According to several metrics, Hilltop Hoods are as popular as they’ve ever been.

The Adelaide trio’s new album, Fall From The Light, is their first in six years, but they’ve never faded from view. MCs Suffa (Matt Lambert), Pressure (Daniel Smith) and DJ Debris (Barry Francis) headlined Yours and Owls in 2022, co-headlined Splendour in the Grass in 2023, and played the closing set at this year’s Bluesfest.

Their single Laced Up landed at #37 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of 2023, making Hilltop Hoods the most-featured artist in Hottest 100 history.

Every other Hilltop Hoods single from the past few years also made it into the Hottest 100, including I’m Good?, Show Business and A Whole Day’s Night. Meanwhile, the group’s goofy, intoxicated 2003 hit The Nosebleed Section finished at #2 in triple j’s Hottest 100 of Australian songs.

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The tour behind the Aussie hip hop trio’s last album, 2019’s The Great Expanse, was the biggest of their career, stretching across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North America. Hilltop Hoods will be filling arenas around Australia again in February and March 2026 in support of Fall From The Light. Dates in Hobart, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have already sold out.

“Our base seems to just want us to tour,” says Suffa, chatting to The Music over Zoom. “They're quite vocal, and that seems to be the consistent thing that keeps coming up. Like, ‘Just announce the tour, you cowards.’ For us, it doesn't make sense to tour without new material.”

Fall From The Light is Hilltop Hoods’ ninth studio album, and they spent more time working on it than on any previous album. They rolled out the singles The Gift featuring MARLON, Never Coming Home featuring Six60, and Don’t Happy, Be Worry over the last few months, all of which feature on the album. But Laced Up is the only track from the past few years that made the cut.

“Show Business and A Whole Day's Night were originally meant to be on the record, but we had somewhat of a false start,” says Pressure, explaining the drawn-out gap between albums. “It was 2022, and we were like, we’re going to come back with the album. But firstly, we just weren't ready. We could have put an album out, maybe, but it wouldn't have been something that we would be happy with.”

“And secondly,” he continues, “The world was still in a weird place. Everyone was still getting up on their feet, and the crowds were still hesitant. So we just went, you know what, we're going to delay this a couple of years. And we went back and wrote a whole bunch of new songs after that as well.”

Hilltop Hoods are one of the few constants in the Australian music industry, their presence as perennial as sunburn and pre-mix cocktails at a summer festival and the confusion surrounding the Adult Contemporary category at the ARIAs. But the group’s constancy is not effortless. 

Fall From The Light is the result of much labour and painstaking effort. In Suffa’s words, the process was “thorough,” their attention to detail “pedantic.” But at its conclusion, the group felt confident they’d produced one of their best records to date.

“It's imperative to us that we're not going to rest on our laurels,” Pressure says. “For us personally, it's about not just pushing boundaries, but making sure we're at our best. That's a big reason why we pumped the brakes in 2022 and decided to push the album back several years. You can put songs out, but it doesn't mean that that's our best foot forward. And, you know, for every song that made this album, there's a couple that didn't.”

Suffa adds, “Making music for us isn't just a function of being our job; it's something we've got to do, we love doing, and without it we're a bit lost.”

Ever since the earliest days of the group, when Suffa and Pressure were fresh out of high school and making music inspired by their idols Public Enemy, Gang Starr and Def Wish Cast, their goal has been to make records they’d want to listen to. And Fall From The Light was no different.

“If I'm not doing that, it's probably not authentic,” says Pressure. “I'm not trying to keep up with drill rap or make a modern sound, because that's not the music I fell in love with in my formative years when I was in high school, you know?”

This is an interesting illumination: for the music to feel like an authentic expression, it’s inevitably going to bear the influence of the music that struck a chord with Suffa, Pressure and Debris in their formative years. But at the same time, they don’t want to lean too heavily on the '90s hip-hop sounds that fuelled their adolescent creativity.

“I don't want to make an album I made 15, 20 years ago,” Pressure says. “But I guess we have created a sound organically that is us and sounds like us, and we're probably fairly identifiable by the sound.”

Suffa backs this up: “For me, what we make does have our sound in the same way, like, a Beastie Boys or whatever had a sound that followed them throughout their career. They didn't make the same record over and over again. It progressed, but it was always their sound. And I think when we're making music, we can't escape ourselves.”

“Having said that,” Suffa laughs, “we'll put out a song, and if you do get into the comments section, you have one side of people that will say, ‘This sounds exactly like what you've always made,’ and then another side of people that go, ‘Why don't you make music like you used to?’”

There are some obvious moments of stylistic deviation on Fall From The Light. Aotearoa pop-rock outfit Six60 features on two songs, Never Coming Home and Get Well Soon, and co-wrote another, Laced Up. Matiu Walters’ falsetto-rich lead vocals bring some pomp to Never Coming Home, one of several songs on the album that sounds like it’s already been re-strung.

