Special Features on touring, friendship and new music

Kade and Special Features at Against The Grain.

Interview by Kade Homa

Magandjin/Brisbane’s Special Features are entering their busiest chapter yet. Ahead of taking the stage at Against The Grain, the band spoke with Kade about life on the road, the impact of "Che Guevara T-Shirt", experimenting with their sound, and what's next as they build towards their debut album.

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Kade: First of all, how have all of your days been?

Zac: So good. Yeah, no, we got here at like 12.30, right on doors. Saw Swapmeet and it was awesome. Good Boy was awesome. It’s been a great day, just been chilling, having a few drinks and watching bands and artists. It was sick eating nice food [from] Govindas as well yeah.

Jeremy: Yeah shout-out Govindas all vegetarian yeah that's good stuff.

Zac: How are you doing?

Kade: I'm good it's been a beautiful day today. Excellent event put on by Grain. A lot of wonderful bands, a lot of wonderful people here.

Zac: Yeah. Who are you most keen to see?

Kade: Well, I was actually most keen to see Swapmeet, but I've seen them now. And I was really excited for Hatchie as well. Way Dynamic. And then you guys, of course.

Zac: Hell yeah.

Kade: And really excited for Twine and Stereolab.

Zac: Actually so cut because our set finishes right when Twine’s set starts.

Jeremy: Yeah we're going to have to dump the gear and just, yeah, shoot off.

Kade: There's nothing stopping you from just like leaving the gear on stage [laughs].

Jeremy: Yeah they can just use our setup [laughs]. 

Kade: So, you've been playing shows and touring fairly consistently over the last couple of months, as well as having plenty more shows lined up for the rest of the year. Do you feel like touring or just playing shows in general, has brought you guys closer together as a band?

Jeremy: Yeah, 100%.

Zac: I reckon, yeah. I mean, we've been mates since high school as well, but I think touring is like seeing, our other side, you know, sometimes touring takes a mental and physical toll on people. There's been some moments of; there's been some hard moments, there's been some fun moments, and I think we've really seen how each other live from day to day.

Jeremy: For any band to make it, they need to drive in a car for 10 hours together. Like what we do when we've gone to Sydney, and it's like, fuck dude, like I'm grateful these are my band mates. 'Cause like, fuck if there were people I didn't like, it'd be so shit. Yeah, so I reckon it's brought us closer.

Kade: Yeah, for sure. Do you reckon that closeness has also extended into your creativity? Do you think touring together has made you guys more creative with one another?

Alex: Yeah, definitely. When you play in a different city, you just kind of don't know what to expect. And then sometimes it's not at all what you expect. I don't know, sometimes you've got to work through that if it's not really a good vibe. Which is fine, it's really fine. Like you go to a new city, nobody knows you, kind of feel like, damn, you've travelled all this way and I feel a bit bad about the set. But I think those times kind of bring you together, looking back, it's just like you need to have those days to lock in for the good days when you play a set you really kind of look back on and feel like, hell yeah. 

Kade: Nearly a month ago now it was the one year anniversary of Che Guevera T-Shirt so now that it's been out for over a year how is that reception sitting with you guys?

Jeremy: Yeah really good, really surprising. We were having like some long in-depth conversations about releasing Che just because like we're like, shit we're going to get shadowbanned and stuff. And being shadowbanned wouldn't stop us from speaking the truth whatsoever. But we just were so surprised that it did that well, we thought it was a great song. We still think it is, but we're like, damn, that's like hectic. That's like, holy shit. But I think in that time it was when Adrian Schrinner, the mayor for Brisbane, defunded the QMAs because they gave an award to a pro-Palestinian song. Yeah. And then our song came out like a month later and it's just like, damn, that song was written like at least a year and a half before that incident happened, but it was just so indicative of what just what is going on right now.

Especially with the genocide in Palestine yeah I think we're really happy with it. Definitely taking us some places where we're like wow that's crazy. Definitely encourages us to be even more experimental with our sound and probably a bit more vulnerable with our lyrics as well, on a whole other level. And I thought we already were before that so yeah which is cool.

Zac: It's always been a dream to tour Australia, and I feel like before we were in like the Brisbane music scene but now I feel like Che Guevara has kind of pushed us more into the Australian music scene which is cool. It's always been a dream so it's really awesome and we’re grateful to be involved in Australian music and Brisbane music as well.

Kade: Talking of releasing music, does 2026 have anything in store for you guys? 

Jeremy: Oh, yeah.

Zac: Dude, honestly, it's fucking crazy. We've got a really busy Q3 and Q4 coming up [laughs].

