![\"Kayla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/8c115ae7ce966009121f78346f9081b2fa2155d8db17a27ec86aa7bafbd296bf.png\")
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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Endless media interviews this week are not how seven-year-old Miles Phillips knows he has written a hit \u2013 it\u2019s the fact his primary school is using his song Eastern Rosellas as this week\u2019s bell sound.<\/p>\n The catchy, viral song about a colourful bird Miles saw while on holiday to Raymond Island in Victoria\u2019s Gippsland region \u2013 a tune his dad, Joel, says, \u201cburrows deep into the brain\u201d \u2013 has accrued well over a million views on social media since it was uploaded on July 15 and added to ABC\u2019s Triple J Unearthed rotation.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was at Raymond Island, and I was feeding the birds seed on the veranda, and birds just came along. There were pigeons, there were rosellas, there were lorikeets. But the one bird that stood out to me was the eastern rosella,\u201d Miles says.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I was feeding the birds seed, I came up with a catchy chorus, and Dad and I started workshopping on it, and we made it into a song.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel originally uploaded Miles\u2019 track on Spotify for family and friends to listen to. They soon encouraged the father-son duo to create a music video and post it online, and so in their Sydney backyard, with Joel on keys and Miles on the vocals, the hit \u201cFull Band Version\u201d was conceived.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just grew into that,\u201d Joel says, himself a former ABC 3 TV presenter. \u201cThere is just so much love for the rosellas song and for Miles\u2019 style and rizz and how he sings that song \u2026 I think the coolest part, which he\u2019s a little bit oblivious to, is how much it means to so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n Joel says his other three children are musical too, each playing a different instrument and creating songs of their own. All four children carry small MP3 players for when inspiration strikes, and they can record a song, tune or line they\u2019ve thought of.<\/p>\n \u201cWriting a song is a very normal thing for people to do in our family. We love to sing about whatever we\u2019re doing,\u201d Joel says.<\/p>\n Miles is even more ambitious.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m creating a family band,\u201d he says, listing the musical talents of his siblings. \u201cWe all play music \u2013 I play drums. Jesse plays guitar. Dad can play piano \u2026 Saige is bass. Phoebe is singing.\u201d<\/p>\n When Australian musician Ben Lee was first sent Miles and Joel\u2019s song, he thought it would be like any other quirky video. But as soon as he heard Eastern Rosellas, he thought \u201cthis is up my alley,\u201d and uploaded a cover of it with Sam Cromack of Ball Park Music on Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cEastern Rosellas \u2013 it\u2019s an example of outsider art,\u201d Lee says. \u201cThere\u2019s a long tradition of artists who are basically self-taught and outside the mainstream, and through their innocence and naivety, they just bring a fresh perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this case, it\u2019s also a reminder of our childhood and love of nature through a child\u2019s eye \u2026 we\u2019re just living in such a cynical world in terms of the corporatising effect on music and on culture, that when something innocent and really joyous cuts through, it\u2019s just like it\u2019s a punch in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee and Cromack are among the Australian musicians, including Meg Washington and the Teeny Tiny Stevies, who have also covered Miles\u2019 song.<\/p>\n Yet despite Eastern Rosellas having its spotlight moment, Miles isn\u2019t settling on being a one-hit wonder. In fact, he\u2019s already writing his next one.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m creating the song called The Rock of Doom, and it\u2019s really good,\u201d Miles says before launching into the song\u2019s chorus and explaining where he finds inspiration.<\/p>\n \u201cI listen to rock and pop \u2026 [and] my second favourite movie is School of Rock. That [exposed me] to AC\/DC, Jack Black and also musicals, especially Back to the Future.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I love the music that my dad and my uncle make.\u201d<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Joel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/675ca9b6d4c2edc39e932edecfac2b34c207979b.jpeg\")
Joel and Miles Phillips, Eastern Rosellas father-son duo. Steven Siewert<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/aeba2cc0e2259803a7b7d10962035a473c2e26b8.jpeg\")
An Eastern Rosella, the inspiration behind the hit song. Sharon McCarthy<\/p>\n![\"Kayla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/8c115ae7ce966009121f78346f9081b2fa2155d8db17a27ec86aa7bafbd296bf.png\")
Kayla Olaya<\/a> is a culture reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824046,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-824045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}