Skegss

Skegss emerged from Australia as purveyors of an engagingly rough-hewn sound that fuses upbeat energy with surf textures and garage-rock proximity. Their initial tracks and energetic stage presence quickly secured a contract in 2015 via the Warner-linked Ratbag imprint. A string of energetic releases, among them the EPs 50 Push Ups for a Dollar and Holiday Food, built them a countrywide following before their comparatively restrained 2018 debut album My Own Mess reached number two on the ARIA charts. On the 2021 successor Rehearsal the group shed the last traces of garage-rock cheekiness in exchange for mature rock confidence, whereas 2024’s Pacific Highway Music reduced studio gloss while heightening the emotional intensity.

The quartet came together in 2013 in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia. School-age companions Jonny Lani on drums and Ben Reed handling vocals and guitar resumed contact and started performing locally as a pair until Noa Deane on guitar and Toby Cregan on bass completed the lineup. During 2014 the four-piece issued their earliest singles “L.S.D.” and “Rock ’n’ Roll Radio,” yet the next year Deane opted to exit in pursuit of his surfing ambitions. The remaining members carried on as a trio and secured a deal with Dune Rats’ Ratbag Records in 2015. That imprint put out Skegss’ first EP, 50 Push Ups for a Dollar, in October of the same year, and the release climbed to number four on the ARIA Albums chart. Beyond its solid chart placement the band drew media attention after claiming that hip-hop artists Reese and Lil Yachty had copied their artwork for the “Do It” collaboration. Instead of moving straight to a full-length project Skegss stayed with the EP format, issuing Everyone Is Good at Something in 2016 and Holiday Food in 2017, the two later merged into a single compilation. Holiday Food contained the track “Got on My Skateboard,” which received a video starring comedian Aaron Gocs.

Following five busy years of singles and EPs, Skegss delivered their first album My Own Mess in 2018, a fifteen-song survey of their strengths that reached number two on the charts and brought a Best Rock Album nomination at the 2019 ARIA Music Awards. Their contribution that year was limited to a cover of Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man” recorded for Triple J’s Like a Version series, but 2020 saw the arrival of advance singles “Fantasising” and “Under the Thunder” from the next album. The sophomore effort Rehearsal appeared with the band reduced to a trio after Deane’s departure, was produced by Catherine Marks (PJ Harvey, the Killers) for a larger and more refined sound, arrived in March 2021 as their introduction on the Loma Vista label, became their first Australian chart-topper, and earned them a Coachella appearance plus an extensive U.S. tour. Upon returning home the group shrank further when bassist Cregan departed following his final performance at the Splendour in the Grass festival in April 2023. Reed and Lani, now a duo, regrouped to make the third album, beginning with demo sessions at a Joshua Tree studio before continuing in two Los Angeles facilities alongside producer Paul Butler. The finished Pacific Highway Music presents a leaner, more laid-back California-inflected tone while retaining the band’s loose and playful rock & roll character, and it was released in October 2024.