Deaf Wish

Emerging from Australia with a raw, serrated attack that echoes 1980s punk and post-punk groups like Hüsker Dü, the Wipers, Sonic Youth, and the Scientists, Deaf Wish earned underground legend status at home through their visceral releases of the late 2000s. Lineup flux and repeated pauses mirrored the turbulence in their sound, yet a steadier and more refined incarnation surfaced with 2015's Pain and 2018's Lithium Zion, the latter marking their debut effort tracked inside a professional facility.

Deaf Wish came together in Melbourne during May 2007, with Sarah Hardiman and Jensen Tjhung handling guitars, Nick Pratt on bass, Daniel Twomey behind the drums, and vocals shared among all four. Two core rules shaped their approach from the outset: they felt no obligation to create lasting material, and when uncertain during a performance, feedback offered the clearest path forward. Guided by this outlook, they soon captured ten tracks for a self-released CD-R and performed a handful of concerts before Hardiman departed for the United Kingdom.

At first the remaining members viewed the split as a natural end, yet the homemade album kept circulating and the band's profile rose, prompting a 2008 return that bent their earlier stance; guitarist Pete Dickinson stepped in for Hardiman. Australian imprint Stained Circles partnered with the group, resulting in the 2009 release of Reality & Visions. Once touring for the album concluded, Deaf Wish dissolved once more after Pratt relocated to Perth and Dickinson exited. Several months later, however, Hardiman's visit to Melbourne prompted another reunion that produced 2010's Mercy, conceived at the time as a closing statement. In 2014 Hardiman settled back in Melbourne, leading the members to revive the project once again.

Sub Pop, the American indie label long attentive to Australia's underground, brought Deaf Wish aboard and issued the four-song EP St. Vincent in fall 2014, after which the band toured both Australia and the United States. August 2015 brought their first Sub Pop full-length, the succinctly named Pain. For the moodier and somewhat more refined Lithium Zion in 2018, Deaf Wish chose to work for the first time in an actual studio, Melbourne's Head Gap Recording.