Karissa: Got a lot of target to hit [laughs] 

Zac: Yeah, got a lot of KPIs to hit [laughs]. Yeah, no, we got 3 new singles coming out this year, and we're doing an album next year as well. 

Jeremy: Whoa, whoa, whoa. 

Zac: But yeah, it's going to be awesome. Yeah, it's going to be really busy the next six months. It's going to be busy. So, you know, it's going to be fun and interesting and hopefully it goes well.

Jeremy: Yeah. Yeah. Plenty of stuff. Plenty to look forward to. Yeah.

Kade: Building on the bit about the singles that you have coming in the rest of the year, earlier you mentioned the experimentation. Do those songs expand on that?

Jeremy: Yeah, yeah, kind of. The song we're releasing next is like definitely another extension of Che, I feel. Yeah. Kind of exploring more of that noise rock kind of aspect, I think. 

Zac: We have a Christmas song.

Jeremy: We have a Christmas song. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to say. I couldn't get it out. We have a fucking Christmas song and it's wild. It's whimsical as hell, you know? And it's like completely different to what we're releasing.

Zac: Yeah.

Jeremy: So yeah, but I think that's cool. I think we're kind of like starting to find we're not too cool to just use a G major chord, you know?

Zac: The Christmas song was very like simple. G A D chord. It's very country, like How to Make Gravy kind of vibe and yeah hopefully we'll soundtrack some family's Christmas.

Jeremy: Hopefully we get a deal with Telstra you know, get a lot of money [laughs].

Zac: We'll get a snow globe [laughs].

Kade: Expanding on what you were saying about the experimentation. are there any genres that you guys haven't quite broached yet, but really want to in the future?

Alex: Zac yesterday said he wants to make a dance pop album after being inspired by LCD Soundsystem.

Zac: Yeah, actually Shmitt has been listening to a lot of LCD Soundsystem and I've never really given him a listen before, but Shmitt gave me some songs to listen to, and I've been loving it. At work the other day I was just bumping LCD Soundsystem and I was like fuck. We’re doing an album next year, but I think the album after that I really want to do like a dance noise rock album real like upbeat and dancey.

Jeremy: Honestly we could get into like a bit of boom bap. 

Zac: Some reggae?

Jeremy: There was one time I had like that old-school bassline, like rap baseline one time and Zac just spontaneously started rapping over it. So, I think there's some potential there. 

Kade: You thinking anything electronic?

Zac: Nah, I wouldn't; honestly I wouldn't do any electronic stuff.

Jeremy: Yeah, I get like the dancey shit to be honest I kind of like, you know Gut Health? You can move to that, and it's like also like hard as fuck as well, like that kind of thing. Maybe like some psych punk, slash dance shit you know?

Zac: I think we try and keep it to guitars, just like how we’ve usually been doing in a band setting. I don't think we'd add any electronic elements. We really like keeping it raw and recording everything live. So, I don't think we'd do anything electronic, but definitely more dancey, dancey rock. 

Alex: Maybe a bit of a stomp clap [laughs].

Jeremy: Yeah, we're trying to get into those millennial burger joints. Yeah, that are like 30 bucks for a burger.

Kade: You mentioned LCD Soundsystem there as someone that you’d want to build that dance pop album around. Who are the bands or artists you think you're building this current album around?

Karissa: So diverse.

Jeremy: So many, hey? Oh man. Like, I mean, like Good Boy. That's always the case for us, I feel.

Alex: I feel like a lot of up and coming artists too. I feel like a lot of artists I've been inspired by for the drums, have been local Australian acts.

Special Features at Against The Grain.

Jeremy: Yeah.

Alex: Like Way Dynamic, I think we've got this little kind of twangy song and I definitely think I was deep in Way Dynamic’s music when it was written. So I think, yeah, bit of them, bit of [Belair] Lip Bombs as well.

Jeremy: Yeah. Honestly, I think it's not necessarily been like artists, but just styles. Yeah. Like, even just for me personally, certain bass players, I'm like, I want to do that. We've got a few more like country twangy songs. Yeah. Like Ewan from Radium Dolls is so good at playing bass within that kind of realm as well. And I just listen to him like fuck yeah, I'm gonna do that kind of shit you know, like that's cool. So, I'd grab from that. Something we're gonna play tonight, it's just so Good Boy coded. So, I don't know, it's so diverse. 

Zac: I think we have a lot of more country songs on this new album, and I think I've been listening to a lot of Twine and Ricky Albeck and MJ Linderman and Wednesday. And I think kind of incorporating that alternative country, like grungy, noisy country music, I think is going to be really cool. That sound is definitely going to be evoked from this album.

Jeremy: Ooh good word, make sure you include the evokes.

