From COVID jams to chart-topping fame: The rise of South Summit

IT started as a way to pass the time during COVID-19, with a few budding musicians getting together to jam.

But South Summit has struck a chord with music fans. Since forming in 2020, the five-piece band has toured Europe with the Cat Empire and seen their 2024 debut album, The Bliss, debut at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

They were also nominated for an APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) award in 2025 for Most Performed Blues & Roots Work for their song Givin’ it Up.

Singer Zaya Reuben and his brother Nehemiah, who plays rhythm guitar, grew up in the remote township of Newman in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, where their father worked in mining.

The pair moved back to Perth when they were awarded high school rugby scholarships. They were later awarded music scholarships to study at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts through MADALAH, a not-for-profit organisation providing tertiary and secondary education scholarships for Indigenous students, particularly those from remote and regional communities.

“We were all just friends of friends at school and met at a couple of parties,” Zaya said. “We had nothing to do during COVID, so we got a bunch of us boys who loved to play music together. It was a good way to kill time when we were stuck at home. When restrictions lifted we had our first gig at our mate’s 18th birthday party. Everyone was keen to go out and do something, so we had massive support.”

The group chose their name after watching a documentary about Mt Everest.

“The South Summit is the point on Mt Everest that is the hardest to pass and everyone kept turning back,” Zaya said. “It’s something we try to tell in our story – when times get tough keep going.”

Their genre-bending music blends indie melodies with reggae and occasional hip-hop-style beats.

“It’s hard to pin ourselves to one particular genre, so it depends how we are feeling on the day,” Zaya said. “All of us grew up listening to different sounds. We have an album coming out soon and every song on it is different.”

Their songs are often inspired by their life experiences. River Days is a raw, emotional exploration of addiction, focusing on the pain it causes loved ones and the desperate plea for help to avoid a similar fate.

“Three of us come from an Indigenous background so that’s one of our most meaningful songs, about alcohol in Indigenous communities and how that relates to us and the problems within that area,” Zaya said. “We want to shed light on it.

“We do write a lot about people in our lives who have passed away. Our cousin took her own life in 2015, so we wanted to write one about that and talk about how special she was. We want to keep doing that because that’s what feels the best when we play live and people come up after our gigs and say that song really

touched them. That’s the best feeling and one of the reasons why I love to write music.”

The group has never attended Bluesfest Byron Bay, but they are looking forward to hitting the stage this year.

“It’s different to other festivals around Australia and has a real culture around it so it’s always been a dream of ours to play at Bluesfest,” Zaya said.

South Summit performs at Bluesfest on Friday, April 3 and Sunday, April 5.

For more information and tickets, visit bluesfest.com.au