The Rions have released their long-awaited debut album, Everything Every Single Day.
Featuring singles such as “Maybe I’m Just a Freak”, “Shut You Out”, and “Tonight’s Entertainment”, the 13-track collection is “the most open wound we’ve allowed the world to see thus far,” according to the indie rock band.
“All our triumphs, our regrets, our shortcomings, our philosophies, our hopes, and our dreams on a 13-track silver platter,” they share.
To launch their debut album, The Rions are hitting the road for their biggest headline shows to date. The tour kicks off tonight (October 3rd) at Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, before stopping in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, and Adelaide over the coming weeks (more information here).
The four-piece, consisting of Noah Blockley, Harley Wilson, Asher McLean, and Tom Partington, first gained attention after winning triple j’s Unearthed High in 2021 with their track “Night Light.” Since then, they’ve built a loyal following, notching up millions of streams and selling out shows in Australia and overseas.
Before you listen to Everything Every Single Day, read the band’s exclusive track-by-track breakdown of the album below.
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The Rions’ Everything Every Single Day is out now.
Everything Every Single Day Track by Track:
“Maybe I’m Just a Freak”
The opening track of the album and a real turning point for me [Harley]. A song about the audacity of a past lover to ask their way back into your life after causing so much pain. An introspective exploration of where things went wrong, something everyone tends to do at some point.
“Tonight’s Entertainment”
So much of our job fills us with more gratitude than we know what to do with. During this day in the studio, we decided to pour it all into this song. It was built around the piano riff Harley had written whilst in the green room of our show in Canberra on the previous tour we had just come off. We wanted to paint the picture of said gratitude so to speak. We are so lucky to be surrounded by a beautiful team every direction we turn, and it has allowed us to build a relationship with fans around the world.
“Welcome to the Conversation”
This track reflects the harsh, primitive reaction to a major loss of trust between father and son. It is a representation of the initial anger and resentment that is necessary to lead to forgiveness. It not only speaks on the internal repercussions inflicted on the individual, but the fallout left on the entire family and where the responsibility lies to rebuild what was broken. This song really exhibits how personal and meaningful the entire album is to us.
“Shut You Out”
“Shut You Out” is our attempt at a dramatic, unreciprocated love song, from the point of the one with ‘all the power’, using sonic dramatisation at its forefront. We love movies, we love soundtracks, and we love storytelling, so “Shut You Out” incorporates elements of all of those. We wanted this song to be powerful, loud, and expressive, so through the use of thick layers of guitar, movie style string arrangements, and Noah’s ever-present vocals, we got a result inspired by so many great songs.
“The Art My Mother Likes”
Sonically inspired by our idols when we started out as a band, the Beatles, “The Art My Mother Likes” is one of the more lighthearted songs on the album. It was written about a time in my [Harley’s] relationship where the superficial fears of delving into a new relationship were slowly being outweighed by the prospect of giving into the love that was taking over at the time. The title of the track comes from this massive blank white canvas that used to hang next to the dining table that my [Harley] siblings and I used to laugh about when pointing it out to guests visiting for the first time.
“Married to the Job”
This track is about negligence. The quiet and ever-suffocating killer of relationships. Inspired by the likes of The Japanese House, similar to that of negligence, we took a melancholic approach sonically with the real weight of the pain reflected in the lyrics.
“Oh How Hard It Is to Be 20 (Interlude)”
We knew when writing this album that we wanted to have an interlude in the middle. A lot of artists we look up [to] had done it so it just felt right. At the time I think that I was being weighed down by the complaining of so many people around me. It seemed like everywhere I turned someone had something negative to say, so a few days before going to record the album I had sat down with my guitar and allowed everything I had been observing to culminate into one song.
I think, in essence, I was coming to realise that immature behaviour is prevalent throughout everyone’s lives, at all ages, and these things that seemingly make being 20 so difficult, [and they] never really go away. The truth is issues when your 20 really can seem much bigger or much smaller than they actually are, and there is always going to be difficulty in navigating that.
I mean, at 20 years old, chances are you know people that have died, gotten married, and had kids, while at the same time others haven’t even got their first job yet, or are graduating university. What a weird time. I think the real message I was coming to understand is that it’s okay to be down and act like a piece of shit sometimes, but it’s not okay to stay that way.
“Maybe It’s Everything”
Throughout most of the year that this album was written, more than anything else, I was completely and utterly infatuated. This song is a representation of that infatuation, the leap of faith that everyone takes on love. I know it sounds so corny, but love IS corny, and I think this song was written at the time that I was embracing that.
“Scumbag”
Funnily enough this might be the oldest song on the whole album, so much so that it was almost on the Happiness EP. Written about the relationship that sparked so much inspiration for this album only two weeks after we had met. “Scumbag” is a pre-emptive plea for patience. I felt pretty quickly that I knew where the connection I had with this person was going, but at the same time I knew I wasn’t ready.
“Lobby Calls”
A whimsical take on a rom-com story. What if you fell in love with a hotel receptionist? We wanted to take an almost poppy/country direction with the writing of this song. Loosely inspired by the likes of Role Model and the Beatles, we really strove for the charming approach. Something consistent we’ve all experienced on tour is the gruelling early mornings after shows, making it on time to our lobby call, cutting short our time in each city. So, in a way, this song pays homage to that.
“Wear Me Thin”
Originally written in a session with Tom Eggert, “Wear Me Thin” was written early on within a relationship. It’s all about those questions you ask yourself when you start to feel more strongly about someone. For me [Harley] at least, I had a lot of walls I still needed to break down, and I guess with the help of Noah and Tom Eggert steering, as I wasn’t as comfortable confronting these feelings yet, we wrote this track about either being worn out by the pressures of love and fear of heartbreak, or worn thin enough to a point to really try it again. I think a lot of people hit this crossroad during the birth of relationships and this is just our take on it.
“Cry”
We wrote “Cry” about the dangerous and very real cycle of ‘attitude’ passed from father to son. Something as simple as ‘casual jokes’ being thrown around at the pub, or around the dinner table can be much more harmful than you think. Young men need to be taught to take accountability for our actions, now more than ever. There’s no more room for excuses. Pull up your friends, do better.
“Adelaide”
Adelaide is one of the ‘realest’ songs we’ve ever written. “Adelaide” is an admission of guilt and the struggle to let go. Written in one session during a rainy morning with Chris Collins, moulding Noah’s melodies and my [Harley’s] lyrics, it just poured out.
During a time where I felt the term ‘situationship’ was being thrown around so commonly and casually, I was holding on to the sentiment of the word for as long as possible in order not to commit myself to another loss. This song definitely represents the breaking point of that. No more avoidance of the question, facing how I felt honestly for the first time, and calling myself out for my commitment issues.