Earlier in the day, over some lunch of Govindas, I had been talking to Jeremy about fun things to do with our interview later that day and he came up with the idea of some would you rather style questions.

Kade: All right, well, now moving on to the Would You Rathers. I've got 6 prepared.

Jeremy: Hit us. I'm so keen.

Kade: Would you rather have perfect sleep every night, but terrible gigs or amazing gigs, but the entire tour you're exhausted and mildly feral? 

Jeremy: Probably amazing gigs.

Zac: Amazing gigs and shit tour, yeah.

Jeremy: We sleep feral all the time, I feel. We’re always fucking either hungry, tired, or like hungover when we're on tour.

Kade: Or all three.

Jeremy: Or all, oh yeah.

Zac: I feel like the whole point of touring is to play shows, to show people your music. I feel like I'd want to play good shows but be fucked the whole tour.

Jeremy: You gotta suffer.

Zac: You gotta put in the work. You gotta put in the hard yards.

Kade: Well, on the topic of your album coming out next year would you rather that the album becomes a cult classic but only 12 people ever admit they actually like it or it goes mildly viral but everyone knows one lyric that's completely misquoted?

Jeremy: Ooh they're both kind of fun, aye?

Zac: I think I'd rather 12 people really like it I feel like. At the end of the day, you don't really make music to please people I feel like I make music to be true to myself and if people like that then they like it, if people don't like it then sure. I feel like I'd rather be true to myself and make music that I like and if only 12 people like it then I guess only 12 people like it, you know? As long as I like it, I think it's good.

Jeremy: Yeah, I'd probably go with that as well. Also, then you’re just niche as hell. You're like, hell yeah. I feel like there's so many bands in Brisbane as well where you're like, “damn, they're unreal” and all of your mates who also make music go “yeah they’re good as”, but then you go to the wider population, now everyone's like, “who the fuck are they?” And it's like, what? They're like the best band ever, you know?

Kade: Alex and Karissa, what do you think you guys would prefer?

Alex: Did you say the first one's a cult classic as well?

Kade: Yeah, I mean think as though it's really beloved, and it’s got a small but really die-hard fan base. As small as 12 people. Or the alternative is it goes viral, everyone's listening to it, but maybe there's a TikTok trend centred around one of the lyrics and it's completely misquoted. 

Karissa: Nah, I really don’t wanna be a TikTok band, hell no [laughs].

Jeremy: Nah, but we might make a lot of money though [laughs].

Kade:You can hit your KPIs. 

Jeremy: That's true, that’s true. 

Kade: So, this is about people reviewing your music. Would you rather only ever be reviewed by people who clearly do not understand the genre or your music at all, or never be reviewed at all, except for your mates who gas you up online anonymously?

Jeremy: [Laughs] It's surely gotta be the second one. I mean, the first one's good, like, the closest experience I can draw on to the first one is like watching people when we released Che, watching all these like bootlickers comment like “oh he was a bad guy”. It's like oh come on bro, like that's kind of funny because they're not even getting the song, I’m not necessarily backing that guy anyway. And that's kind of funny because that makes me laugh like I'm like ha, fucking idiot [laughs]. But then it's like, the second option is like oh hell yeah my mates are gassing me up. So yeah, I don't know. I'd probably go with the second one, but the first option would also be fun, I think, yeah.

Kade: On to the next one. I quite like this one. Would you rather accidentally become known as a super serious art rock band against your will, or forever be introduced to people as a fun little indie band when you're trying not to be?

Jeremy: Ooh shit. 

Kade: Like, here's this fun little indie band, they're gonna play Che Guevara T-Shirt.

Zac: I think a fun little indie band.

Jeremy: Yeah because then they’d hear us and be like, holy shit, what's that? 

Alex: We’d surprise people, yeah, yeah.

Zac: I wouldn't want to be a super serious; not that we don't take ourselves seriously, but I wouldn't want to be some super pretentious band that's thinks they’re better than everyone else. If we’re a little fun indie band, then fucking oath.

Karissa: I'd definitely rather be underhyped than overhyped directly, for sure.

Kade: Alright so on to the next one now. Would you rather your most streamed song is the one made in 10 minutes as a joke, or your proudest song is the one everyone skips and boos at shows?

Zac: Well, I mean, honestly, I think the most streamed song made in 10 minutes is the way it goes half the time.

Jeremy: Yeah, that is literally the way it goes.

Zac: Even Che Guevara was made in like, maybe 2 jam sessions, and I think that's where the best songs come out because they're really easy to write because everything flows really well and everyone's on the same wavelength. Then everyone's just at their peak when they're writing a song. That's how a song becomes a great song.

