Who the *!$% is Sly Withers?
The independent Perth band who just hit #1 POSITION on the ARIA Australian Album charts: no label, no press, no problem.
On Friday 17 April, the ARIA charts dropped. At #1 position on the Australian charts sat a record called ‘To Be Honest’ by a band called Sly Withers. No label. No press campaign. No publicist.
Just a band from Perth, a record they'd been building toward for years, and a fanbase that shows up time and time again.
The music industry has a very specific idea of how a result like #1 is supposed to happen. This is not that story.
Perth. Because of course it's Perth.
Sly Withers have been at this since they were teenagers, finding their footing on the local indie-punk circuit before becoming a fixture of the national touring scene through the late 2010s and early 2020s. Support slots for Amy Shark and Tones & I. Festival stages. Radio rotation. Top-10 album placements. Hottest 100 entries. They might not have always been the biggest band in the room, but they were always the one you remembered.
Then, following their third album Overgrown, they went quiet. Not because things were going great: frontman Sam Blitvich has been disarmingly honest about it.
"We had a pretty rough couple of years, personally and professionally. We needed to figure out what was important to us, and what we actually wanted."
Part of that reckoning included the departure of founding drummer Joel Neubecker in late 2023. The band regrouped around a new lineup, Blitvich and co-frontman Jono Mata, bassist Shea Moriarty, and new drummer Fraser Cringle, and got to work.
The record that came out of it
They pulled up stumps to Lancelin, a fishing town 90 minutes north of Perth, set up a home studio with the Indian Ocean in their eyeline, and made To Be Honest with ARIA Award-winning producer Stevie Knight (Stand Atlantic, RedHook).
The result is eleven tracks that sound like a band fully realised. The guitars are loud, sure. The feelings are louder. Their signature lose-your-voice singalongs sit alongside piano ballads, drum machines, and synthesizers - because Sly Withers are as influenced by The 1975 as they are by Free Throw, and they're finally done pretending otherwise. Producer Stevie Knight gave them the confidence to go all the way there.
"Working with Stevie has been the most seen we've ever felt musically. This band has always been a battle of trying to get people to understand us - whether that's punters, industry or radio - and with Stevie, it's like someone was connecting the dots in real time." - Sam Blitvich
How an independent Perth band hits #1 without a label
In the same week To Be Honest dropped, Sly Withers played six sold-out shows in six nights across Australia. Not a slow rollout. Not a press junket. No psy-ops and industry plants. Just: here's the record, we're on the road, come find us.
Photo by @cassandraedwards_ at Indian Ocean Hotel on Wed 15 April
That's basically the whole model. Build trust with real people over a decade of honest work. Release records on your own terms. When the moment comes, your fans do the rest. No label taking a cut of something they didn't help build. No publicist translating who you are into language the industry finds palatable.
"The honesty of the music was important, and the honesty of our communication internally in the creative and organisational process was as well. We had a lot of feelings about how the last couple years of our life had gone, and everything we'd been through." — Sam Blitvich
The result is sitting at #1 on the ARIA chart right now.
The fans made this happen
Let's be honest about it, because that's kind of the whole theme here. This chart result is a fan story. The people who pre-ordered the record before it was released. The people who showed up to a Monday night show in Brisbane or a Tuesday in Adelaide because they just had to be there for this one. That's what's at #1. In a world of labels telling artists to make Tiktoks, metrics over real results and botfarm engagement strategies, Sly Withers have built what they built with their fans, directly.
You can still be part of it. Stream To Be Honest everywhere. Grab a copy at store.slywithers.com
"We've come out of it not only a different band, but a stronger band," Blitvich said earlier this year. "Maybe even a little more grown up, as well." The ARIA chart would suggest the audience agrees.