From Strangers To Collaborators: How This New Light And Sianon Made ‘Grocery Store’

It’s safe to say that normally artists know the person they’re collaborating with. But not in This New Light’s case. The Sunshine Coast-based indie-folk musician dropped his new song Grocery Store today (October 31), alongside his collaborator, Sianon, a Melbourne-based folk-pop artist - that he’d previously only met once.

The Music caught up with the pair over Zoom before the release of Grocery Store to see what really went down.

Last year, This New Light - AKA Sam Ayling - was in Melbourne for his headline show, when his support act, Rod Coote, introduced Ayling to some of his friends - one of which was Sianon. They watched a performance by Hollow Coves together, but apart from that, the two didn’t speak.

“Maybe three months later, I was doing another trip, driving down to Melbourne and just kind of posted on social media like, ‘Does anyone want to catch up, or write a song together, or record a song?’ And Sianon said, ‘Hey, let's do a song at my place. We can record it here and just like, write it here and see what happens.’ And so that was pretty much the second time we'd ever hung out,” Ayling said.

“So we were strangers, I’d definitely say,” added Sianon. “We hadn't really hung out together before, ever, until that songwriting session.”

And in that one session, Grocery Store was conceived.

“We sat down and we were just kind of trying to identify something that we both either relate to now or have related to at some point. And I think a lot of people can maybe relate to the idea that, in your 20s, your network is all at different stages of their life, and they're all doing different things. Some might be getting married and having babies, and some might have landed their dream career, and they're making loads of money. You can't help but compare.

“I think it was just kind of a song to remind ourselves, and anyone listening, that sometimes you’ve just got to take things for what they are, and live in the moment. Really appreciate where you are and just trust that the universe has got you on your own path, and that you will get where you need to be eventually,” Sianon said.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by This New Light (@thisnewlightmusic)

Once the lyrics were all written up, and Ayling had headed back to the Sunshine State, it was production time. “In between when we wrote the song together and Sianon coming up for a recording day, I was starting to pull the pieces together for the actual production - recording guitars and whatnot. And so we got it about 90% or 80% finished before Sianon flew up, and then we pretty much spent the day recording just the vocals,” he said.

“We went in the studio, and we spent the day just really getting it right and getting that same energy from when we wrote it in the production. And it was really fun,” Sianon added.

Grocery Store dropped today, and according to the duo, we may see it played live yet.

“I think if there's an opportunity to do it, we'll definitely, definitely take it. And yeah, it's something that's like, never been performed live, really. So whenever that opportunity comes, we'll both be keen to take it,” Ayling said.

The release of Ayling and Sianon’s new single comes during a massive year for This New Light, who has been supporting The Dreggs on their national tour. He’s also set to play his own headline show at Maroochydore’s Solbar on November 24, and will make an appearance at Woodford Folk Festival 2024/25.

Sianon has big things ahead too, teasing the release of an EP for early 2025.

‘Grocery Store’ is out now on all streaming services.