All three Six60 collaborations were written during a two-day session in the band’s Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau studio. “A mutual friend of ours just said to us one day, ‘You should get in the writing room with these guys,’” Pressure says. “It was a really organic, natural collaboration. We just got along super well. They're a band with their own identity and sound and a great catalogue as well, and it just gelled.”

“It was really inspiring,” says Suffa. “They're casual – you know, we were having beer and pizza with them and having fun with them – but they're also workhorses. They come in and do the work. And I really admire that. Hilltop Hoods probably need more of that in their lives.”

There are a few other guests on Fall From The Light. The album begins with Nyassa, Hilltop Hoods’ long-time touring vocalist, singing over a grandiose string arrangement. Nyassa also features on the record’s widescreen closing track, The Moth. Marlon Motlop of MARLON X RULLA sings the funk and soul-infused hook on The Gift.

But the most significant outside contributor to Fall From The Light is One Above, who produced the whole record, save for some additional production from Suffa and Funkoars alumnus Sesta. One Above has been working with Hilltop Hoods on and off since 2012’s Drinking from the Sun.

“When we had Hilltop Hoods Initiative, he actually put in an entry,” Suffa says. “It didn't win, but I heard his beats and I got in contact with him and said, ‘Hey, I love your beats, do you want to work on the Hoods album?’ And that's where I Love It came from.”

One Above has credits on some of the most anthemic records in Hilltop Hoods’ arsenal, from I Love It (which features Sia) to 1955 (featuring Montaigne and Tom Thum) and Exit Sign (featuring Illy and Ecca Vandal). But he’s never taken the reins to this extent.

“In the past, it's been more here and there, and I've been producing or Plutonic Lab's been in there as well,” Suffa says. “But he's as involved in this record as the rest of us. It has his fingerprints all over it.”

One Above’s involvement gives Fall From The Light a spacious, burnished sound. “I feel like this record's really cohesive because he's pieced it together and he's got this clean sound,” Suffa says. “If you were playing me a beat tape in here, I'd be able to tell you which one was One Above as well. He's got a signature sound.”

Along with bringing his signature beats, One Above played a crucial role in getting Suffa, Pressure and Debris to actually finish the record. “He keeps us in line,” Suffa says. “He's very much like, ‘Where's this at? Let's get this done. Have you had any ideas around this?’ He's a real adult that we need – and he's like 10 years younger than us.”

Not every track on Fall From The Light is characterised by dramatic builds, soaring strings and soulful vocal hooks. Don’t Happy, Be Worry is an upbeat pop song with a light gospel tinge, landing somewhere between Screamadelica and How Bizarre. It’s one of the breezier moments on the record – that is, until you pay attention to the lyrics, which reference Donald Trump, Elon Musk, neo-Nazis, climate change, and the threat of nuclear war.

“There's a lot of dark shit going on in the world right now. We wanted to comment on it, but we didn't want to make it a miserable, mopey song that was too heavy,” Pressure says. “So we decided to try and inject some light and satire into a lot of current events that are going on in the world that me and Matt and Barry do follow.”

You’d think taking a jab at 34-time convicted criminal Donald Trump and the neo Nazi-courting billionaire Elon Musk would be fairly uncontroversial. But the lyrics have ruffled a few feathers.

“It's pretty amusing seeing the amount of middle-aged men that want to defend the richest people on the planet that I'm pretty sure have never done anything for them personally,” Pressure says. “So that's always a point of amusement for me.”

Suffa laughs, “I never thought I'd reach a time in my life when people had their favourite billionaire.”

Despite this very-2025 point of division, Hilltop Hoods fans are an overwhelmingly loyal bunch who eagerly embrace the group’s new releases. “There's always, on the internet, a minority of voices that can be there, but in general our support base is really supportive of new music and new ideas,” Suffa says. 

The sales figures back this up. Every Hoods album since 2006’s The Hard Road has debuted at number one, and all except for their first two records have gained ARIA platinum accreditation. However, throughout Fall From the Light’s six-year gestation, the trio were careful to avoid thinking about how their audience might respond.

“It's got to be for us first and foremost,” says Pressure. 

“Obviously, anyone who creates music or television or anything, you want people to like it,” adds Suffa. “People that are like ‘I don't care what people think’ are full of shit – you ultimately want people to like it, so I guess it's in the subconscious, isn't it?

“It's not in the front of the mind, especially when you're making something creative. When you're making something creative, it's like a meditation.”

Fall From The Light will be released on Friday, 1 August, via Universal Music Australia. You can pre-order/pre-save the album here. You can find tickets to Hilltop Hoods’ 2026 Australian tour on their website.

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