In Case You Missed It! This One's Worth Another Look! - PAPA | PEET — 'Supreme’

It's a great groove that gets under your skin before you've had a chance to work out exactly what's going on.

A bit of funk, some blues guitar, a voice that sounds like it's lived a few lives, and suddenly you're listening to something that feels familiar but doesn't quite fit into any particular musical category. That's pretty much where Western Australian duo PAPA | PEET find themselves with ‘Supreme’, a track that brings together the swagger of classic soul, the rawness of the blues and a willingness to take the music somewhere unexpected.

For anyone who grew up listening to Sly & the Family Stone, there's an immediate connection in the rhythm and feel of the song. It has that loose, infectious funk that makes it almost impossible to sit still, but there's plenty more happening beneath the surface. The chord changes take some interesting turns, slide guitar moves in and around the vocal, and the whole thing has a sense of musicians enjoying the freedom to follow an idea rather than worrying too much about where it might fit on a playlist.

PAPA | PEET are guitarist, songwriter and producer Jules Peet and vocalist Tony Papa-Adams, two musicians who have been making their presence felt on the Perth music scene since coming together in early 2024. Both previously played in Old Blood, while Peet's musical history also includes Sad King Billy and The Southern River Band. Between them, they've developed a sound that draws from Southern soul, Delta blues, funk and the heavier edges of blues-rock, without feeling particularly obliged to stay within the boundaries of any of them.

On ‘Supreme’, that approach is there from the opening bars. Papa-Adams has the sort of voice that can move from a whisper to a full-throated roar without losing its character, while Peet's slide guitar almost becomes a second vocalist, answering phrases, filling the spaces and occasionally pushing the song in a different direction. There's a natural conversation between the two, something that comes from musicians who understand each other's instincts and know when to step forward and when to leave a little room.

The song itself explores an idea that probably feels familiar to anyone who's spent much of their life chasing something. Whether it's success, a dream, the perfect sound or simply a better version of whatever you're doing, there's always the temptation to believe the next achievement will be the one that finally makes everything fall into place. ‘Supreme’ asks what happens when that pursuit becomes so consuming that you stop noticing the good things already around you.

It's an interesting thought to wrap inside such an upbeat piece of music. The groove carries you along, but underneath it there's a quieter reflection on ambition and the possibility that what we're looking for might already be sitting right in front of us.

Peet wrote and produced the track at his own studio, combining live performances with multitrack recording to create something that retains the character of musicians actually playing their instruments. There's an organic quality to the recording, with enough space for the little imperfections and unexpected moments that often give music its personality.

It's a refreshing approach at a time when so much recorded music can feel polished to the point of losing its edges. The beauty of blues and soul has always been in the feel, those small variations in timing, the way a singer leans into a phrase or a guitarist lets a note hang just a little longer than expected. You can't always explain why those moments work, but you certainly notice when they're missing.

One of the most revealing parts of ‘Supreme’ comes towards the end, when the full arrangement falls away and the listener is taken back towards the simplicity of the original acoustic guitar and vocal demo that Peet and Papa-Adams recorded together. It's a clever way to finish the song, stripping away the production and allowing the original idea to speak for itself.

There's also an interesting story behind the finished mix, one that began with the duo's previous single, ‘U Came Up’.

Peet had produced and mixed that recording himself after completing the ‘Mixer Brain’ course developed by Grammy Award-winning engineer Jeff Ellis, whose credits include Frank Ocean, Joji and Doja Cat. It was Peet's first complete mix following the course, and the result caught Ellis's attention.

Ellis was sufficiently impressed to share the track with his own audience, describing it as ‘a masterclass’ and adding, ‘you won't hear songs this good coming out of Nashville’.

That's quite an endorsement for a couple of musicians working out of Western Australia, but the connection didn't end there.

Several months later, Ellis reached out and offered to mix their next single. Working remotely from his ranch in Patagonia, he and Peet exchanged ideas before Ellis took the recording and brought his own approach to the final sound.

