Over a year on from the release of their second studio album, Sydney sextet Winston Surfshirt have shared their first piece of new music, offering up a three-track covers EP.
Dubbed Cover Your Mouth (Live from Lockdown), the EP serves as something of a way for the group to continue to engage with their fans following a year which saw an almost endless run of momentum brought to a screeching halt. Not content to sit on their hands and wait for normalcy to return, the group instead got to work at home, covering some of their biggest influences for their ‘Live from Lockdown’ sessions.
“During lockdown we wanted to keep busy and keep people happy by covering some of our favourite artists,” explained Winston. “Jamiroquai, MF Doom, Madlib and George Michael are all iconic artists that helped shape the Winston Surfshirt sound – so it was fun to pay homage to these legends in our loungerooms and release these covers online, now they’re available wherever you want to listen.”
Despite these sessions never being intended for formal release, a groundswell of support across comment sections and direct messages saw the outfit choose to pick three of the best tracks for the new EP.
Kicking things offwith a rendition of Jamiroquai’s “You Give Me Something”, the group then focus on George Michael’s “Fastlove”, before paying tribute to the late MF Doom, covering “Curls” from the Doom and Madlib collaborative project Madvillain.
Currently, there’s no word whether or not Winston Surfshirt might look towards doing some more covers in the future, but given how expertly proficient they are at adding their own unique style to some classic tracks, it goes without saying that there wouldn’t be any complaints from their dedicated fanbase.
Winston Surfhirt’s Cover Your Mouth (Live from Lockdown) EP is out now via Sweat It Out/BMG.
