Biography
Formed under the sway of Flying Nun’s jangle-pop era and stocked with players whose résumés already ran long, Melbourne’s Stroppies originated as a lo-fi bedroom endeavor. Their self-titled EP emerged on cassette in 2017 via Hobbies Galore; two years later the band cut its first proper album, Whoosh!, in a studio setting. On the 2022 follow-up Levity the group expanded its palette with additional keyboards while introducing a reflective tone and greater textural nuance.
In mid-2010s Melbourne, belonging to just one group marked a musician as unusually idle; most participated in two or more at once. The three musicians who launched the Stroppies in early 2016—Angus Lord, Stephanie Hughes, and Claudia Serfaty—were already committed elsewhere: Lord to Twerps and the Stevens, Hughes to Dick Diver and Blank Statements, and Serfaty likewise to Blank Statements. Drawn together by the notion of capturing songs straight to a Tascam four-track, they sketched seven tracks in quick succession. To introduce live drums they enlisted Rory Heane of White Walls, then enlisted Alex MacFarlane—also of Twerps and the Stevens—to oversee production. Overdubs shuttled between cassette and computer while personal commitments intervened; once finished, the songs were mastered by Mikey Young and issued on cassette in May 2017.
Following the tape’s appearance, guitarist Adam Hewitt of the No Real Need joined the lineup. U.K. label Tough Love, impressed by the recordings, re-pressed the EP on vinyl late that year. After the late-2017 single “It’s a Hit!,” the band—now without Hughes—moved on to a full-length record. Two days of basic tracking occurred in a studio before Zachary Schneider (Full Ugly, Totally Mild) joined the process of refining and augmenting the material at home. Whoosh! appeared on Tough Love in early 2019.
Extensive touring followed, including two European visits. Upon returning from the second trip, the remaining members began assembling new material from voice memos and laptop fragments collected on the road. They tracked the songs at home with producer Alex MacFarlane, resulting in the eight-song mini-album Look Alive, released in May 2020 without Hewitt and notable for its intimate, experimental character. Zoe Monk of Thibault subsequently entered on rhythm guitar and keyboards. Amid Melbourne’s stringent COVID restrictions the quartet exchanged files, experimenting with found sounds, tape loops, distortion, and an increased keyboard presence. Once able to convene in the studio they integrated these elements, yielding the darker, less buoyant Levity, issued by Tough Love in May 2022 shortly after the band’s return from a short U.K. tour supporting Paul Weller.
In mid-2010s Melbourne, belonging to just one group marked a musician as unusually idle; most participated in two or more at once. The three musicians who launched the Stroppies in early 2016—Angus Lord, Stephanie Hughes, and Claudia Serfaty—were already committed elsewhere: Lord to Twerps and the Stevens, Hughes to Dick Diver and Blank Statements, and Serfaty likewise to Blank Statements. Drawn together by the notion of capturing songs straight to a Tascam four-track, they sketched seven tracks in quick succession. To introduce live drums they enlisted Rory Heane of White Walls, then enlisted Alex MacFarlane—also of Twerps and the Stevens—to oversee production. Overdubs shuttled between cassette and computer while personal commitments intervened; once finished, the songs were mastered by Mikey Young and issued on cassette in May 2017.
Following the tape’s appearance, guitarist Adam Hewitt of the No Real Need joined the lineup. U.K. label Tough Love, impressed by the recordings, re-pressed the EP on vinyl late that year. After the late-2017 single “It’s a Hit!,” the band—now without Hughes—moved on to a full-length record. Two days of basic tracking occurred in a studio before Zachary Schneider (Full Ugly, Totally Mild) joined the process of refining and augmenting the material at home. Whoosh! appeared on Tough Love in early 2019.
Extensive touring followed, including two European visits. Upon returning from the second trip, the remaining members began assembling new material from voice memos and laptop fragments collected on the road. They tracked the songs at home with producer Alex MacFarlane, resulting in the eight-song mini-album Look Alive, released in May 2020 without Hewitt and notable for its intimate, experimental character. Zoe Monk of Thibault subsequently entered on rhythm guitar and keyboards. Amid Melbourne’s stringent COVID restrictions the quartet exchanged files, experimenting with found sounds, tape loops, distortion, and an increased keyboard presence. Once able to convene in the studio they integrated these elements, yielding the darker, less buoyant Levity, issued by Tough Love in May 2022 shortly after the band’s return from a short U.K. tour supporting Paul Weller.
Albums
Singles
