THE IANS | INTERVIEW + TRACK REVIEW

If you’ve ever wondered what it sounds like when punk rock mutiny meets indie absurdity, THE IANS are your answer. Born out of the Brisbane underground, this ragtag crew of self-mythologising misfits blends gritty genre-hopping chaos with sharp political satire and wild live energy. With a new single (IHM4MU), a streak of upcoming shows, and an EP on the horizon, we boarded ship with THE IANS to talk curses, breakups, NATO beef, and how to keep the creative cannons firing. Strap in — it’s anything but ordinary.

TRACK REVIEW

From the opening riff, IHM4MU lands like a perfect storm—Kurt Vile’s mellow haze crashing straight into a grungy garage wave à la Nirvana. It’s a sonic collision that somehow feels both effortless and electric, like hot chocolate and coffee stirred into one beautifully chaotic brew. There’s a raw energy in the production that leaps from the speakers—thick with grit but sharp in its intention. The mixing pulls no punches, giving space for the track’s emotional bite to shine. It’s cinematic, visual, and begs to be experienced live. This is THE IANS at their most visceral.

LISTEN HERE

If THE IANS were a ship, what would it be named, and what flag would it fly?

The Ians have already commandeered a ship (pictured) called the Black Earl (‘63 Caribbean Speedboat), but we are looking to acquire a fleet of submarines from either the French or the Americans, in addition to several aircraft carriers. All ships fly the “Jolly Codger” (lemon flag/band logo, can be found on our socials).

Your recent single IHM4MU just dropped—what emotional storm are we sailing into with this one?

Pretty standard breakup song from a long time ago. Still bangs. I Hate Myself For Missing You kind of explains itself. The title was plundered directly from Joan Jett’s I Hate Myself For Loving You, and the song itself was written on 30 December 2020 in an ocean of tears (crying in my room).

From Breakfast Beers to punk heartbreak, your sound zigzags like a drunk compass. How do you steer between genres without losing the wheel?

We lose it all the time. The trick is grabbing back onto it fast enough without spilling your drink.

Lore seems like a big part of THE IANS—what’s a piece of band mythology fans might not know yet?

Here’s a piece of lore from each Ian:

– Red Jacket Rick (vox) can only be killed if the “X” scar on his back is stabbed/shot/etc. with his own weapon. This is the result of a curse of some sort, but further details are not known.

– Ratty Redbeard (bass) has an evil alter-ego known as The Rat. This is the result of a curse of some sort, but further details are not known.

– Black Jacket Red (guitar) originally came to see The Ians to poach Red Jacket Rick as a vocalist for his crew, but wound up getting shanghaied into The Ians.

– Magpie Zac aka Magsy (drums) destroys speed cameras for the community in his spare time.

Your live shows are described as debaucherous. What’s the most unhinged or unforgettable thing that’s ever happened mid-set?

Our cover of Sports is pretty gnarly, and all the guitar smashing we used to do was pretty cool—until we started running out of guitars and had to stop. We could point to things like climbing on tables and skulling pints during songs, but really, a lot of people do that.

The most unhinged aspect of The Ians is conceptual, not aesthetic. These guys write songs about how their inner child is a 12-year-old African soldier with a boat, an AK-47, and a dream. They wanna fuck NATO (is it sexual?) and rob rich, propertied boomer tourists so they can give to the poor (themselves, mostly).

They feel they have no future in this country—corrupt, dysfunctional government, cost-of-living issues, bad economic planning, etc.—but are talented enough to take matters into their own piratey-ass hands if they need to. If their idle hands weren’t busied with so much art and music in pursuit of their goals, they would simply turn to a life of crime and terrorism to achieve those same goals. Whatever works, baby.

Once people understand that, every moment is more unhinged and incredible than the last.

You’re dropping a new song every six to eight weeks. How do you keep the creative wind in your sails at that pace?

With gumption and a huge repertoire. Some of the songs we record are almost a decade old. Funnily enough, one of those songs is called w/ Gumption, so we use the message in that song to do everything else.

If each member of THE IANS were assigned a pirate punishment for missing rehearsal, what would it be?

Magsy is the quartermaster, so he’d decide anything punishment-related, but it hasn’t really come up. Probably something to do with being subjected to American-led or NATO-led Top 40 music.

Anti-NATO. Bluesy punk. Possibly cursed. What would you write on the scroll if you had to define your band’s manifesto?

Freedom (same as Nirvana).

Port Melbourne Music Festival, Palace Hotel, Brunswick, St Kilda—how do you decide where to anchor next, and what makes a venue feel like home?

You take decent gigs wherever you can get them, but any port in a storm, really. Good venues are made by good crowds more than anything else, but playing on or near the sea always feels homely.

Your EP is set for later this year. Without giving away treasure, what’s the vibe we should expect—mutiny, redemption, sea shanty breakdowns?

Ummm, probably not the last one—we’re not that literal, more abstract. But definitely a new track or two bundled with some of the other tracks we’ve released this year. Same kind of all-over-the-place rock vibe with a distinctly piratical thread running through the middle.

Album art will be gangsta, because rock isn’t just emo—it’s gangsta. You just need to walk both paths before you can do that right, like if Edgar Allan Poe and Scarface had a baby and that baby was raised on the internet but played guitar music.

LISTEN HERE