When Drax Project first made their new single, “Summer Rain”, the four Kiwis wrote it with the idea that it wasn’t going to be for them.
Ben O’Leary and Sam Thomson, both located in Sydney, Australia, recall sitting down with fellow musicians Ashton Sellars and Neil MacLeod three years ago for a jam session.
“At the time, one of them was living overseas and was back in Wellington, and we were just hanging out,” O’Leary explains. “At the time, we were working on our album, and the song didn’t fit with Drax. [We thought] this can be for someone else, or it’ll just sit on a hard drive. It’s just for fun, you know.”
Little did they know that the soulful song would take Drax Project in a new direction, eventually becoming “Summer Rain”, their first non-collaborative release since 2023.
“It was literally just this year we were jamming… just talking about what we want the next batch of music to feel like,” he continues.
“Someone had some other idea, some other chords, and other melodies, and we thought, ‘Oh, that actually fits together with that “Summer Rain” idea we had a couple of years ago.’ We just finished the song quite quickly, and it was quite an organic way that it ended up wrapping up.”
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Since the band started in 2014, O’Leary (guitar), Thomson (bass), Matt Beachen (drums), and Shaan Singh (vocals and sax) have written lyrics together. “We all often have our own takes on how we see the meaning of a song, especially lyrically,” Thomson explains, revealing that each member brings a different meaning to a song.
The simple melody of “Summer Rain” is rooted in sentimentality, heartache, and accepting your fate.
“[This song] is about how when something good is happening in your life, you’re connected to it. It could be a person, and they come and go, but in those times they are away… it’s like an acceptance of if they go and never come back, that’s just how it happens,” he adds.
With minimal production and raw vocals, the single lets the band’s collaborative songwriting shine through. The result is something they describe as “aggressively human,” like their breakout hit single, “Woke Up Late”, in 2017.
Drax Project has toured and collaborated with some of the biggest names in modern pop since their humble beginnings in Wellington a decade ago. Skyrocketing to success after a string of support acts for superstars such as Ed Sheeran, Camilo Cabello, and Christina Aguilera, the band got signed to a US label during their rise to the top. The rest is history.
“[When we first started], we weren’t writing our own material or trying to push the band thing so much. We were just trying to eat and pay rent,” Thomson reflects.
“The band started with Matt and Shaan busking,” O’Leary adds. “They were at jazz school together and living together at the time. Sam was living with them, and he snuck his way into playing bass, and it was just the three of them doing covers on the street…which slowly transitioned into playing toga parties, 50th birthday parties, high school balls, that kind of stuff.”
Having written one song, Beachen, Singh, and Thomson needed someone to play chords — and someone who had a laptop. That person turned out to be O’Leary, who moved into their flat in Wellington soon after. “After that, we met our manager by busking outside of his house on Cuba Street,” O’Leary laughs.
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Following such a significant length of time in the music industry, the four members have played alongside each other through thick and thin.
“We’re all real lucky that we’ve been mates outside of the band… I’ve learned that you really, really need to trust the people around you and enjoy their company,” O’Leary says when asked what 10 years in music has taught him. “It doesn’t matter how good they are at their job — if you don’t enjoy sitting next to them in a van for 100 hours when things are all going wrong around you, then it’s not worth being involved with them.”
“I also think,” Thomson adds, “like with any kind of job or creative pursuit, there are ups and downs, and the music industry especially can be pretty turbulent. I think if you can keep going and you can work your way through that, there will always be ups. You just have to accept that and be okay with the ebb and flow of the journey.
“The song we have on our first album, ‘Toto’, is literally about waiting for the bus in the rain. We put that song out and a bunch of other songs and things completely changed for us. Stuff can feel hard, but if you keep working at it, then there’s always the possibility for an up.”
Drax Project will be headlining three shows this summer at Waihi Beach, Butler’s Reef, and Black Barn Vineyards, before heading to Christchurch in February for Electric Avenue.
Expect “Summer Rain” to be a crowd favourite at their upcoming shows, and there might be more to come. “We’ve got stuff in the pipeline, but we have to be a bit lame and coy about it at the moment,” O’Leary says. But what can he say?
“There’s more music and more overseas travel for next year, which is really exciting.”
Drax Project’s “Summer Rain” is out now.
