{"id":434176,"date":"2026-05-19T00:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434176\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T00:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T00:22:11","slug":"ecca-vandal-the-genre-defying-punk-rap-star-on-getting-offline-and-having-tea-with-flea-it-constantly-spins-me-out-australian-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434176\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecca Vandal, the genre-defying punk-rap star on getting offline and having tea with Flea: \u2018It constantly spins me out\u2019 | Australian music"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the first Friday in May, a procession of tattooed, pierced and mostly 20-something devotees crowded into a beers-and-burgers dive bar in Sydney\u2019s Newtown. What was originally billed as a listening party for Ecca Vandal\u2019s second album, Looking For People to Unfollow, had evolved into a surprise live set. Bounding onstage, Vandal was a blur of movement and brilliant blue hair, locking eyes with fans in the front row as she, alongside bassist Richie Buxton and drummer Dan Maio, tore through new material with garage-band intensity. Less than 24 hours later, the trio swapped the intimacy of Newtown for an arena where they opened for Interpol and Deftones.<\/p>\n

Despite the ease Vandal projects in rooms of any size, the pre-show jitters never disappear. \u201cIt\u2019s a very challenging set that we play \u2013 musically, physically and vocally,\u201d Vandal says. \u201cPlaying music people have never heard before is also a really big challenge. But those nerves just disappear when people are showing you love.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a lot of love coming Ecca Vandal\u2019s way of late, thanks to a run of standout singles including Cruising to Self Soothe and Bleed But Never Die. When I meet her at a busy Newtown cafe days after the two Deftones shows, she is still processing the long road to releasing an album she fully believes in. \u201cIt\u2019s about to come out in a few weeks, but it\u2019s been a journey of four years,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Those four years \u2013 during which Vandal went \u201ccompletely offline\u201d \u2013 began with a period of soul-searching after her 2017 self-titled album and guest spots with artists including Hilltop Hoods, Alice Ivy and Sampa The Great. While moving freely between genres in those years, she says, \u201cI had a lot of people saying, \u2018You\u2019ll be really successful if you just pick a lane.\u2019\u201d She decided instead to do what she wanted.<\/p>\n

Vandal began working on the new album in the Melbourne apartment she shared with Richie Buxton, her partner in both music and life. Making music in a tiny apartment, however, became untenable: \u201cI was trying to track really, really heavy vocals [and] we got knocks on our door going, \u2018Can you keep it down?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The pair decamped to Buxton\u2019s parents\u2019 house down the road and set up in a garage without an internet connection. \u201cWe were like kids again, messing around with instruments, trying things out,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t have to keep anyone in touch with what we were doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those intimate recording sessions found her \u201cthe most raw I\u2019ve ever been lyrically\u201d. Inspired by Buxton\u2019s beats and riffs, she channelled a tangle of her own emotions and experiences as a woman of colour against the backdrop of seismic world events such as the murder of George Floyd<\/a>. At the core of the album, she says, is a \u201csearch for true connection\u201d and \u201ctrying to fight against the faux-sincerity of the online world\u201d.<\/p>\n

Midway through the Newtown listening party, Vandal\u2019s manager stepped onstage to gently inform the room that the second half would shift away from rock and into more beat-driven territory. Vandal hopes fans will engage with the album as a whole. During the writing process, she says, she and Buxton \u201cwere noticing that the world was just so obsessed with 15-second snippets. To me, that was really uninspiring. I just wanted to celebrate long form again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking For People to Unfollow is also the strongest showcase yet of Ecca Vandal\u2019s richly textured, powerful voice, equally at home on hip-hop hooks and punk howls \u2013 a \u201cguttural and disordered\u201d register and \u201cthe complete opposite of, like, polish and refinement and beauty\u201d.<\/p>\n

The next step on Ecca Vandal\u2019s ascent came via a DM from Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who invited her and her band on tour in early 2025. \u201cFred is the most encouraging, supportive artist I think I\u2019ve ever come across,\u201d Vandal says with genuine affection. \u201cBecause he invited us out, we decided that we were going to leave Australia for that tour and take the risk.\u201d After vocal support from artists including Shirley Manson, SZA, Travis Barker and Paramore\u2019s Hayley Williams, Vandal made her Coachella debut in April. The whirl of validation has been a lot to take in: \u201cIt\u2019s constantly something that spins me out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Will I ever make money from music? It\u2019s a good question. I\u2019m still wondering that as well\u2019: Ecca Vandal. Photograph: Sean McDonald<\/p>\n

Born in South Africa after her parents fled the Sri Lankan civil war, Vandal\u2019s family eventually settled in Melbourne, where she recalls always being \u201cthe only Brown kid\u201d at school: \u201cIt was a constant search for, like, where did I fit in?\u201d She found a sense of belonging through music, going on to study jazz at the Victorian College of the Arts. While her parents enjoyed and appreciated music, she says they were perplexed by her decision to pursue it professionally. Were they perhaps concerned about her financial survival? \u201cThat\u2019s at the core of it. Like, will I ever make money from this?\u201d She laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s a good question. I\u2019m still wondering that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her Sri Lankan identity is subtly woven through her music, including a saree she wears amid a colourful array of outfit changes in the Bleed But Never Die video: \u201cI thought it was very beautiful, so I wanted to represent it in a way \u2013 just in front of a stack of Marshall amps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right now, Vandal lives mostly out of suitcases, with an occasional base in Los Angeles. Legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk, who loved the skating inspiration behind Cruising to Self Soothe, invited her to visit his private skate ramp in San Diego. Before she left, he gave her a board signed with a line inspired by the song: \u201cMoving up where we belong.\u201d That same week, she received a DM from Flea asking what she was up to that afternoon. \u201cSo I had tea with Flea at three o\u2019clock in Los Feliz,\u201d she says, clearly awed at the unreality of it all. It\u2019s a feeling she\u2019ll need to get used to.<\/p>\n

Ecca Vandal\u2019s songs to live by<\/p>\n

Each month we ask our headline act to share the songs that have accompanied them through love, life, lust and death.<\/p>\n

What was the best year for music, and what five songs prove it?<\/p>\n

1993. Oh My God \u2013 A Tribe Called Quest; Method Man \u2013 Wu-Tang Clan; My Name is Mud \u2013 Primus; 93 \u2018Til Infinity \u2013 Souls of Mischief; Serve the Servants \u2013 Nirvana<\/p>\n

What music do you clean the house to?<\/p>\n

Anything by Aphex Twin<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the song you wish you wrote?<\/p>\n

All I Need by Radiohead<\/p>\n

What is the last song you sang in the shower?<\/p>\n

Singin\u2019 in the Rain<\/p>\n

If your life was a movie, what would the opening credits song be?<\/p>\n

Bitch Better Have My Money<\/p>\n

What underrated song deserves classic status?<\/p>\n

Multi-Love by Unknown Mortal Orchestra<\/p>\n

What is a song you loved as a teenager?<\/p>\n

Bj\u00f6rk\u2019s Hyper-ballad. Still love it today<\/p>\n

What song do you want played at your funeral?<\/p>\n

Out of Time by Blur<\/p>\n

What is the best song to have sex to?<\/p>\n

Left & Right by D\u2019Angelo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the first Friday in May, a procession of tattooed, pierced and mostly 20-something devotees crowded into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-434176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}