A Q&A With The Great Emu War Casualties

Shamanic art pop with sharp humour and emotional bite…

What’s the title of your latest release, and what does it mean to you?
Ooh… not this question again. Okay let’s pretend it’s Public Sweetheart No.1 then. It actually means a surprising amount to me, but I’m not going to tell YOU about that. It’s a secret. You can DM me about it later.

What was the hardest part about putting this release together, and why?
It was quite a traumatic time for me, personally, and we didn’t know whether the band was even going to continue because of certain events that happened (plus, being in a band in 2026 is pretty grim). But instead of stopping we made this, and I’m happy we did, even if it did bankrupt us.

Who produced the release – what did they bring to it? If you produced it yourselves what do you enjoy most about producing your own material?
We produced it ourselves – there must be about 18,000 versions of these demos still sitting on our hard drives. It’s fun seeing where it ends up on the journey.

What do you want the listener to take away from listening to your music?
If they feel just some tiny iota of emotion, whatever it is, then that is mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. We live in a cold, dead, capitalist society ruled by tech bros, and 99 percent of our time is spent doing bullshit jobs which mean absolutely nothing to anyone. It is nice to remember occasionally that we are, in fact, human beings.

How does a track normally come together? Can you tell us something about the process?
A track normally comes together normally. Either Joe will have strummed something on his acoustic guitar with a vocal melody, which I then put a bunch of crap on, which Bibek then does 200 BPM drum solos over the top of it, then I delete everything Bibek did, then Joe deletes everything I did, and then the song is done. Otherwise, I send Joe a music bed which he puts 108 vocals on top of, then Bibek does 200 BPM drum solos over the top of it, then I delete everything and the song is done. Easy.

What band/artists have influenced you the most since you started this project, and why?
Everything Everything is our guiding light and we sound absolutely nothing like them. It’s our biggest failure. They are gods and there’s nothing more to it to say than that.

What countries would you like to tour? Are there any standout venues you’d like to play in?
Nepal because Bibek knows all the cool places. Actually Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam would be rad. Japan if Bibek could get a visa this time. Turkiye would also be amazing. And the UK obviously. Band on the Wall in Manchester would be cool, and St George’s Bristol was a mad venue.

If you could pick one track for our readers to listen to in order to get a taste of your music, what would you pick, and why?
Oh go on, it would have to be ‘Ashes’ because that’s the friendliest one I think. After that, there is some weird shit. But let’s not go too crazy right off the bat.

What ambitions do you have for the band/your career?
I would love to collaborate with artists from all around the world. Playing with all kinds of people everywhere and touring places that have rich musical histories. It’s impossible sadly because of money, but you know, gotta dream.

Finally, as you leave the stage, what are your parting words?
Wait, why do I have to leave the stage?

Find out more about The Great Emu War Casualties at linktr.ee/thegreatemuwarcasualties