100 Times Around the Sun

Guy Sebastian refers to his 10th studio record as his “sunshine album.” “My last album *T. R. U. T. H.* was dealing with loss and grief and with inner strength and not letting people put a ceiling over what you can achieve in life. There was some subject matter that was a bit heavy,” the singer tells Apple Music. “This album is a realization that heaviness doesn’t go away, and grief doesn’t go away. Challenges don’t go away. But neither do the good times. Neither does making great memories that last a lifetime; neither does loving the people in your life. I wanted to write an album that reminded me of that. It really is an album to inspire me to love my people more and to enjoy life more. Getting back to joy and joyful living.” Musically, *100 Times Around the Sun* matches that joie de vivre, buoyed by Stevie Wonder-esque stabs of joyful soul and funk (“Afterlife”), ’70s disco (the title track, “Maybe”), and uplifting balladry (“The Keys”). Written across a four-year period, Sebastian penned over 100 songs in Sydney, Bali, Nashville, and Los Angeles, working with writers such as Oak Felder (Sabrina Carpenter, Lizzo) on “I Chose Good” and Jamie Hartman (Lewis Capaldi, Kylie Minogue) on the title track. “The thing that makes me most proud is how much effort went into the album,” he offers. “I could not have given more of myself.” Here, Sebastian takes Apple Music through *100 Times Around the Sun*, track by track. **“Maybe”** “It’s a simple, soulful song; it’s not tackling any particularly deep content. I will often write songs from a certain perspective knowing full well it’s going to have a completely different perspective for other people. Some have listened to ‘Maybe’ and told me they were at a crossroads with their job and feeling scared to dive in, and they heard that song in the morning and it made them make the phone call. It’s funny the stories I get.” **“No Reason to Stay”** “The song’s about narcissism. There’s a great phrase I’ve always really loved, and it’s that when someone gives you no reason to stay, that’s your reason to go. I was working with \[songwriter\] Steve Rusch and he was like, ‘We should write a song to that!’” **“Strangers”** “It’s one of those weird human things we do where we break up and then we go back to small talk. Or you avoid each other. Hang on, you were my person, you knew things about me no one knows. It’s such a weird thing that you can do so much life with somebody and then it’s too awkward, or there’s too much pain, to speak. Relationships are painful and sometimes that person becomes a stranger again.” **“100 Times Around the Sun”** “It’s what the whole album really encapsulates, which is really understanding the value of having a small circle of people that you can actually service. People that have got your back, you’ve got their back, and you can actually be something to those people instead of trying to be everything to everyone. Once you’ve got those people, you could go 100 times around the sun 1,000 more times and you would choose those people to do it every time.” **“Write One”** “It was \[my wife’s\] birthday. I was writing for the album in Bali, and I sent her this song on her birthday as a present. It’s basically saying, there’s all these songs that say you’re the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, or you take my breath away, and yet there’s no one song that says all the things about you that I love. There’s no one song that does you justice. So I’m gonna write one. The song is about the pursuit of writing that song. The pursuit is your way of saying, ‘Nothing does you justice.’” **“The Keys”** “It’s about someone finding you where you’re at. In your mind, you are broken and you’re a tattered mess and a shell of a structure, and yet this person has rolled up their sleeves and said, ‘No, I believe there’s something here I want to invest in.’ And they’ve got to work and built you up and made you this structure than can stand through any storm. And because that person has shown you such selfless love, you’re saying, ‘You built me, you built this house, so it’s only you that gets the keys.’” **“All Yours Again”** “The lyrical matter is really about, ‘I’ve been here but I haven’t been here. I’ve been laying in this bed, but you’ve been sleeping next to someone who is a shell of who he normally is. But I’m all yours again now. I’m back.’” **“Cupid”** “I wrote this for a friend of mine who made a joke in passing. It was along the lines of, ‘Cupid had one job. Just one job! Of all the people that cupid could have shot—was he wearing a blindfold? His heart’s not in it anymore and he’s just firing at will.’ It’s really a fun love song.” **“I Chose Good”** “The concept is mum’s are always right. And she said, ‘Marry your best friend.’ She gave you all this advice and you ignored it. And you suffered for ignoring mum. I wanted to write a song about the day of the wedding and here is your bride coming down that aisle and everyone’s smiling and their jaws are to the floor at how beautiful this bride is, and you’re looking at your mum and you’re like, ‘Look at that, mum, I chose good. I listened to your advice this time and she’s the one.’” **“Get It Done”** “That song is about the grind of what this industry has been. Everyone’s got this weird, preconceived thought that you win *…Idol* or a show like that and suddenly you’ve got this whole massive team of people that are supporting you. It’s just not like that. I was pretty young, naïve, very sheltered, and thrown to the wolves. I was largely alone and had to navigate this strange world. The song’s about remembering all the good things and getting all the stuff done that I don’t want to do.” **“Antidote” (feat. Sam Fischer)** “‘Antidote’ came out of my drummer’s wedding. In his wedding speech he said to his wife, ‘You’re the antidote to all my problems.’ That was such a beautiful thing, and you often don’t hear drummers say intelligent things \[laughs\]. So it really stuck with me.” **“See You There” (with Riley Biederer)** “That song says, ‘You’re not here anymore and I’m so used to you being here, and I can’t not dream about you. Every time I close my eyes, you’re there.’ When you wake up you’re so sad that it was a dream, but at least you got to see them there. It’s such a beautiful way of saying I miss you.” **“Afterlife”** “I wanted to end the album on something that was really feel-good. It reminds me of Stevie \[Wonder\]; that melody steers me towards Stevie. The bounce of that chorus almost hits you by surprise and it just feels so good.”