Summer Incarnate: Mid Drift Drop Their Sunshine-Filled Debut EP

If you’re after an EP that feels like summer incarnate, you’ve come to the right place. Brisbane’s indie surf-rock darlings, Mid Drift have dropped their debut EP, Lemon Lime and Tan Lines, today (February 6) - and it’s not to be missed.

“The best songs that you listen to are songs when you're driving back from the coast, and you're kind of a bit salty, and you're a bit tired in the sun, but every song on that drive home sounds good and nice,” frontwoman Sarah Engstrom explained. “And that's what I wanted this EP to feel like.”

The six track release features four of Mid Drift’s previously dropped singles, as well as two brand new tracks: Falling (the wrong kind of way) and I Need Me Too, featuring Gold Coast artist V.Blvq, who adds a bit of rap to the band’s signature laid-back style.

According to Engstrom, I Need Me Too has been “a really long time coming”. Writing the track when she was only 16, the now 23-year-old is finally releasing the vulnerable song. Wanting to try something different, Engstrom reached out to V.Blvq to feature - and, to her delight, he said yes.

“I was a little bit nervous, because I love his music, and I love his songs, but this is a really deeply personal song to me, like, probably the most personal, you know?” Engstrom told The Music. “It's such an old song to me, and I just wanted it to be perfect. And he came in and wrote this verse and sent it to me, and I was like, ‘Wow. You've just nailed that.’ Honestly, my favorite lines in the song now are his lines, because I just love it. So that was really special, having him on that track as well, and he's such a lovely guy.”

V.Blvq isn’t the only outsider who worked on this EP. Mid Drift also employed the services of all-star producer Jack Nigro, who has previously worked with the likes of Rum Jungle, DMA’s, and The Amity Affliction. 

Engstrom told us about how nervous she was to reach out to Nigro: “He's so good. He's been killing it at the moment. And I just sent him some demos and said, ‘I'd really love to work with you, like, if you’ve got time.’ And I remember the first time we went down, I was so nervous, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy's worked on, like, Ocean Alley, he's worked on Pacific Avenue, that kind of thing’. So I was so nervous - but he is the most lovely guy you will ever meet in your entire life.”

Mid Drift themselves have been gaining traction in the music sphere, becoming the go-to support act for Aussie indie-rock bands. Playing for DICE, Old Mervs, and Teenage Dads, the Brisbane band have cemented their status as crowd favourites.

“It was just the most exciting time. This was our first time doing proper flying interstate stuff - like we'd done Sydney before, but we’ve just driven - so it was, like, our first time really getting down to Melbourne and Sydney, and then all the way back up the coast. It was just so exciting and fun,” Engstrom said.

“It was really crazy for us, because when we went down to Melbourne and Sydney and kind of everywhere along the way. And - this had never happened to us before - but people came up to us at the end and were like, ‘Oh, we actually didn't know who DICE were, we just came to see you guys.’ Like, that's wild. That was a really cool feeling. So that was a real highlight for the tours and stuff, when people came up and were like, ‘We actually just came to see you guys.’”

So, with the makings of a cult following, can we expect a headline tour from Mid Drift soon?

“Yes, I think so,” Engstrom smiled. “I'm organizing a show in Sydney today actually, which is a bit scary because it'll be our first proper ticket to headline in Sydney. So we'll see how that goes. But yeah, very exciting. So I think there’s a headline tour on the way soon. I really want to get over to WA.”

Mid Drift’s debut EP, ‘Lemon Lime and Tan Lines’, is out now on all streaming services.