Fancy Weapon are a new Naarm-based group with members Mick Turner, Claire Birchall, Joel Silbersher and Guy Maddison. With a line-up as unexpected as a ball of lightning, the band sees a cross-generational bunch of music perennials to make a singular brand of minimalist, incandescent guitar-heavy rock music in the manner that other singular, minimalist, incandescent guitar-heavy rock bands have been making for 50 years or so.
The band’s debut self-titled album was recorded in a single session at Finn Keane’s Head Gap studios in Preston in late 2024, about a week before the studio burned to the ground after a neighbouring business was criminally torched. The album was engineered by Finn Keane and produced by Finn and Fancy Weapon.
The album reflects a self-assured and creative outfit bursting at the seams with ideas. Joel and Claire share lead vocals - Joel on more than half the songs, Claire on three of them, and they share a duet. The vocal melodies are ragged but beautiful as are their occasional harmonies. Joel and Mick share the guitars, and, as a cursory listen reveals, it is very much a guitar record. They are two very distinctive players, and their singular styles mesh spectacularly. Guy on bass and Claire on drums lay solid, powerful and always gripping and striking foundations. It all gets back to that minimalist, incandescent guitar-heavy rock music that we mentioned earlier, and Fancy Weapon do it so well.
First playing out in early 2025, Fancy Weapon have a number of well-received local shows with the likes of The Double, The Beasts, Penny Ikinger and Toody Cole of Dead Moon behind them, and now, with their first album ready for release on June 19, they are set to take on the world.
Tune in to Sunglasses After Dark for a special Studio 5 Live session with Fancy Weapon. Listen live from 8pm on Thursday June 25 for this exclusive performance and interview with host Phil MacDougall.
Studio 5 Live is made possible by Carlton Audio Visual and is supported by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body.
