INTERVIEW: Drest Turns Sadness Into Sunshine On ‘ex4ya’

Drest. Photo by Jack Craig, styling by Tahlia Weir.

Naarm/Melbourne-based artist Drest has just released his groovy new single, ex4ya, featuring production from Gutterboy. If you’ve ever wanted to build a relationship with someone, but they’ve been keeping you at arm’s length, then you’ll relate to Drest’s annoyance. However, rather than choosing to wallow in self-pity, Drest’s feeling good, all things considered, and ex4ya is an upbeat tune that might just ward off some winter chills. I’m also a sucker for sports references in songs, and I really enjoyed the Ángel Di María bar - “Well girl that boy must be an angel like he’s Di Maria”.

Something I particularly enjoy about Drest’s music is that I can hear the Allday influence - think Skateboard Soiree-era Allday and you’re on the right track - but Drest is 100% his own artist. Much like Allday, Drest continues to evolve with every release, which has been particularly evident over the last 12 months. ex4ya is an excellent example of Drest’s ability to create songs that are bright and bubbly while still remaining insightful and incisive lyrically. It’s not an easy balance to master.

To celebrate the release of ex4ya, I caught up with Drest to chat about the new single, footy, love and more. Read on to learn more about Drest, and check out ex4ya below. He might not have all the answers when it comes to love, but his music provides the comfort and insight you’d get when you speak to an old friend.

Ben Madden: Firstly, congratulations on the release of ex4ya! Sonically, it’s pretty upbeat, but lyrically, you’re talking about the struggles involved in trying to build a relationship with someone who’s still hung up on their ex. I’d love to know more about the creation of the track, as it’s one that could potentially ruffle a couple of feathers…

Drest: Thanks Ben! Aha this song is definitely a little bit cheeky, and it’s an idea I’ve had in my notes for a while that I’ve been keen to explore. I’ve watched a lot of people romanticise their past relationships so much so that it’s to the detriment of their future ones, and it had been something I’d heard a bit in my own experiences too, so I just wanted to have fun with that and let a little toxicity shine through by calling out that behaviour. Gutterboy and myself had the best time in the last production session for the song by trying to amp up the cheekiness - like adding that church bell sound in the second verse when I mention it !

You’re an artist that’s always been very open lyrically, which I think is part of why your music connects with audiences when they listen to you for the first time. Have you always been someone that’s naturally honest about how you’re feeling/what you’re experiencing, or is music a way for you to share your thoughts that you might not otherwise express?

I’ve definitely not always been naturally open to sharing my own experiences, music is for sure what opened that up for me. I noticed that my favourite artists talk about their own experiences and locations and clothes and feelings etc that were so personal to them that they made it cool, and I’m just trying to take my own feelings and experiences and put them into my own music in the same way, to keep it unique to myself. So yeah it’s a bit of both but I think I’m still fully more open and honest in my music ahah.

You mention AFL on ex4ya. I want to ask whether you’re a footy fan, and if so, who do you go for?

I’m 100% a footy fan. I grew up playing footy and watching it, the pub I work at now is very AFL oriented too so I feel like I’m still very much up with what goes on, or at least enough to make small-talk with the regulars there. And I’m a West Coast fan, my dad is Richmond but my older cousin who I thought was the coolest person ever went for WCE when I was a kid, and they were winning in that time which was 2006-ish when I was like 5 so I’ve just stuck with it since then. (Editor’s note: this interview was conducted shortly after West Coast beat Essendon. I not-so-seriously considered not running this chat.)

Your music often tackles the various aspects of love. For those who might be unlucky in love, what advice would you give them?

Oo I’m not sure if I’m qualified to give love advice ahah! I would just say take everything as it comes and don’t sacrifice yourself to impress someone else - you don’t want to be someone’s half you want to be a whole person first.

You’ve recently been on a mini-tour, playing gigs in Albury and Melbourne. How were the shows, and are there any stories from the dates that stand out?

The shows were amazing! Albury was All Ages too which I’ve never done before and it was sick! There was a kid called Oscar at the Albury gig who requested my song rumblestrip before the show, his dad sent me a message a few weeks prior, so I said thanks to him before I played it and got a screenshot a couple days later saying Oscar had the best time and hasn’t stopped talking about the show. Such a wholesome story I’ll remember for a long time. And the Melb show was great too, literally everybody killed the night - Kill Carter had this song where he and Hindley ran out and started shooting bubble guns out everywhere too it was crazy ahaha.

On that note - are there any Melbourne artists that you’d like to shout out?

There is soo many, I’m a huge fan of the whole scene here in Melbourne I don’t even know where I would start. Right now I’m listening to a bunch of Holly Hebe, Jimmy Harwood, and Kill Carter - they’re all killing it right now.

Having grown up in Finley, I’d love to know what role music had in your life when you were younger, and whether you think that coming from a “smaller” Australian town has influenced your approach to music in any way?

Music was always around me, I learned guitar super young and a lot of my extended family played instruments but I never got super into it in terms of songwriting until late highschool I think. Coming from a small town has definitely influenced my approach, I still view myself as a country kid, I fully grew up working on farms until I moved to Melbourne, so I feel like I have a unique perspective there, and you can hear references to home everywhere in my music, it will always have a special place for me.

READ MORE: INTERVIEW: How Heirloome Turned Grief Into Beauty On ‘Flesh To Flower’

Finally, I think there is a consistently summer-y aesthetic to your music. However, summer currently feels like it’s a million miles away. What’s the first thing you’ll be doing when summer rolls around?

When summer rolls around, you can catch me on the first sunny day off in a garden somewhere in Melbourne with a bunch of my friends drinking on a picnic rug listening to music and getting horrendously sunburnt - can’t wait.

Thanks for having me Ben!

You can follow Drest on Instagram here, Facebook here and Twitter here.