Introducing Fishnet Sunburn…

Naarm based four piece Fishnet Sunburn was initially founded in Meanjin as a vehicle for singer-songwriter Carrie Henschell, formerly of country act Carrie and the Cut Snakes. After moving to Naarm, Carrie teamed up with Keith McDougall (of rave-rap crew Keith Party), multi-talented alt rock artist Ruby Boyce and shit-hot bassist Bridget Sloane to create a sound that ranges from tender balladry to ferocious feminist punk. Fishnet Sunburn make jangly upbeat songs about being sad and hauntingly sad songs about being in love. Storytelling that is equal parts confessional and confrontational. Dark country moments, alongside queer anthems straddling feminist punk rock rage. With live shows that blur tenderness and chaos, Fishnet Sunburn may pique your interest if you are a fan of The Cramps, Angel Olsen or Patti Smith.

Fishnet Sunburn is a gender-diverse Melbourne indie rock band with an eclectic set of songs exploring mental health, queer desire, smashing the patriarchy, and being different in a normative world. They embrace contradictions, combining surf-punk and country-rock with sax and synth, humour with feminist rage, and love songs with sadness. Showcasing song writing that is personal and political, powerful and vulnerable, calm and abrasive. Carrie Henschell talks to Rob Lyon about their new single Creep At The Nude Beach.

The lead‑up and the build‑up to your debut single must be so exciting seeing the hard work pay off?
Yeah, we’re really excited. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind getting it all happening.

Is it insane knowing how much work goes into just a single release alone?
I think being artists, we’re not really into the admin side of things, and having to… there’s so much planning to do, and it’s not always what’s of interest. That’s not why you get into being a musician, I guess.

It’s not like rocking up on a Saturday night to play in a pub and that’s it, go home. It’s quite involved these days.
I think it’s just a lot of little decisions to make. For example, we decided we don’t want to stream on Spotify, we don’t want to fund AI warfare. We don’t want to be part of that. So it’s all these little decisions you make as a band that take time and thought.

That’s a tough one, not going with streaming at all, hats off to you. Does that put greater emphasis on releasing something physical, like an EP on CD or a 7‑inch vinyl? Or are you looking at other ways to get the word out?
Yeah, we’re thinking about doing an album and releasing it on vinyl. My preference is… before I moved back to Melbourne, I had a record player, and I like to own the music myself. But now I move around a lot, so… yeah, I use QuotaBars, actually. It’s a different streaming platform that’s more ethical, and Ruby, our drummer, uses Tidal. There are other options out there. A friend of mine said if every independent artist they listened to wasn’t on Spotify, they’d consider using other platforms. So I think it’s about trying to be part of the change.

The debut single Creep at the Nude Beach is a killer first single. What’s the story behind it?
I wrote that song maybe two or three years ago when I was on holidays by myself. I went to a beach in Queensland, Alexandria Beach, it’s known as a nude beach. I love swimming naked, I’m all about being out in nature. I wrote it on the beach that day. It’s all true, just a true story. It was a way for me to process my anger in that moment. I came out for a nice time and there was someone sitting right next to me, walking up and down the beach fully clothed, staring me down. It was infuriating. I was not just angry but a little scared. I’ve always used song writing to process emotions, so I got my notebook out and wrote it there, and when I got back to my guitar, I finished writing it.

The songs on SoundCloud show a lot of light and shade, different sides to the band. It must make it hard with a first release to define what your sound actually is?
Yeah, we just think it’s a great track. We love playing it live, we’ve had great feedback, people remember it. I write lots of different genres. Keith also writes a couple of songs, we haven’t recorded them yet but hopefully for the album. We’ve got different styles, we write lots of different music.

Is that part of the plan, building toward an EP or maybe even an album over the next twelve to eighteen months?
That’s what we’ve been talking about, recording early next year to make an album. It’s just about whether we have the resources as a group. We applied for a grant, so you never know, get some funding behind us, that would be great.

There’s plenty to like there. I’m really curious about the band name, Fishnet Sunburn, what’s the story behind that?
I think I came up with it. I was on a date with someone, a long time ago, and I’d previously had a band called Carrie and the Cut Snakes, and I just hate coming up with band names. Someone I met said they had a friend who fell asleep in the park wearing a fishnet shirt and got sunburnt, and I was like, oh, that’s so punk. I just thought it was a nice concept, falling asleep, waking up sunburnt in the morning.

So how did you all find each other? Did you know each other previously, or did you cross paths at other shows you’d played in other bands?
When I moved back to Melbourne, I was out one night at Gummo, Café Gummo’s like a local anarchist punk bar, having a beer with my girlfriend, and Keith was there with some mutual friends. We met at about 2am, and I just said, “Does anyone want to be in a band with me? I want to start a new band!” I’d been in town a few months, and Keith said, “I want to be in a band!” We toyed with the idea of going back that night to someone’s house to jam, but it was 2am and I wasn’t up for partying until the early hours. We met up the next week, and it was just such a good creative connection immediately.

That was almost my next question, during that first jam session, did you realise you had something you could actually work with and start creating songs?
The first time we met up we just had a bit of a jam. The second time, Keith came with this whole… like, he’d produced one of the songs and added all these sounds. I could tell he had such a good sonic ear, that he understood my song writing, and that he was going to add really great elements. I knew he had the energy for a really great creative partnership. I knew Bridget from when I lived in Melbourne last time, she’s an OT and I’m a music therapist, and we’d worked together and jammed before. So she was on board straight away. Ruby I moved in with, and a few months later, after we’d become friends, we were still looking for a drummer. She has two drum kits in her bedroom. She’s really a drummer, a multi‑instrumentalist who produced her own album in her bedroom earlier this year. She wasn’t playing drums with anyone at the time, so it all just fit. It’s a great crew, I love our little band family. We love getting together and playing.

Do you all have similar taste in music or look up to the same music heroes?
I think not. We’ve really got eclectic taste among us. I have eclectic taste, so there’s some overlap, but we all have really different music taste. Ruby’s into indie rock, she loves Radiohead and is so excited to be seeing them. Keith was in a rap band before, Keith Party was his other big project. I’ve found in my experiences collaborating with other musicians that it’s really about the energy you bring, not so much your influences. I’ve played in lots of different projects, one was Carnival Republic, where we did percussion and dance and drumming, and that connection with people, connecting through making music, is something that happens regardless of influences. You create something new together.

We won’t talk Radiohead — I’m shattered, missed out on the ballot.
Oh no!

It’s insane how that whole process works.
It’s tough.

Are you looking to tour more broadly over the summer?
Yeah, we’re definitely planning to go to Brisbane and do some shows up there. I’m from Queensland and have lots of connections there, so I want to play shows up there. We’ll probably do some regional stuff around Victoria. As we go, we want to play different places, Castlemaine, Wollongong, maybe Adelaide.

Interview By Rob Lyon

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