Tasmanian quartet Luca Brasi emerged from the small coastal community of Scamander at the close of 2009, when Tyler Richardson on lead vocals and bass, Thomas Busby on guitar, Mitchell Dobson on guitar, and Saxon Hall on drums adopted the name of a character from Mario Puzo’s The Godfather. Their opening recording, the demo Sleeps with the Fishes, appeared the next year. Drawing from Hot Water Music, Screamfeeder, Polar Bear Club, and Small Brown Bike, the post-hardcore and emo-inflected approach of their debut full-length, Extended Family, released in 2011 by Melbourne’s Poison City Records, attracted attention. A few months afterward Patrick Marshall joined on guitar to expand the arrangements; the expanded lineup then embarked on nationwide Australian dates in 2012, supported Heroes for Hire, and issued the single “Tassie.” By late 2013 Dobson and Hall had departed, prompting Danny Flood to take over drums and restoring the group to a four-piece.
Poison City issued the follow-up By a Thread in 2014, after which increased radio and online exposure led to performances in Europe and Asia. The Loose Threads EP arrived in 2015, gathering material that had not fit on the previous album, and the band again crossed Australia, this time alongside the U.K.’s Gnarwolves and fellow Australians Tired Lion. Their third album, If This Is All We’re Going to Be, surfaced in 2016 and marked their initial entry on the ARIA charts. Produced by Jimmy Balderston and Brian McTernan (Converge, Hot Water Music), the record moved toward a denser, more melodic palette than the earlier nervy, unpolished punk. The following year the musicians returned to Balderston’s studio to begin work on album number four, enlisting Kisschasy’s Darren Cordeaux—previously a touring companion—for additional guidance and final mixes. Released in 2018, Stay extended their evolution with candid, emotionally direct alt-punk songwriting that drew widespread praise and placed the album inside the ARIA Top Ten.
