South African alternative rock band, SunMan, are the latest artists in the Apple Music South Africa Up Next program, a local version of their global emerging artist platform.
“Apple Music Up Next is an absolute game-changer for us. This is what we have been working towards right from the beginning and can’t believe we’ve been granted this massive opportunity so early in our careers. We are filled with an incredible amount of gratitude and excitement as this fuels our ambition and work ethic tenfold. What’s next, is now larger than anything we could have imagined. Thank you for seeing us and what we have to bring to the table, we will not let you down!” they tell Apple Music.
The names behind SunMan are 21-year-olds Luca Paterson-Jones (vocals and songwriting), Zac Hasenfuss (guitar and production) and Niclaus Duvenhage (keys and production), who became friends in high school after bonding over music and formed the band shortly after leaving high school. It was their shared love of experimenting while making music that led them to their decision to pour all their effort into SunMan.
2021 saw the release of their upbeat indie-rock debut single called “Gone Electric” (2021) and they quickly followed that up with a slower, broodier single called “Left Here For Dead” (2021). Their debut EP Love and Other Accidents (2022), available to stream on Apple Music in Spatial Audio, is a nostalgic take on modern rock, rooted in Paterson-Jones’ unique and light timbre, and that incorporates stylistic elements from multiple genres.
As the newest Up Next artist to be spotlighted in South Africa, SunMan will be featured across Apple Music’s South African Up Next playlist https://apple.co/3eITdJd. The curated Up Next playlist features a dynamic class of new and emerging artists, thoughtfully hand-picked by Apple Music editors from around the world. The playlist is genre agnostic and represents a line-up of artists their global editors are passionate about and eager to expose to a larger audience.
The vast global Up Next roster of past talent includes Grammy-nominated and critically lauded talent like 6lack, Daniel Caesar, H.E.R., Greta Van Fleet, Khalid, Amy Shark, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Claudio, Sigrid, Mr Eazi, Stefflon Don, Bad Bunny, Juice WLRD, Bazzi, Jax Jones, NCT 127, Summer Walker, Tierra Whack, Dean Lewis, Pink Sweat$, Koffee, Megan Thee Stallion, Burna Boy, Clairo, Lunay, Jessie Reyez, Orville Peck, Victoria Monét, Ingrid Andress, Conan Gray, Don Toliver, Rema, BENEE, Holly Humberstone, Natanael Cano, Givēon, beabadoobee, Arlo Parks, Tate McRae, Fousheé and Tems.
