Australian new wave synth post-punks screensaver are ten days into a European tour and have stopped for three days in Dieppe, on the northern coast of France, before the German leg begins Monday in Berlin. The Melbourne-based five-piece played Paris on May 21st, then crossed the Channel for a UK run that took in Tunbridge Wells, Nottingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Bristol, London, Manchester, and Brighton across nine days. Two French shows in Rennes and Vannes come next. Then Germany.
We checked in with the band mid-tour for something closer to a road-side brain dump than a standard tour report: strawberries, bad rentals, good rooms full of people, and the weird little things that stick after ten days in a van.
The band began in 2016 as a trans-Pacific collaboration between Christopher Stephenson (Spray Paint, Exek) and Krystal Maynard (Bad Vision, Polo, Swim Team), and spent three years in what their press materials describe as “an incubatory state” before becoming a full live unit in Melbourne.
The current lineup adds James Beck (Personal Touch, ex Rat Columns) on drums, Dorian Vary (Soundtrackmusic) on bass, and Jonnine Nokes (Horse Pills, Activities of Daily Living) on synth.
Three albums in: “Expressions of Interest” (2021, Upset the Rhythm / Heavy Machinery), “Decent Shapes” (2023, Poison City / Upset the Rhythm), and “Three Lens Approach” (November 2025, Poison City), the last of which Alice Teeple at Post Punk.com described as five musicians “transmitting whatever they can before the signal cuts.” Henry Rollins has kept the records in heavy rotation on his KCRW radio show.
Co-founder Krystal Maynard used the Dieppe pause to share what touring actually looks like ten days in. She titled it “Spring is Coming with a Strawberry in the Mouth,” after an Operating Theatre song. It opens with strawberries.
“Strawberries are in season at the moment in the UK. We’re not new to the road so we know to get ahead when it comes to consuming vitamins. This might only be the first leg, with only Paris, Tunbridge Wells and Nottingham under our belts but every time we arrive at a servo we stock up on fruit. Strawberries are having a moment. Eating one feels cleansing, you can feel the vitamins absorbing into your body in every juicy bite, an antidote to the beers, bread and lack of sleep.”
Three days in, the band had a day off in Newcastle on the way up to Glasgow. Their second time through, and the observation from the first visit held: more men than women on the streets, in groups that tipped from boisterous toward something else as the night drew on. Later, Ross from Pop Mutations told them Newcastle is a stag party destination, which clarified the picture.
“There’s a graveyard in the middle of town. People wait for the bus in front of a plot of ancient skeletons from the 16th century. Their ghosts are just as annoyed that the buses are running late, their eternal slumber disrupted.”
The diary catalogues other city flashes. A trashed 13th century wall after a bank holiday in Newcastle. Mini gambling pods at petrol stations in West London.
“The balaclava clad shithead smashing bottles and terrorizing people so they can post it to Tik Tok in Bristol.” Tour-induced existential contemplation, Krystal writes, “is just a given.”
The relief comes when the van pulls up to “the little bastions of community and creativity like Delicious Clam in Sheffield or JT Soar in Nottingham.” Spaces, in her words, “that get you, your values, the shared impulse to create and make music.”
Glasgow is a favourite stop. “Ross, Holly and Ross’s sister Chloe are just good people, community minded, great taste and a lot fun.”
Pink Pound opened the show with what Krystal describes as “moody synth pop musings that command you to dance all your feelings away.” She bought their t-shirt and it’s been on permanent rotation in the van. Ross and Holly also handed the band a Tunnocks wafer bar problem they may not have intended.
“We’ve become legit mad fans, with an insatiable appetite for them. We have no less than 10 packets in the van right now between the 7 of us.”
The Sheffield stop at Delicious Clam was the band’s second time at the venue. Run since 2013 by Ben, Joseph, and the rest of the Clam crew, it operates as recording studio, record label, and venue at once.
Skateboarders gather on the concrete plaza out front. Inside, the house drink is the Lagerita: a lager margarita, ratio fussed over. The Tuesday bill that night paired screensaver with neo-folk / electro / shoegaze duo Strixen and “wonky post-egg-punk” Knorke, a curation Krystal noted as deliberate: both bands sharing elements of what screensaver themselves do.
The set list Krystal wrote out that night was a private joke at the band’s own expense.
“We deliver a high octane set because that’s what the Clam and all its punters deserve, all the while trying to work out what the songs on the set list are, because I’ve written a set changing up all the names of our songs so they sound phonetically similar but are completely different words. Im keeping us on our toes and levity counts for a lot on tour.”
“The Clam is a special place, IYKYK.”
In Bristol, the singer of Big Break delivered the line Krystal kept returning to: “On tour you’re having the best time of your life and the worst time of your life.” From there the piece turns to rented rooms. Light switches in the wrong places, accidentally hit at 2am. No windows, no flushing toilet, no curtains, no hot water, no power. The diary names landlords directly as the source.
“This tour has really increased our hatred for people that make money from renting out accommodation, aka landlords. The state of rented accommodation is really a barometer for the state of the world. Apathy is on the rise and complacency runs rife. As the global housing crisis increases, the power balance has tipped. Landlords can provide substandard accommodation with no recompense because people are desperate for both long and short term housing.”
One incident gets specific. “One motel didn’t even have a flush button on the toilet, it had simply fallen into the tank of the toilet and the motel had failed to replace it. Massive props to the bandmates who were able to hold it all night, but were forced to leave a nice little present for the motel in the morning. A necessary gift in our opinion.”
The piece zooms out:
“It’s been a year and a half since our last international tour and the standard of rental accommodation has dropped to an all time low, basic amenities not provided, paying extra for towels, paying extra for sheets. As the world hurtles towards being even more pay to play, we’re left wondering what does the future look like? As the rich lie back enjoying their passive income will the rest of the world soon be paying subscriptions just to exist? For clean breathable air, to sit on a park bench, to eat non-poisoned food. One could argue we’re already thereโฆ. Can they monetize it? Yes they can? Will they monetize it? Yes they will.”
“Back seat existential contemplation is just a given on tour, as you take turns having a Menty B based on your amount of exhaustion for the day.”
So why do it. Krystal answers walking through Dieppe, past the chalk cliffs that pulled Renoir, Monet, and Pissarro to the seaside town in the 19th century, past the wine bars and the giant gulls.
“Because music matters, because creative expression matters, because community matters, because connection matters, and when we arrive to play a show in a small town half way across the other side of the world and someone knows the words to a song you wrote, or tells you your music brings them joy and you sit down and have a beer together you remember that creative expression is what bonds us all, as living, feeling human beings. And right now art and music is more important than ever, as technology and greed threaten to replace the very heart of what makes us human.”
Eight shows remain after Dieppe:
June 3: Rennes, FR โ Le 4 Bis
June 4: Vannes, FR โ Le Barailleur
June 8: Berlin, DE โ Schokoladen
June 10: Dresden, DE โ Ostpol
June 11: Heidelberg, DE โ Autohaus
June 12: Karlsruhe, DE โ P8
June 13: Offenbach, DE โ Hafen 2
June 14: Kusel, DE โ Kinett
More info at screensaver.bandcamp.com
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