“I don’t like doing stuff everyone’s doing,” Brett Ramson told Apple Music in 2025. He was referring to his decision to ditch the planned disco sound for that year’s album WINSTON, but the same simple line of logic has influenced his entire career as Winston Surfshirt. Leading the Sydney project, he has carved out his own unique path in Australian music by cherrypicking classic sounds from across decades rather than responding to prevailing winds. To that end, this music showcases not just Ramson’s silky keyboard grooves and soothing vocals, but also his intimate knowledge of pop, soul, R&B, rap, and, yes, disco. The band’s debut 2017 single “Be About You” paired Ramson’s ultra-chill romantic rapping with glittering G-funk synths—and came in at No. 27 on triple j’s Hottest 100—while the sunny horn sample in 2019’s “Smile” echoed the De La Soul classic “Eye Know.” Ramson plays well with others, too: In 2022 alone, he collaborated with the disparate likes of Genesis Owusu, DOPE LEMON, and Talib Kweli. And though he didn’t end up cosying up to disco on the fourth Winston Surfshirt album, he instead showed off his flair for turn-of-the-millennium R&B while mining both vintage soul and The Avalanches-style sample-delia on “Spend My Nights” and “Ice Cream.”