Photo by Ross Jenkins at Founding Photos

Sunshine Coast’s Indie-rock act, High Tropics have just revealed a brand new single ‘Girlfriends’, along with an accompanying music video that plays homage to the act’s influences.

High Tropics (the moniker of songwriter/producer Josh Stewart) produced the new single, and was mixed by Steven Schram (Paul Kelly, San Cisco, Teenage Dads).

'Girlfriends' is a sublime indie-rock exemplar, charmingly telling a story of heartbreak while enveloping the listener in a sun-drenched soundscape. Infectious guitar leads merge effortlessly with the lead vocal melodies to create delectable hooks, as rich hi-hats and ride cymbals thicken the atmosphere. The endearing narrative is topped with the track's choruses, providing glowing encouragement to the listener that hope is still on the horizon.  

High Tropics have continuously demonstrated their love for insanely catchy lo-fi/garage rock in the veins of The Strokes, The Growlers etc, and ‘Girlfriends’ is peak High Tropics. Peel back the layers and there’s little nuances that give it a nudge to be more than just another indie track, from the little drum breaks (there’s a slight touch of the Amen Break peaking its head out if you listen close enough), to subtle synth flourishes, all of which boost the wall of slightly overdriven jangly guitars (and infectious lead line), rolling bass line, and main man Josh Stewart’s effortless vocal swagger. Yet, there’s still plenty of air in this track to let it rise among its contemporaries.

High Tropics talks about the inspiration behind 'Girlfriends':

"'Girlfriends' is a down-and-out love song that doubles as a love letter to the green queen Mary Jane. Written during the healing process of a six-year relationship ending, it's a song about picking yourself up and moving on.”

High Tropics have just been announced as a 2023 finalist in the Queensland Music Awards for previous single 'Bipolar Disaster'. His single 'Changes' was also nominated for Song Of The Year in 2018, and he represented Australia in Seoul, South Korea, for Project Aloft Star the same year.

To coincide with the release, High Tropics will be playing three shows across Queensland at Solbar in /Maroochydore, Ole Bar in Noosa and Tomcat in Brisbane.

In the live arena, he has previously supported the likes of Middle Kids and DZ Deathrays and playing festivals Big Pineapple Festival and the Caloundra Music Festival alongside huge Australian artists such as The Rubens, Daryl Braithwaite and more.

High Tropics is currently the most collected Australian indie-rock artist in web3 with over 650 music NFTs sold, and has frequently trended in the top five most collected artists on the world's leading music NFT platform Sound.xyz, even taking out the #1 spot with previous release 'Good Morning'.

High Tropics' releases have racked up over five million streams and have seen radio play and praise from triple j, KROQ (USA), FBi, 3RRR, Rolling Stone (AU), BIRP.FM, Pilerats, Cool Accidents, Music Feeds and Red Bull Music. His tracks have also received syncs from the likes of Ford Motor Corporation, VANS, MTV and Netflix Originals.

High Tropics is the moniker of artist Josh Stewart, who's been releasing music since 2013 across multiple projects, including High Tropics and The Ninjas.

Recently, Josh revealed that he's been dealing with Crohn's disease since 2013, a diagnosis he's been reluctant to share until now. "I first got into music for all the wrong reasons, eventually completed a bachelor of audio engineering and got really ill in my final year of the degree", Josh shares. "I ended up getting diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 2013, which altered the course of my life. Ironically though, it was the thing that made me fall in love with and develop my songwriting, as it became my way of escaping reality. It's my therapy."

"As I've seen a bit of the stigma around disabilities lessen in society over the last few years, it's helped me reflect and embrace my own struggles and experiences, and see it as part of my story, not something to be ashamed of. I want to be a force for good, and hiding my condition from the world doesn't help anyone. Our industry has made some great headway with diversity over the last few years, but disabled artists are still extremely underrepresented, and my silence certainly hasn't helped. I'd like to see more support for people living with disabilities, specifically within the music industry. It's time to lose the stigma, let's show the world everybody can rock", Josh concludes.

  'Girlfriends' is available worldwide now on all streaming platforms.