Five Years Ago Today, SOFI TUKKER and John Summit Released “Sun Came Up”

Five years ago today, on September 2, 2021, SOFI TUKKER and John Summit released “Sun Came Up,” marking the first time the artists joined forces on an original track. Released through Ultra Records, the song arrived during a very particular moment for dance music: clubs and festivals were beginning to return after a period in which the idea of dancing together until sunrise had suddenly become something people could only remember.

That feeling became the foundation of the record. SOFI TUKKER wrote the song while deep in quarantine, when nightlife had effectively disappeared and much of the world was still isolated. Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern have explained that they were thinking about being with friends again, dancing together and watching the sun come up after a long night. The track was built around that memory, but also around the hope of experiencing it again.

The collaboration with John Summit, however, wasn't part of the song from the beginning.

SOFI TUKKER had already created a full demo of “Sun Came Up” and had been sitting on it for some time without knowing exactly where to take it. Meanwhile, their connection with Summit had been developing online. During the pandemic, SOFI TUKKER became known for their frequent livestream DJ sets, where they regularly played Summit's music. The artists eventually started talking through Instagram, despite never having actually met in person.

That conversation gave the unfinished record a new direction. SOFI TUKKER sent Summit the demo, and rather than rebuilding the song from scratch, he helped push what was already there toward its final form. Tucker later described the process simply: they had the demo, didn't know what to do with it, sent it to Summit, and he took it the final step.

It was also an unusual opportunity for Summit at that point in his career. Coming off the momentum of his breakout in the house and tech-house world, he had become closely associated with club-focused records. SOFI TUKKER wanted some of that energy without losing the songwriting and atmosphere that defined their own music. Summit later said that when the duo approached him about bringing his club-focused sound into their songwriting, the combination produced something unlike his usual releases.

You can hear that meeting of styles throughout “Sun Came Up.” Sophie's airy vocal sits over Spanish-inspired guitar work while the production gradually moves into a rolling house groove. Instead of sounding entirely like a SOFI TUKKER record or entirely like a John Summit club track, it lands somewhere between the two — melodic enough to exist outside the dancefloor while still being designed around it.

That crossover became especially meaningful for Summit. Later in 2021, he named “Sun Came Up” as one of the accomplishments he was most proud of that year. After being known primarily for club-ready tech-house, he wanted to prove he could make records capable of living beyond clubs and festivals. Then he unexpectedly heard “Sun Came Up” playing inside a Target store, and later at a gym — exactly the kind of reach he had been hoping to achieve.

The song would eventually find another home as well. When SOFI TUKKER assembled their second album, WET TENNIS, “Sun Came Up” wasn't initially supposed to be part of it. The duo went through several versions of the tracklist before realizing the song belonged in the larger story of the project. Because it had been written during the same period as much of the album, it ultimately became track seven when WET TENNIS arrived in 2022.

Looking back five years later, the timing is what gives “Sun Came Up” much of its story. It was created while dancefloors were empty, through a relationship that largely developed online, between artists who hadn't even met in person when they began working together.

And at the center of it all was a very simple idea: remembering what it felt like to dance with other people until daylight — and believing that eventually, they would be able to do it again.

On September 2, 2021, that idea became “Sun Came Up.”