Jeremy:Even if you go back in deep into our discography with All the Flame, the first song we ever released, that was made in like one jam. Like, I mean, that song... we played that for years. But it's kind of cool to tell people it was made in 10 minutes.

Kade: And then the final one for you guys, going back to touring, would you rather the tour bus or whatever you're driving in absolute reeks like wet carpet the entire ride and  have the most blissful hotel ever, or would you rather, wherever you're staying, smells like a cat pissed on the carpet, but the car drive there is blissful?

Alex: We got to weigh up the hours we’re spending on each.

Kade: Let’s saying you’re going to Sydney, but you're not staying one night. You're staying multiple nights.

Zac: Honestly, I get really car sick. Very motion sick. I have to sit at the front of the car all the time or else I'll vomit. So, I feel like if I was in a tour bus that smelled really bad, it would make me feel really sick and I'd just get really car sick anyway, so I would hate that. So, I think I'd rather be in a car that smells, you know, really good and have a good time when you're driving and stay at a shitty place or something.

Jeremy: Honestly, we usually do the shit car and the shit place. Well, not the shit car, but like the car's like cramped, you know? Like Zac usually drives, he's got a nice car, it's really good, but like, there's like 5 guitars in the backseat and it's like, ugh. And then we go to a place and it's like, ugh. I don't know. Yeah, I'd probably go with the good place.

Zac: True, I'd go with the good bus.

Jeremy: Because then the sleeping is immaculate, you know?

Kade: Imagine you finish the show, you go back, the whole room smells like cat piss.

Jeremy: Yeah, nah, I can't do that.

Zac: Yeah, I think for me, just because I get car sick.

Jeremy: Yeah, that's really valid.

Zac: I think I would hate to be car sick in a place that smells really bad, you know?

Alex: Yeah, I'd go with good bus, I reckon? When I sit down and do nothing for a while, I get so agitated, and if there's a smell in there as well, I'm just like, fuck me, I need to get out.

Zac: But also, you don't have to spend the whole time in the room either. Like, you have to spend the whole time in the tour bus driving. When you get to the hotel, you can just go out and do shit But in the tour bus, you're kind of locked in. 

Jeremy: It's actually a really good point. I'm going to change my answer, actually. That's actually a really good point.

Alex: I’m sure I could sleep in there and be alright. Just put the windows down, the fan on.

Karissa: Yeah, I agree for sure.

Kade: All right, well, that was the last would you rather question that I had, but one last thing to wrap it up. You've got more music coming out this year, you've obviously got more shows, and then an album on the horizon. With all these things planned, what do you think you want to add to that list of upcoming things?

Karissa: Oh, I think I'd love to start a TikTok [laughs]

Jeremy: Honestly, I don't know. Actually, I'd love to like fucking play overseas.

Zac: Yeah, I was gonna say.

Jeremy: That'd just be unreal, like a Europe tour or something. Like, that'd just be a dream come true.

Zac: Yeah.

Jeremy: Like, Zac's dream is a tour of Australia, mine's Europe. 

Zac: You’re thinking more big picture stuff, yeah.

Jeremy: 'm a bit of a big picture guy, you know, yeah. Nah, but that'd be unreal. So yeah, something like that. Just playing in a different city is already kind of crazy, but playing in the most random place ever. That'd just be even cooler, I think.

Kade: Like a dive bar in Germany or something?

Zac: Yeah, dude, that'd be the sickest shit ever.

Jeremy: I feel like we already have so much fun on tour, and if we're in like, somewhere in Germany, it'd be so cool, would just be unreal.

Zac: Yeah, I've also heard, going back to the question about the smelly room [laughs], I've also heard, we played with DZ Deathrays a few months ago, and they had just come back from a Europe tour and apparently they were like staying in these really shitty hostels and hotels in Germany and they were just like the most fucking up places ever. And so yeah, I'd love to tour the world and stay in fucked up places, I reckon.

Jeremy: Yeah, staying in fucked up places, yeah. 

We were then suddenly and amazingly joined by Sarah from 01 Thurman, walking past the interview.

Zac: Do you want to say something in an interview? We’re doing an interview. Say hello! 

Kade: Owner of the best merch here today, by the way, the Playboi Carti shirt.

Sarah: I’ve crashed, but that’s all Josh. Shout out, Josh. Bass player from 01 Thurman here, and I just want to say I love Special Features so much, and they're the best. Sorry for crashing the interview!

Kade: Well, that’ll probably do it, thanks so much for the time guys.

Zac: Thanks for the questions.

Jeremy: Yeah thank you dude.

Karissa: Thank you tons.

Alex: It was really cool, thanks man.

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