Australian post-punks Pinch Points bring the Process to Portsmouth when they play The Edge of The Wedge | Interview

The Australian post-punk band Pinch Points are one such band. Their most recent, second album Process takes in some grim subject matter – climate change, violence against indigenous people, living in an age of information overload – and much more. But there is often that undercurrent of dark humour in their lyrics.

The Guide is talking with three-quarters of the four-piece on a Zoom call from their rehearsal studio in Melbourne – fellow punks Cable Ties are practicing next door. Guitarist Jordan Oakley admits: “That's the Pinch Points’ spin on writing lyrics – they’re somewhat balanced with humour and self-awareness.”

Process’s opening track Reasons To be Anxious is a case in point.

Fellow guitarist Adam Corcoran-Smith explains: "It was kind of pointing out that as the pandemic was starting, it was trying to draw a parallel – there were so many people already living their lives in a kind of lockdown. You don't need to go out to a restaurant, you can get your food delivered. You don't need to see your friends in person because you see them all the time on social media. There's so many reasons that you don't need to be public person. But then that's also a very good excuse to just…” he rolls his beanie hat’s brim down to cover his face, “pretend that nothing's going on and everything's fine and you can just be a couch worm.”

In true DIY fashion Oakley and bassist/vocalist Acacia Coates manage the band between them.

“We both work in the music industry outside of the band and you can't help but be informed by the stuff you're learning elsewhere,” says Acacia, “and then you want to come back to the band and you're like: ‘I've got a better way that we could do this, and make things easier or more streamlined’. It is a lot of work, though, the admin side of it on top of the creative side and doing our day jobs too.”

“...And play shows and write a new album,” adds Oakley. “Even though there's nothing I'd rather be doing, the life of music is the one I most wanted, but it is full on!”

With a tour of Australia to mark the reissue of their debut EP Mechanical Parts just wrapped, the band are currently criss-crossing Europe – their second visit to the continent. Somewhere in there they plan to work on Process’s follow-up.

Jordan says: "Some bands have some wild capacity to write at any time, but I think that’s more bands with one main songwriter, but the next release, whatever it ends up being, we're trying to make a point of having everyone collaborating, so that means we all have to be in the same room together, at first at least, then we’ll go off and work in twos or threes.

“We've also tried to take out time and not rush anything – we don't want it to be stressful. You want it to be enjoyable. Sure there are people who want to hear new music from us, but sometimes you can put pressure on yourself for no reason. We don't want the quality to suffer.”

They play The Edge of The Wedge in Southsea on August 14. Go to wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.