VICE Spotlight: Shady Nasty

VICE Spotlight is our weekly showcase of the best talent coming out of Australia.

If Sydney band Shady Nasty had to put their sound into words (though it’s something they try to avoid) it would be an “experimental blend of post-punk and hip-hop”.

The trio met in high school playing jazz, but Kevin Stathis (vocals, guitar), Haydn Green (Bass) and Luca Watson (drums) quickly decided to continue their musical collaboration.

“It felt like a waste for us to throw it away,” they told VICE.

After more than 8 years of playing together weekly, they have carved a path for themselves that’s sonically separate from most things I’ve currently heard in the Australian music scene lately.

“It became clear that we had extremely strong feelings about the sonic and visual diet that was on offer to us,” Shady Nasty told VICE.

“We were interested in how we could contribute to it.”

Not only is their sound unique, but their music is intelligent – revolving thought-out themes that reflect the social norms and pressures of contemporary society. 

“[We were] keen to highlight a niche we felt had been overlooked or unappreciated; one melded by digital obsessions, modding cars and immigrant parents,” they told VICE.

“It’s important to us that people might glimpse a fresh vision of what living in Sydney can look like today - particularly, as our online and offline worlds are further enmeshed.”

On first listen, Stathis’s vocals are akin to King Krule with an Australian accent, or perhaps Death Grips singer Stefan Burnett. It’s the low, growling voice and creeping drawl — a way of singing that in different moments both accentuates every word and strings them together in a seeming state of lethargy. Paired with guitar sequences that act in much the same way, it’s one of the most endearing qualities of the band. 

But what’s perhaps most impressive is their experimentation across genres and message. They describe their 2021 EP, CLUBSMOKE, as “a meditation on vlogging, gymming, clubbing and clout” and a thoughtful dive into the ever-blurring digital and online world. It’s also a reflection of the accelerating consumption of media. Its sound is steeped in darkness and desolation with moments of euphoria through psychedelic guitar riffs that peek through on tracks like “PRETTYBOYZ” and “ROLL1N HILLZ”. It’s a showcase of four very different songs.

My favourite song, however, and also the one (unsurprisingly) with the most streams, is “Get Buff” which, according to lyric and music news site, Genius, offers insight into the “life of a young Chinese-Australian growing up in the diversity of Sydney”. 

The corresponding music video elicits a visceral and emotional reaction, as do many of their other videos thanks to the talents of drummer Luca Watson and Harry Welsh.

As for their big goal with their music, it’s to “punt a footy through the Deutsche Bank Place goal posts and then go out with a huge backflip off Centrepoint Tower,” they said.

“If this is out of the question, then we don’t really feel like there is a big goal except to have created work that reflects some truth about our lives unfolding in this fuarkin hectic harbour city.”

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