Amyl and the Sniffers are unapologetically Aussie – and the world can’t get enough
With a new album out and a world tour on the horizon, we sit down with the punk rockers to chat tall poppy syndrome, their pub rock roots and finding light in the darkness
By Amy Campbell
“ARE YOU GUYS from Amyl and the Sniffers?”
Bryce Wilson and Gus Romer don’t get asked this question every day, but moments before sitting down for our interview, they’re approached by a bartender, who also happens to be a big fan. “And we’re the B Team,” laughs Romer, as he recalls the unexpected interaction. “We don’t get recognised nearly as much.” It is Amyl’s frontwoman Amy Taylor, with her feathery blonde hair and infectious smile, that gets stopped for selfies and autographs most often. Still, Wilson, the band’s drummer, and Romer, who plays bass, get a kick out of the recognition. To the bartender’s delight, they confirm that yes, they are part of the Aussie punk-rock phenomenon that’s taken the world by storm.
On Friday, Amyl and the Sniffers dropped their third studio album, Cartoon Darkness. It arrives three years after Comfort to Me, the pugnacious sophomore record that saw their sound slingshot from Aussie band rooms to stages all over the world, earning them fans from Tokyo to Mexico, main stage festival slots at Primavera, Coachella and Glastonbury, as well a Gucci eyewear campaign (the Italian brand’s former artistic director, Alessandro Michele, was a big fan of Amyl and the Sniffers’ eclectic aesthetic).
Since then, Taylor, Romer, Wilson and guitarist Declan Mehrtens have been touring almost non-stop, supporting the Smashing Pumpkins in 2023 and the Foo Fighters earlier this year, while playing their own headline shows across the States. All the while, the band hasn’t lost touch of its roots; while Cartoon Darkness ventures into new sonic territory (listen to ‘Big Dreams’ for a compelling ballad), it doesn’t skimp on the ocker slang, swear words and unfiltered truth bombs the world knows and loves Amyl for. Even if most of the slang (including the band’s very own name) goes straight over some fans’ heads.
While in Sydney for a quick run of promo – including a hometown show that sold out in minutes – we caught up with Romer and Wilson to chat about the new album, which balances our looming existential dread with the desire to feel alive. And why, despite the million monthly Spotify streams and worldwide fame, Amyl will always be a rowdy, scrappy, outspoken live band at heart.
Esquire: Cartoon Darkness is easily the most musically diverse Amyl album. What made you want to try out some different sounds?
Bryce Wilson: I think it was like, we’ve been touring for like a long time – well not a long time, but a fair bit of time – doing the same set over and over again. It gets a bit stale, and we don’t really want people to think of us as one dimensional, or two dimensional even — we’re 3D (laughs). We didn’t want people to think that we’re the sum of our first EP. Declan wrote a lot of [Cartoon Darkness], and he leaned into softer, slower songs. So there’s a nice balance to it, without completely veering from our original sound.
Esquire: How does Amyl’s songwriting process typically work?
Gus Romer: Either one of the boys will come up with something – Bryce or Declan may collaborate, but I don’t work well with others (laughs). And then Amy comes in, just fucking freestyles. Throws shit down and we usually do it that way.
Bryce Wilson: I believe Amy has sheets and sheets of ideas and phrases – I think the title, Cartoon Darkness, came from her scribbling something down like five years ago.
Esquire: What does Cartoon Darkness mean?
Gus Romer: I think it’s about being able to laugh at the dark shit. You’ve got to laugh at our extreme misfortune sometimes.
Bryce Wilson: If the last album had a bit more of a bleak outlook on it, I think now, Amy has this attitude of, ‘oh well, it’s kind of dark, but I’m gonna kind of go along for the ride anyway, just roll with it’.
Esquire: You guys started out playing in Melbourne pubs. How has your relationship to the pub rock scene changed since then?
Gus Romer: I think [pub rock] will always be part of us. That’s kind of the origins, the roots. And then, obviously we still love going to the pub – we love rock and roll, and we love the pub, so that’s kind of always gonna be part of our DNA. Being referred to as a pub rock band doesn’t bother me in the slightest, personally.
Bryce Wilson: I think it’s probably less of our identity now than what it used to be, though. I think we called ourselves ‘pub rock’ ’cause we couldn’t play our instruments properly, and we weren’t quite punk enough. We weren’t punk enough to be punk, so we were like, ‘oh yeah, pub rock seems pretty on-brand for us, as an Australian band’. But it’s probably less of our identity as we get more serious. Not that we’re really that serious now, but . . . it’s definitely changed a lot since 2018.
Esquire: Amyl is known for staging the most incredible, rambunctious live shows. How have you managed to preserve that aspect of the music as you’ve grown?
Gus Romer: It’s just our bread and butter. We’ve always been a live band, it’s how we started out and it’s how we think of ourselves. It’s crazy, you watch videos of big artists [performing], and all you can see are these fucking phones with the camera lights on in the crowd. We barely have any of that, which is really cool. I guess a mosh pit always kicks off straight away, so it’s probably harder to [have the phones].
Bryce Wilson: It’s a totally different experience, engagement-wise. I think, in a world full of DJs that ‘press play’, people may not necessarily go to a gig to see a musician or a band or whatever. They’re just there to party and listen to music. But I dunno, there’s a sense of entertainment with us, because you’ve got four people fucking around on stage for hour . . .
Gus Romer: Yeah, it’s a bit of a freak show (laughs).
Bryce Wilson: I think it lets people in the crowd be relaxed. Like, ‘oh yeah, I can dance around and be an idiot’.
Esquire: Everything about the band is so unapologetically Australian, but international audiences can’t get enough of you. How do you make sense of that?
Gus Romer: In terms of being real different, I think people in other countries find it kind of exotic. But throughout the music, and even going on lyrical themes, it is all pretty relatable shit. I think Amy’s very much an ‘every person’s person’, you know? She’s out there representing the little guy, which is very relatable.
Bryce Wilson: It’s funny, because I just don’t think we know any other way (laughs).
Gus Romer: You’ll be travelling with Amy, and she’ll stop at a servo in Germany and ask for ‘a pack of durries’. And it’s like, ‘Amy, you’ve got to say cigarettes’. But we are who we are, and that’s how we roll.
Esquire: The track ‘You Should Not Be Doing That’ feels like a big middle finger to tall poppy syndrome. Is it?
Bryce Wilson: Absolutely, yeah. Amy speaks about it a fair bit. And it’s so true – that’s part of the reason why Amy and Dec moved to LA. On our way up in Australia, there were like a lot of people we knew in our community – people from bands we liked – being like, ‘oh, who the fuck are these guys?’ or whatever. We really felt it.
Gus Romer: People love to talk shit. Now they ain’t (laughs).
Bryce Wilson: There’s a lot of people who do want you to succeed. But then there’s also a fuck tonne of people who are like, ‘who are these young upstarts getting around?’
Esquire: And then you modelled for Gucci. How does it feel to be embraced by the fashion crowd like you have?
Gus Romer: I think it’s dope. When we did that campaign for Gucci, we got paid for that before we ever got paid for music. We were fucking so poor. When I found out, I jumped up and down and I cried. I had huge imposter syndrome at the start, but I think it’s cool when other groups and cultures acknowledge what you’re doing. Amy and I also walked the runway – that’s when I had my beautiful, long, luscious red hair . . .
Esquire: They haven’t asked you back since?
Gus Romer: I’m focused on my music career now.
Cartoon Darkness is out now.
Amyl and the Sniffers will tour Australian and New Zealand in January 2025.
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