“We've always made music that we think is really kind of nostalgic and evokes reminiscent sort of feelings”: HighSchool on their debut self-titled album, creative restlessness and leaning into emotion

HighSchool.

Interview by Jordan Royal

HighSchool recently release their self-titled debut album, a project they describe as a return to the band’s original concept. Written and recorded between London, East Sussex, Melbourne and Tokyo, the album captures the highs, lows, and nostalgia that have become core to their sound. From layered guitar tones to their signature mix of melancholy and warmth, it’s a record shaped as much by place as it is by instinct. Working with producers Ben Hillier and Finn Billingham, HighSchool push deeper into their shoegaze–new wave-post-punk hybrid, crafting something expansive yet intimate - a reflection of the places and moments that formed it.

Jordan recently sat down with Rory and Luke to chat about the emotion-driven intent behind the record, the art of knowing when a song is actually finished and the visual world that accompanies the music. Read the full chat below.

Interview aired on Sonic Alien 4ZZZ on 5 November 2025.

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Jordan: I'm chatting with Rory and Luke from HighSchool for their self-titled debut album that drops October 31st. Thank you guys so much for making the time. Huge congrats on the debut. It's spectacular. I mean, you said that it felt like a return to the original concept of the band and there's such sonic intent behind it. I feel like every layer is sort of like 3D. It holds its own space. The guitar tones are wild. What was your vision for how this album should sound and what did you want to capture or explore that made it feel like a return to like the core idea of the band for you?

Rory: Thank you, by the way, that’s really lovely to say you like all the guitar tones. We've always made music that we think is really kind of nostalgic and evokes reminiscent sort of feelings. And I guess that's what we wanted to do on this album just make it as emotional as possible in a positive way and in a sad way as well. So, yeah, that was kind of the key thing for us writing, just trying to push melodies that evoke those feelings. I feel like that's what we did initially as a band. So yeah, this was just a longer version of that basically.

Jordan: That sense of nostalgia definitely comes through even in your visuals, which we'll get into later. But you've also mentioned that Sony Ericsson was one of the first songs written but one of the last to be finished and that you almost sort of let it go before it clicked. So, did that process of rewriting and recalibrating, is that how some of the other songs in the album came together as well? Or was that one more isolated in how it came together and what it taught you about like maybe patience and sitting with something?

Rory: I think that happens a lot for us, and often we find ourselves not knowing when to call it, being like, oh, we overwork things occasionally. But every now and then, you know, like what happened with “Sony Ericsson,” we just kind of kept pushing it, and then eventually something really new and interesting came out. We already really liked the song, but we knew that it kind of had legs to be something a bit bigger and a bit more interesting, I guess. We're constantly trying to rework things and often go right down to the wire with delivering, which our label aren’t always stoked about. But definitely, yeah, we're always trying to push and get the best thing we can out of a track. 

Luke: Patience is virtue in the songwriting game. No doubt about that, but you gotta know when to call it. Yeah, that's the hard thing about making art, I guess. 

Rory: It's hard to call something final and listen to it and be like, oh, that's done now. And that's kind of the scariest moment. You know, when something's only 50–60% done, it's open ended. Once it's done and mastered and printed, it's a lot scarier but also good. 

Jordan: Yeah, I can imagine like songs that have been with you for a while too. It'd be so hard to put them down and like step away and go, it's done now, it's finished. I can stop tinkering away with it and I can just let it be.

Rory: We often get so obsessed with the demo, for instance. We do a demo, and then you record it in the studio it’s just not the same. And it takes you a long time to get used to that new version. 

Jordan: I feel like it's a common thread of like tinkering away at something and listening back to the demo and going, wait, I kind of like that better. And then going back to the demo.

Luke: Yeah, that happens to us a lot.

Jordan: But you guys just came off a stint living in London, which I feel like would have been really creatively enriching being a part of that like incredible music scene. I feel like your music sits very within that scene as well. Did your time in London shape how the album came together in any way, whether that's in the sounds or the writing or recording process?

Rory: Definitely. I think a lot of the brokenness of living in London sort of worked its way into the sadness of the album. Life living off meal deals and Greggs that’s what the sound, that’s how your albums end up sounding. If we did it in, like, Byron or the coast of France or Brisbane or Marseille, we would have come out with some yacht rock, something very different. 

London is an amazing city and there’s obviously so much going on there, and it's an incredibly inspiring place to live. But yeah, it's definitely a grind. And I think that kind of angst comes out in the tracks, which is good. You want to utilise that. That's the reason we left Melbourne initially we felt a little bit complacent here and maybe it was a bit safe, a bit easy. But I would recommend it to anyone: go move, try to step out of your comfort zone, and see what comes of it.

Jordan: Yeah, for sure. And it's really funny that you mentioned like if these songs were written in Byron, I was like, oh, I wonder what that remix would sound like. 

Rory: We'd be making like 60s revival surf music. 

Jordan: But it sort of takes me to my next question, though, is it was recorded between London, East Sussex and Melbourne. And I think that environment really influences music and they have completely different atmospheres and energies. How is working, like recording across these different times and then also different places, did it change how you guys recorded anything of that process?

Rory: Well, I think each place offered a different thing. I think a lot of the writing was done in Camberwell in London, at a studio that our mate owns that we were working out of a lot. And then the recording happened mainly in Lewes, which is kind of near Brighton, quite close to Brighton. And that was like a farm basically. So, it allowed us to take all of that energy and be in a really calm, serene, pretty isolated place and focus on recording. But yeah, we were kind of bringing the focus right around with us everywhere. Even when we were in Japan a couple of months ago, we were doing some pickups on one of the tracks, recording backing vocals in this tiny little rehearsal space. So, we're pretty open to recording bits and pieces on the road. I actually think the last bits of the album were recorded in Tokyo. 

