ANTI LAG | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

If nostalgia was weaponised and fired through a Game Boy, you’d get Anti Lag, a genre-defying disruptor blending breakneck rap bars with pixelated chiptune chaos. From live sets that summon airborne shoes (and occasionally prosthetic limbs) to calculator solos and festival-level freakouts, Anti Lag is equal parts arcade glitch and glitchcore grit. With a string of upcoming singles, a background in indie game scoring, and a cult-like crowd ritual that’s one broken toe away from legend, this is a project that refuses to play by the rules — because it probably rewrote the manual.

We sat down with Anti Lag to talk anime, analog surprises, and what it’s really like to rap over 8-bit synth lines when the stakes are high… and the shoes are higher. This is a paid collaboration with Anti Lag.

TRACK REVIEW

If Pokémon ever staged a stadium revolt and Pikachu joined a breakbeat militia, it might sound like this. Anti Lag’s latest sonic detonation is less a song and more a digital war cry, a pixelated adrenaline rush that weaponises nostalgia and turbocharges it with swagger. From the very first synth stabs, you’re not just listening, you’re leveling up, caught in a boss battle with the laws of genre itself.

There’s a rebellious joy at the heart of this track. The synths stack like Tetris blocks on fire, glitching and grinding into something that feels both tightly coded and wildly untamed. Chiptune purists would short-circuit at the audacity of it, but Anti Lag makes it all feel seamless. This isn’t a throwback, it’s a throwdown.

It’s not just noise, though. There’s an emotional undercurrent beneath the chaos, a sense that the artist isn’t just making music for the sake of it, but for the mission of it. And that mission? To make you feel something on a dancefloor, at a festival, in your headphones, or in the heat of a gaming showdown. Honestly, if this artist doesn’t end up soundtracking some futuristic, anime-drenched, multiplayer arena shooter… the gaming world is missing a cheat code.

So yeah... call it “Pokémon gone rogue,” call it digital punk, call it whatever you want. Just don’t stand still when it drops. This is chiptune in its final form: evolved, electrified, and impossible to ignore.

LISTEN HERE

If Anti Lag was a playable video game character, what would your power-up be and what boss level would “Shoes Up 4 Chiptune” unlock?

I think it would have to be some kind of gnarly shockwave that stuns enemies when I throw my fist in the air. I think the boss battle would be against some curmudgeonly bar owner that gets irate at people taking their shoes off inside. It's never happened IRL though, they've always been really into it.

You rap over chiptune. That’s like breakdancing over Tetris, how do you balance chaos and cohesion when blending two seemingly opposite styles?

It's a difficult balance. You can't just go out and rap over a standard Game Boy or C64 chiptune track, because you'll trip over the lead lines. Traditionally chiptune is super melodic, and doesn't really leave any space for vocals. But if you craft your tracks with the right structure, and work the vocals in properly, it can work really well. I tend to lean on traditional verse/chorus structures at times, making space for vocals while also letting killer melodies slice through where they can really add the sauce.

What’s the wildest real story behind someone putting their shoe in the air for you? Any airborne mishaps or fashion offenses?

Oh, there's an easy answer to this one. So, I'm at The Catfish in Melbourne, launching the Dream Pulse EP. I kick off the intro to Fuck With Shoes On, and I'm doing the patter that if people trust me, now's the time to put a shoe in the air. I'm rapping through the track, and I get ready to go out and "bless" the shoes. This time I'm handing out cassettes as I do so. Only, what do I see, but someone thrusting an entire proesthetic leg towards me? It's a lot harder to balance a tape on a leg than it is to stuff one in a Doc Marten, but we pulled it off. I've never seen that before in my life and I think it will be a while before it happens again.

You’ve composed soundtracks for indie games like ECHOES III , what’s the difference between building energy for a dancefloor vs. a digital battlefield?

Yeah, it's all about pacing. On stage you need to be able to get people that are just standing around and whip them into a frenzy with your set. Sometimes you can do it with a single banger if you've got enough juice in it. That's how I work on stage. But when you're playing something like Echoes III, more of a zen 2D shooter.. you don't just want banger after banger. You need to write stuff that has more space, and takes more time to grow in intensity. The rises and falls can be manifold, and half the time the gamer will be like "wow, it's amazing how the music changes with what the game is doing!" even if it's just their own imagination.

Let’s talk nostalgia: is there a specific arcade game, soundbite, or level-up sound that emotionally shaped your music?

Yeah, it all comes back to an old Amiga title called Jaguar XJ220: The Game. The soundtrack was the work of Martin Iveson, and it blew my mind as a kid. Dark, brooding electronica... upbeat house... and a hilarious metal track called THRASH PIG that shouldn't have even been possible on such an old computer. That really got me hooked on the concept of computer music at a young age.

When you play a calculator on stage, what’s going through your mind? Is it performance art, glitchcore rebellion, or something even deeper?

Usually I'm just trying to express myself and look as cool as is humanly possible. There's not a lot more to it than that. I think if you characterize it as performance art, you're on the money. I'm pouring my feelings about the track into a solo on a cheap plastic keypad, which only works so well... and I usually end up smashing a calculator or two in frustration on most tours when it doesn't QUITE deliver the magic. People love it when that happens, though. 

You’re clearly DIY at heart... how has that ethos shaped your evolution from house parties to national festivals?

It's been kinda wild. To be honest, chiptune is a very DIY movement... everyone revels in whipping up their own hardware and software and showing it off on stage. I've followed in the footsteps of a lot of artists who have done that and wound up playing to bigger audiences along the way. In particular, growing as an artist each year that Reception Festival got bigger and bigger has been a really wild trip, trying to bring a bigger and better show to keep up with what the organizers are laying down.

Imagine “Anti Lag: The Anime” exists. What’s the theme song like, and who voices your character?

The theme song is 100% anime cliche, a sailing female vocalist over some rapid melancholy electro. If you imagined Neon Genesis Evangelion, you'd be in the ballpark. Anti Lag would be voiced by Kazuya Nakai, who did Mugen in Samurai Champloo.

If someone’s never been to a chiptune show, let alone one with rap vocals and shoes in the air, how would you describe the Anti Lag live experience in one GIF?

Given how many shows ended up shirtless, I'll post this, but that's not supposed to happen anymore...

What’s a part of your creative process that people would be surprised to learn is analog, not digital?

I've actually written a few songs on guitar first, before taking them to the digital realm. Sometimes it's more fun than clicking around in the DAW. 

LISTEN HERE