British expats now living in Melbourne after forming in Liverpool in 2017, The Great Emu War Casualties are an alternative, art-pop band who've had comparisons with bands such as '80s icons Talking Heads and Prefab Sprout.
The group bassist Saskia (aka 'Unicorn Head') met frontman Joe (aka 'Mr Boohoo') and sound enthusiast Elliot (who has subsequently left the band to travel the world to work on cruise ships).
After Saskia's time in the UK inevitably drew to a close (being an Australian immigrant), and when Elliot parted ways on a boat, both she and Joe continued the band briefly in the Netherlands before running out of money and deciding to settle in Melbourne.
It was here that they met and joined forces with Maxi 'Maximilliano' Maxwell (who randomly used to be a guitar tech for Haim in the UK) and famous Nepali metal lord Bibek 'B-bek' Tamang (who it turns out is also secretly an excellent indie-rock drummer).
In the year that they’ve been in Australia they have played incessantly, including residencies at The Evelyn and The Tote in Melbourne. They released three EPs in 2018; and in 2019, as a three-piece (B-bek is drummer and samples), they have released two singles independently.
Now they're back with newest single 'Gimme Gimme Shimmy Shimmy' featuring guest vocals from Alex Jones. scenestr is stoked to premiere the single today ahead of its commercial release tomorrow. Enjoy.
"We wrote 'Gimme Gimme Shimmy Shimmy' in a tiny room in Amsterdam, managed to play it once live and then it sat in the back for a while until we got to Australia and re-worked the line-up of the band," Joe says.
"We recorded it in Melbourne in our home setup – another tiny room – and sent it to Cal Barter in LA to mix. The Alex Jones inclusion is fairly recent and it really confuses audiences when we perform the song. It's the icing on the cake."