Luke: Yeah, the very last bits before the show. But I feel like the bulk of it was done in East Sussex, in Lewes. Then we took it back to London and did some other stuff. But yeah, most of it was recorded with Ben Hillier in Lewes.

Jordan: Oh, true. That's sick. I heard you guys talking about how much you love Japan. I think you said it was one of your favourite places to tour or something like that. So that's so fitting that like the final pieces came together in that space but, also so cool, like going out to a farm and sort of just being isolated and getting to sit with it and really be like in the moment and not worry about studio time or like whatever.

But you mentioned it in your answer, like massive shout out to who you guys worked with, incredible producers across the album. Ben Hillier, who's worked with Blur and Depeche Mode and then Finn Billingham, who's worked with R.I.P. Magic and Sunken. So meticulous in its construction and it really came through. It sounds like incredible. How was working with them? Were there any particular ideas or production moments that they brought in that like really brought in something new for you or changed how you saw the songs?

Rory: I think they both offered pretty different roles, but they were both really integral. Finn’s got his ear very close to the ground he's a young London up and coming producer. And Ben is kind of like this godfather of New Wave. Like you said, he's worked with Depeche Mode and a bunch of bands that we're pretty obsessed with. So, it was almost like Finn was a translator for us he could help relay what sort of thing we wanted to go for, what sound we wanted to bend, and Ben could execute that. 

Luke: Ben had the know how. He's insanely talented and knowledgeable about music production

Rory: Drum machines, and synths and stuff. We could be like, “Oh, this sound from this track is amazing,” and he'd work out a way to get something pretty close. 

Luke: He's got insane gear as well, and a really good studio. He's just done so many good records. He did Playing the Angel, which is my favourite Depeche Mode record. So yeah, it was sick to work with these two guys.

Jordan: That's so unreal. I can imagine it would have been like, whoa, getting to work with them and pick their brain about some stuff. But also it makes, I feel like you guys have really carved out your own little space in like shoegaze, new wave, post punk. So, it makes sense that there was like a mix of like maybe younger producer and an older producer to bridge those two gaps. 

But lyrically you guys, I mean, there's such a beautiful thread of like growing up in the modern world. You guys talk about nostalgia and uncertainty and the digital push of like digital age and connection and exploring those themes. And I feel like your songs draw on specific experiences and then flesh them out into broader feelings and emotions. So, do you find writing about specific experiences to be like liberating or help you move through something? Or is it more reflecting a time of your life?

Rory: I like it as a form of documentation for myself. And you hope you make something that people can resonate with in their own way. But yeah, if it's a specific experience, it's nice that it can have its own life in a song. And then every time you hear it, it brings back that, whether it's good or bad, the experience. I think it's a nice sentiment. But the lyrics have always been pretty secondary for us, I think. Definitely super important, but I feel like we've always placed a lot more importance on the feeling of the sound of the song, because I feel like that says a thousand words. You hear something; you don’t have to consider anything you just hear it, and it makes you feel a specific way. 

We've always kind of wanted to tell something through the song, and we do that sonically maybe more than lyrically. But if you can come up with good lyrics on top of that, I think it's great. Not that anyone can ever really hear what we're saying in our songs anyway. We often get criticised for the vocals being buried, but I don’t know maybe that's just a way of letting the music ring through a bit stronger. 

Jordan: I really like that aspect of your answer of like, I guess, music can say like a thousand more words than maybe lyrics can. So, letting the music shine through. 

But my last question for you guys before I let you go is that I know that visuals are really important to you and you guys are so considered in everything that you do. You guys come from a film background as well. And I think that the visuals in this one feel like such a perfect tie into the music. What inspired the visuals? Did you guys have any visual references or did you try and tie them into the imagery of the music in any way?

Luke: I think that everything that surrounds the music is of equal artistic value as the music itself. We don’t think of ourselves as just musicians, like everything else is outsourced or less important. We have a plethora of influence in terms of our aesthetic.  A lot of film. We love a lot of horror film. We love a lot of David Lynch films. And we're very interested in fashion. That’s a big influence visually. But yeah, it’s super important to us the aesthetic that surrounds the music. 

Rory: It gives you a second chance to promote that idea or that thought. If you've got a song that's a certain way, the visual gives you a second shot at it to push that further. And it's always a fun extra experience. As an artist, it's great to be able to like, I love being on set. We're very hands on with our vids and we produce and direct a lot of them ourselves. We collaborate with other people in Melbourne or London, and it's always just really fun. 

Being in the studio can be pretty, it’s great, but it’s sort of the same thing every day. Being able to be out on set and shoot stuff is a pretty good experience. The last video we did was very inspired by a lot of modern films, but we were trying to push this kind of middle-class American suburbia sadness, essentially. And we found a good part of Melbourne to do that. We shot a lot of it in Melbourne East, and it kind of worked as this perfect backdrop for the song. But yeah, really, really happy with how it came out.

Jordan: Yeah, hell yeah. It's something that I really respect about you guys is like not just the emphasis on the music but creating a world around it through visuals too. But thank you guys so much for your time. I really appreciate you taking the time to have a chat.

Luke and Rory: Thank you, Jordan. Thanks so much. 

Listen to HighSchool’s self-titled debut below.