media puzzle trot new land beyond the big log

Looking down at the racetrack, there’s a clear frontrunner for the top spot in the track. Media Puzzle have put their best hoof forward with their LP New Racehorse, put out on Impressed in April. It’s an ocean of chorus-drenched riffs and tight production playing over endless samples that come in and out like you’re changing between radio stations. The album takes the best bits of what this stolen country has put forward in recent years while adding so many surprises; it’s easily the front runner for best use of horns in punk this year. It’s a record that fully deserved to quickly sell out its first run. 

Initially starting as a solo project of Tom Peter, the formerly Lismore band has expanded to a full five piece lineup that’s been putting on one of the most dynamic live shows the country has to offer. I first saw the full band at the mini festival Summer Slam and they took the champion belt that day as they swapped between acoustic and electric drums seamlessly, singing their sweet songs through a chorus of telephone microphones haphazardly taped to the mic stands.

Since then, a majority of the band has relocated to Naarm (Melbourne), where this interview took place. I had a lovely chat with Tom at Candy’s in Thornbury, a nice cafe that’s opened up in the same building that used to host the excellent record store Lulu’s. The band are in the process of writing their next record while preparing to release a new single off an upcoming compilation.

I’m guessing from the samples that you’ve spent a lot of time watching old movies on YouTube. What are’s the best sources you’ve found for samples?

It’s a mix. There’s a bunch on YouTube, there’s a bunch on archive.org which I reckon is the best one. You can find a bunch of old archival radio recordings on there. And then there’s another website I’ve found where you just write in a word and it’ll give you a list of movies and TV shows where they’ve said that phrase or sentence. That’s where I got a lot of the samples for in between songs, which was really fun to go searching for.

Media Puzzle are a very equestrian-based band; you’re named after the 2002 Melbourne cup winner and with many references to stallions in the lyrics. Have you always been obsessed with horses or did it come from the name?

It came with the name. I got it from the band Vintage Crop, which was another horse that won the Melbourne Cup. At first I didn’t know where the name came from and thought it was just a cool name, so I searched up Vintage Crop just because I wanted to know what it meant and saw it was a horse that won the Melbourne Cup. I ended up looking through the list of other horses that had won and found Media Puzzle. I then kinda built the project on horses, so I guess the obsession came after rather than before. It gave the band a theme.

It’s a great theme for a band!

Absolutely, I’m sure you know all about it. [Ed. note: Billiam is in a similar horse-themed band. With Media Puzzle now largely being based in Victoria, this means there are three active horse themed bands in the city.]

The band started in Lismore, NSW. What would you recommend people do if they find themselves in Lismore?

Go to the Pie Cart on Magellan Street. They’re really good pies. They sell shirts and everything; it’s kind of a tourist attraction. Otherwise you can go look at the Big Log. It’s literally just a log, but it’s massive. 

Did they purposefully design a big log or did they just find it?

I think it’s just a leftover log. Lismore used to be a logging town. They’ve built a roof for the log and it just sits there. 

New Racehorse is a shift from the previous releases, adding things like live drums and brass. Was this a conscious decision to do something different or did the songs naturally evolve to be different from the previous releases?

It was definitely a choice I made. I got through the last EP and the last album and I was getting sick of the same sound. I thought I could either try and improve and refine what I already had, or I could take the easy route and completely change everything. So I decided to do that instead.

It sounds really natural, like a logical conclusion from the last couple of albums 

It didn’t sound like it for a long time, then I sat with it in my head for a long time and now I agree with you. If you had asked me that question six months ago, I would not have agreed with you at all.

Did the live band have more input while recording this one?

Totally. It’s still mainly all me but it’s the most collaborative release so far.

Did you jam the songs with the band before recording them or did you give them completed parts to play?

Bit of both. We’d been playing songs like “Knowledge” for six months before we sat down and did the drum tracking. There were definitely some moments in that song and a couple others where some of the band members were able to work out their own parts that they liked more than what I’d given them, and the songs are better because of that.

I love “Knowledge” so much, especially Kellie’s brass. Did you know she could play brass before she joined the band?

I knew she played, but we were playing for ages without her playing trumpet, then I went down a bit of a ska rabbit hole briefly and kept thinking how trumpets are fucking great and thought why not add them? It felt silly not to have the trumpet if she can play it.

Where do songs usually start for you? 

It’s always been with a guitar part, but as of this album, it’s been so many different things. Some of them start with the bass, some with the guitar, some with the lyrics, some with the song names. I’ve been doing that on purpose just to keep the writing interesting. It’s made everything feel different to the previous stuff.

What do you consider to be the hardest part of finishing a song?

I always write a verse or a chorus, but never both in one sitting. The hardest part is writing that second part. Because you’ll get that first idea or first verse that you love, and then trying to get that next section you love is always the hardest part. It can be days or weeks or months before I get it sometimes. It’s so frustrating, but once you get it, it feels amazing. Once I have two main sections, I’m able to build everything else around that.

One thing I want to highlight to the readers is how tight a live show you guys put on. Are you particularly rigid with rehearsals or is it a looser affair? 

I’d like to say we’re lazy. We usually just run through the set once or twice and maybe go back to a few songs we might need to get better at… but everyone puts in a lot of time outside of the rehearsal room tightening their parts, so once we come into the rehearsal room, we’re able to just play it together and lock in all at once.

Is there a piece of musical gear you’ve always wanted to add to the Media Puzzle repertoire?

I’d love to have more brass. I’d love to add a sax at some point, even a little SP404 to do even more of the sample stuff live. We do some of it live but there are little bits we could add. We have one sampler next to the drummer but we could always do more.

It would be sick to see you guys with a full brass section like the Saints.

That would be so cool, but we gotta pay other musicians properly if we want to do that.

It’s a tricky line to balance between more members and splitting the $300 paycheck each night.

It’s nearly impossible unless people want to play for free, which is not fair.

You just completed a tour of Australia with Regurgitator. What were your favourite shows from the run?

I think Canberra was a standout. It was a full room and people were getting into it. My favourite show was Brisbane at the Tivoli. That was the most amount of people I’ve ever played to and everyone was really friendly.

I think with a lot of those ’90s bands them and their audience tend to not give a lot of attention to the opener, so it was great to see people getting around your set.

Absolutely, we were very lucky to be doing it with an insanely renowned Aussie band.

A lot of the band have just moved to Melbourne with Oli moving to Sydney. What are some things you’re looking forward to doing with the change in scenery?

Playing more and going to and seeing more of other people’s stuff. That was the whole reason for the move. As much as we all love Lismore, it’s very much a rural town, opportunities are very limited and this project has taken up a lot more time than I thought it ever would (and I say that in the best way possible). At this point, the only next thing for me to do is to move somewhere with more. I just want to go and watch more bands and meet more people. I feel like I was getting quite comfortable in Lismore. I want to be uncomfortable again and be surrounded by people I don’t know in a place I don’t know.

Billiam is a recording artist operating out of Naarm (Melbourne). see/saw is a reader-supported publication. If you enjoyed this article, please share and subscribe.