The Goon Sax

Brisbane-based threesome the Goon Sax deliver songs marked by raw candor and occasional unease, always propelled by unfiltered emotion. While still attending high school the group tracked their first full-length, Up to Anything, issued in 2016 on Chapter Music; the set delivered guileless indie-pop buoyancy and the standout track “Boyfriend.” Following graduation and extensive international roadwork, the follow-up We’re Not Talking broadened the palette with strings and refined studio craft, and the third album, Mirror II, ventured into noise-rock and synth-pop territory with greater sonic and thematic maturity.

High-school friends James Harrison and Louis Forster—son of the Go-Betweens’ Robert Forster—began writing together in Harrison’s bedroom before enlisting Riley Jones, who had taken drumming lessons for only a month. The lineup soon performed at house parties, then clubs alongside kindred acts the Twerps and Blank Realm. Chapter Music signed them; “Sometimes Accidentally” appeared in September 2015 and “Boyfriend” arrived two months afterward. Early 2016 brought a Laneway Festival slot in Brisbane, and the debut album, produced by Liam Campbell and Andre Johansson-Walder, surfaced shortly thereafter. Critical approval enabled two North American and European tours supporting Whitney and Teenage Fanclub, all while the members completed their studies. The songs that became We’re Not Talking reflected this added perspective, aided by producers Cameron Bird and James Cecil of Architecture in Helsinki; Jones contributed lead vocals for the first time. The record emerged in September 2018 via Chapter Music and Wichita Recordings, prompting another global trek.

Upon returning, Forster moved to Berlin while Jones and Harrison formed the post-punk outfit Soot. Forster’s German sojourn lasted a year; once back, the three shared a house and resumed writing. Drawing from Kylie Minogue, Keiji Haino, Royal Trux, and Syd Barrett, and with Jones supplying songs for the first time, they tracked Mirror II at Bristol’s Invada Studios under John Parish. The sessions embraced a freewheeling ’90s ethos of sonic experimentation, yielding the band’s most daring work to date. Chapter Music and Matador co-released the album in July 2021.