The result is a record that retains the raw character of PAPA | PEET while introducing some unexpected sonic details. There's a modern quality to the mix, but it never overwhelms the musicianship or takes away from the song's blues and soul foundations. Instead, it gives the different elements room to move, allowing the dynamics of the performance to become part of the listening experience.

For a duo who have built their reputation on the interaction between guitar and voice, that's an important distinction. The production adds another dimension without losing sight of what makes the music work in the first place.

‘Supreme’ also marks the beginning of a new relationship with Cheatin' Hearts Records, becoming PAPA | PEET's first release through the label.

Founder Luke Woods was drawn to the way the duo brought together familiar musical influences while creating something that sounded distinctly their own.

‘We were floored the first time we heard PAPA | PEET’, Woods says. ‘It was our favourite genres coming together in a haze of gritty blues and soul that sounded unlike anything we had heard coming out of Australia’.

It's not difficult to understand the attraction. While plenty of contemporary artists draw on vintage soul and blues, fewer manage to capture the spirit of that music without sounding as though they're simply recreating somebody else's records. PAPA | PEET clearly understand where their influences come from, but they're equally interested in seeing where those sounds can go.

That attitude has been central to the duo's development since they first started playing together.

Much of their early identity was forged through regular Sunday night performances at Honky Tonk Blues in Fremantle, where they worked on their songs and live sound throughout 2024 and 2025, often playing until midnight. There's no real substitute for that sort of experience. Playing regularly in front of an audience gives musicians the opportunity to stretch songs, try different arrangements and discover what works when there's no studio safety net.

It's also where a band develops its own musical language, the small gestures and instincts that allow players to change direction without having to stop and discuss it.

Those Fremantle nights helped establish PAPA | PEET as a formidable live act, and the music has since travelled well beyond the local blues scene. Festival appearances at Metricup Beerfarm, Fremantle's Hidden Treasures and Wave Rock Weekender have introduced them to new audiences, while their support slot with Theo Katzman of Vulfpeck on his first Australian solo tour in 2025 provided another opportunity to bring their music to a wider crowd.

The recordings have been finding their own audience too.

Their debut single, ‘Goin' Crazy’, has passed one million streams, while follow-up tracks ‘Romely’ and ‘The Love Endeavour’ found their way onto Spotify's Blues Roots and Chilled Roots editorial playlists. Across their catalogue, the duo have accumulated more than two million streams, with their monthly Spotify audience reaching more than 100,000 listeners at its peak in 2025.

Those numbers are encouraging, particularly for an independent Australian act working in music that doesn't necessarily follow mainstream trends. But what's more interesting is the way PAPA | PEET have built that audience by developing a sound with a strong identity rather than trying to make every song fit an established formula.

There's a bit of Southern soul in there, some swampy blues, a touch of desert rock and enough funk to keep things moving. At times, the music feels like it could have come out of an old American recording studio, while at others there's a contemporary edge that makes it difficult to pin down to any particular era.

And perhaps that's the point.

The best blues and soul music has never been about following a set of rules. It's about taking the sounds that came before, understanding what made them special and finding a way to make them speak to the present. Whether it's the guitar playing of the old Delta bluesmen, the rhythmic invention of Sly & the Family Stone or the raw energy of a great live band, those influences are there to be explored rather than simply reproduced.

PAPA | PEET seem to understand that instinctively.

With an album on the way, the duo are continuing to develop a sound that moves freely between genres, taking familiar musical ingredients and finding new ways to put them together.

For now, ‘Supreme’ offers a pretty good indication of where they're heading. It's funky, soulful, a little unpredictable and full of the sort of musical interaction that makes you want to turn it up and listen again.

And for a song that questions whether we're sometimes too busy chasing the next big thing to appreciate what's already in front of us, there's a certain irony in the fact that its greatest strength is something remarkably simple.

Two musicians, a good song and the freedom to let the music find its own way.

If you missed PAPA | PEET the first time around, ‘Supreme’ is well worth another listen.