Sydney alternative rock group Stand Atlantic have had a massive year following the release of their album f.e.a.r in 2022, playing countless shows across the country and internationally. Currently, they’re on tour supporting Waterparks and have recently dropped their latest single, “Sex On The Beach”. I had the absolute joy of chatting with lead singer Bonnie Fraser about touring, new music and their upcoming appearance at Good Things Festival.
You guys have been super busy lately, you’ve recently put out a single and you’re on tour at the moment- how are the vibes in the band at the moment?
Vibes are high! We’re excited about the new song, I think its like super risky for us so that was fun because even though obviously we’ve tried to do, like, different stuff with everything we do and not be put in a box, but with this one we branched out quite a lot and people hate it, which is awesome. We’re like “Alright, cool.” We’re doing something good.
Fair enough! You recently did your regional co-headline tour with Slowly Slowly, personally I love regional tours and I think its great to see so many bands make their way to smaller towns and play these intimate shows, how does a regional tour compare to a capital cities tour for you guys?
They’re way looser! So that’s great. You get lots of drunk bozos which is always fun. I think the best way to describe is that they’re just looser, I don’t know how else to describe it. They’re great, I love to see it. It’s cute when you play a random regional town and people are just so happy that you’ve come, they’re like “no one ever comes to this place”… you just feel like you’re doing the Lord’s work.
How do you feel about the current state of the music coming out of the Aussie Alternative Music Scene at the moment, especially as a woman in such a male-dominated scene?
Um, ultimately I think its good! A lot of them are my friends, so I support them wholeheartedly. Everyone’s doing so good and doing something different. It’s sick, we recently took RedHook out on our tour to Europe and we did a couple of headline shows and they went down really well. I just think, like, people are starting to really get behind it. And I just think, like, up the chicks! What else can I say?
I love that! Now, you’re playing Good Things in a little over a week, I was chatting with Ben from Slowly Slowly earlier in the week and he mentioned how difficult they find it to put together a festival setlist- do you guys find that this is the case?
We just tried doing that the other day and all started yelling at each other so we had to put it to bed for a couple days. I think we settled on something cool, but yeah I 100% feel Ben on that. It’s so difficult, cause like, you’re torn between playing songs that you’ve played over and over and over again and you’re bored of playing them to be completely honest, and you wanna do something fresh or new or whatever. But then there’ll people that haven’t seen us before… and then there’s songs that are fan favourites that you know people would just hate you for not playing, so you kind of have to balance it a little bit. You have to give a little bit to yourself so you’re not just hating your job but also pleasing everyone at the end of the day so it is difficult.
Yeah, of course, I get that. Coming from a regional tour and having played some more intimate venues, how do you feel about stepping onto the stage at Good Things?
I’m so excited! We have some really interesting and fun things planned for the Sydney show that we’ve never ever done before so I’m hyped as fuck, it’s going to be so sick!
Yeah! That’s so good! Is there anyone you’re hoping to see if you’ve got time?
I’d love to see Fall Out Boy obviously, I saw them recently in Manchester but it was an arena show so I’d like to see the festival vibe. Our friends in PVRIS, obviously they just kill it every time. Royal, I’ve never seen Royal & The Serpent play. There’s a bunch!
Sounds like you’ll have a few busy days then!
Oh yeah!
You’ve just released your single “Sex on the Beach”, do you guys have anything else in the works right now?
Yeah, always! Always got stuff in the works. Can’t say too much, obviously but we’re a band and we put out music so I’m sure people can put two and two together, but right now we’re just focusing on the single which we’re super stoked on. So yeah.
Without giving too much away, do you guys have any idea where you’d like to take your sound from here?
All I’ll say is that “Sex on the Beach” doesn’t even give anyone any representation of what the rest of the stuff we’re writing is gonna be like. We’re still sticking to exactly the same shit we’ve always done which is experimenting with new stuff, and I know for a fact that the next bunch of songs we have are gonna be very live-focused. I think live they’re absolutely gonna rip. We’ve got the heaviest stuff we’ve ever written and the poppiest stuff we’ve ever written and the weirdest shit we’ve ever written, so yep. We’re in space.
Good Things kicks off in Melbourne next Friday, December 1st. With Brisbane fully sold out, Sydney at 95% capacity and Melbourne with less than 500 tickets left, this is sure to be one heck of a festival! With a stellar lineup featuring headliners Fall Out Boy, Limp Bizkit, Devo and a plethora of incredible Aussie bands including the impeccable Stand Atlantic, if you’ve been on the fence about grabbing tickets don’t waste another moment! Grab your tickets HERE before they sell out!
