SAMETIME: TURNING DISTANCE, FEAR, AND CHANGE INTO ALT-POP ANTHEMS

Australian alt-pop siblings Sametime have built their story on risk, movement, and emotional honesty. After uprooting their lives and moving over 11,000 miles from the Sunshine Coast to Brighton, the duo channelled the fear, guilt, excitement, and hope of starting again into their music. Their songs feel lived-in and immediate — diary entries set to glossy, high-impact pop.

With new single ‘I Don’t Know Much (But I Know That I Need You)’ and the forthcoming EP Get Out Whilst You Can, Sametime capture the emotional whiplash of change: leaving home, missing family, falling apart, coming back together, and choosing to leap anyway. Below, the duo open up about distance, doubt, collaboration, and why taking a chance on yourself is never simple — but always worth it.

“Is This The End?” feels like both a build-up and a release. How did that emotional structure reflect what you were experiencing when you left Australia for the UK?

The months after we booked our flight flew by but the days before take off were excruciatingly slow due to fear, excitement and an overwhelming amount of goodbyes.There was a lot of looking at the people around us and the lifestyle we were living and coming to terms that we were walking away from it all.We wrote this song 5 months into our move to Brighton. Everything was still so new and exciting but it was also dawning on us that no part of this is going to be easy.

You’ve described the song as a diary entry from the moment you moved 11,000 miles away from home. What were the biggest fears and hopes running through your minds at that time?

The biggest fears were definitely missing out and not being able to be there for the people we love. Our older sister had her first kid a few months after we moved, officially making us uncles and we got to meet the little guy…..over FaceTime.Our first family dog Soozi was pretty old and had a bad ticker when we flew out, at the end of our first year she had to be put down and we got to be there….over FaceTime.

Our biggest hope was that putting ourselves so incredibly far out of our comfort zones would reignite our drive and passion for what we do…..and that we’d make friends…making friends as adults is scary.

The upcoming EP Get Out Whilst You Can captures a sense of urgency and change. How does this new single set the tone for the wider story you’re telling on the record?

The record as a whole is about taking a chance on yourself and making that change. This song is the sad/fearful side of that choice, dealing with consequences of the action and coming to terms that it is all part of it. The penultimate line of the song is “guilty is a funny feeling is what I’m supposed to say but something about the distance makes me feel okay”. Being so far away from everyone we love is gut wrenching but moving to Brighton is still the best decision we’ve ever made.

You’ve gone from busking on the Sunshine Coast to supporting Bastille and landing BBC Radio 1 plays. How has that rapid shift shaped your confidence as songwriters and performers?

It’s incredibly motivating that what we’re doing is working and getting some people’s attention. We’re big believers in patience, knowing good things happen if you work for it and everything takes time.We’ve been doing this together for 14 years, it’s a lot of trial and error and a lot of defeats.It was a dream come true to play our first arena show, reaffirming our belief that we belong on a stage like that, super grateful to Bastille for giving us that opportunity. The Radio 1 plays were an awesome way to end the year and has got us excited to release more new music in 2026.

Working with collaborators like Ed Nash, Bastille’s Chris Woods, and members of McFly has been a big part of your journey. What have you learned from those sessions that’s helped define Sametime’s sound today?

The people listed above have helped us understand and navigate the environment we find ourselves in. A wealth of experience to learn from and advice to take on board. The UK music scene is a different landscape than what we’re used to so to have people like them in our corner is the bees knees.

Our main collaborator is another young Australian songwriter/producer that moved to the UK in 2023, Mr Matthew McGuffie. He has played the biggest part in defining our sound. He understands that the two of us are two very different sides of the same coin and brings the best out of that. He wrote, produced and mixed this whole record with us and we are incredibly grateful to work with him and be his friend.