Meet Debbies, the NSW pop-punk duo in the finals for triple j Unearthed High

Amongst the flourishing explosion of Australian surf-rock across the past few years, some of the country's most cult-adored bands in this space - Skeggs, Dune Rats, The Gooch Palms - have made space for an exciting next generation of the genre, evident in bands like TOTTY, Surf Trash, Good Doogs and TOWNS cultivating their own mass-audiences while the heavyweights sit between album and tour cycles. While many of these bands have only become national forces within the last twelve months, it feels like the next stage of this genre are already out there and evident, filling in gaps and flourishing into favourites despite the genre still being quite saturated and dense; and, if you ask us, it's a bloody exciting time.

Jervis Bay duo Debbies are definitely amongst this exciting next generation of Australian rock, with the pairing - still in high school, mind you - becoming a favourite in the triple j Unearthed High competition (for which they're finalists for, alongside names like Pilerats-approved George Alice and Mali Jo$e) with their spectacular three-peat of 2019 singles thus far; Comfort Zone - their debut, What Do I Know, and their most recent effort, Majority of My Time. While only three tracks deep, you can really get the sense that Debbies are a band realising an exciting vision and an accompanying future to match, crafting this captivating pop-punk-rock blend that feels like the unique step out of the crowd needed to ensure their success, and with the time since their final-placing for Unearthed High being full of tick-off achievements and big wins, we can only see this band getting bigger and bigger.

Dive into their single Majority of My Time below, and better get to know them while you're at it - they're going to be huge.

Tell us about yourself?

How's it garn? My names Noah, I'm 18 and a play in a band from Jervis Bay with my best mate Robbo. We have been playing music together for roughly four years but decided to take it seriously and start recording our own tunes in December 2018. Ever since it's been a good time.

What's the vibe music-wise?

We try and keep it super fun and light-hearted, but since there's only two of us we gotta fill in the gaps. Before we wrote our own songs we got influences from bands such as Hockey Dad, DZ Deathrays and Violent Soho to work out how to make something simple sound massive, that's pretty much the vibe we like... big.

What are your production and writing processes like?

They aren't in the best form haha. We jam out a bunch of chords then slap drums in when we like them and we get stuck on lyrics for ages. We usually come up with the names of our songs before we even write the filler, it's weird as. We just worked out the verses and half of Majority of My Time and What Do I Know when we get to the studio cause why not, that's where the fun happens.

You’ve been thrown into the spotlight through the triple j Unearthed High competition. How does that feel, and has that opened up any doors already?

We're still so psyched that we got chosen to be one of the five finalists for Unearthed High, its just so crazy. We honestly never had the intention of really entering the competition when we put our songs up on Unearthed, it was just convenient that by the time it came around we had three uploads up in 2019. It's definitely gradually getting better and better, already we have been added to the Four Tone Artists booking agency which is a sick opportunity for us going forward and are getting a few shows lined up in the later half of the year in places we would never have thought we would play, its just all happening and we love it.

Any tour dates coming up?

Yeah, we’ve got some stuff in the works. Can’t really spill on them yet, but, watch this space as I know for sure we’re about to be hitting some new places we’ve never ever been before.

What does the rest of 2019 have in store for you?

First half of 2019 has already been a bit of a rollercoaster getting more shows then we actually expected we'd get, but for the rest of 2019 we are definitely going to put out at least one more single. We certainly have some more shows coming up throughout the rest of the year, not sure if I can say anything about them yet though haha but jump onto our socials to get around it all.

Where can we find more of your music?

Jump on triple j Unearthed and squiz it through there, or if you have Spotify or Apple Music you can find it there too... pretty sure it's in a few spots here and there!

Follow Debbies: FACEBOOK