, There’s A Tuesday, Mitch James, Corduroy, Dolphin Friendly, The Raddlers, Ha the Unclear, Nic and Reuben, Half Moon Baby, The Butlers, Mamazita, the list goes on and on.
Since not all being in Christchurch together now, what challenges do you guys face as a band?
Flights are pretty expensive when we leave it to the last minute… but it’s been super interesting and made us really adaptable to situations. We’ve also had the chance to play with a range of talented musicians when we’ve needed to fill in some sound with an extra guitar, a saxophone, trumpet, or even a whole drummer.
Why is music so important to you all? And does being in a band keep you musically motivated?
Music brings a range of people together to vibe, dance, and connect with each other and the music scene in New Zealand is insane. It’s pretty awesome to be a part of. Being in a band is pretty awesome, it’s hard work, and when you’ve been together a while that definitely shows... but we inspire each other and when we finally get our shit together and release something, it just makes us want to keep going.
Do you guys have a specific musical process as to how you come up with your tunes?
Honestly, we bang out songs pretty fast when we’re together and our writing process is always different. With being scattered around Wellington and Christchurch it’s hard to just jam and come up with new tunes. It’s taken us about three years to get 10 songs produced and ready for listening, but with bias, I can say they’re pretty mean and we’ve heard them enough to be sick of them.
Have you ever experimented with psychedelics and making your music? If so, how does that music differ from the tunes you make sober.
(Disclaimer: we don’t use drugs.)
It’s definitely a challenge to make music on psychedelics, especially when your hands and mind seem like completely separate beings. But, psychedelic experiences may have influenced some of the stories we tell and our lyrics, as well as the overall sound of some tracks. Expanding your consciousness is beneficial in a lot of ways - I recommend Michael Pollen’s book ‘How to Change Your Mind’ - but using substances to reach ‘enlightenment’ or whatever is like a bodybuilder using steroids, it’s cheating really. Also, tracks might sound amazing when under the influence, but when listening back sober… what the fuck.
What is your latest musical creation?
We just released a track called ‘Jive’ out into the world! Along with a funky and colourful music video, and earlier this year we released the song ‘Trip’. We have a bunch more songs on the way, in this next month we have the song ‘Cadet’ coming out, alongside a sick lo-fi music video following us running around as space people in a wacky range of places, so keep an eye out for that one.
Fuck, marry, kill: Michael Jackson, Ariana Grande, Dave Dobbyn.
Fuck Ariana, marry Dave, kill Michael.. twice, for obvious reasons.
It’s music month! what are you doing to celebrate?
Super excited! Will definitely be going to as many gigs as possible. Might be going on a cheeky tour, announcement coming soon x
Where can we go to hear more of your tunes?
Our songs are available on all streaming platforms, Spotify, Apple Music, etc. (Even our foetus punk rock tunes lol please ignore them.)
We also have a bunch of music videos up on our YouTube channel, Facebook, and Instagram. Just look up Souldrop and you’ll find us, not to be confused with Souldrop, the Norwegian electronic music group.