A beautifully abrasive ratbag party _{by Madelaine Empson}

Libbianski – Kurt Williams (lead guitar), Mina Perniskie (vocals, guitar), Nat Reid (bass), and Tom LaHatte (drums) – formed around a collection of songs that Kurt (Tuscoma, Hollywoodfun Downstairs) had been working on for years in between extensive tours across Europe and New Zealand. They began work on their debut album Useless Splendour in 2022 and broke out onto the scene in 2023, performing their luminous blend of shoegaze, noise rock, and dream pop across the North Island. In their first time hitting the South Island as a band, Libbianski are about to unveil the album across New Zealand, including a hometown gig with local bands Wallflower and Bleeding Star at Valhalla on the 17^th of August. I caught up with Mina about the journey to Useless Splendour and beyond.

I’m super curious about your band name!

Yes it is a bit of an interesting one, and of no relation to my Polish last name either by the way! Kurt came up with the name whilst he was touring Eastern Europe with Tuscoma a couple of years back. It’s a mystery to us all! But now I guess Libbianski, just is Libbianski.

Have Kurt’s songs changed or evolved with a full band behind them?

It’s natural that when you bring a full band into the picture that there are some evolutions to the songs, particularly around structure etc. We love working them together as a band though, as you have that collective interest in what will drive the song more, or what aspects we want to highlight or return to. There are also always parts that every single person in the band ends up getting obsessed with which is fun. We are currently in the process of working on our next album which we are pretty excited about, and it will be quite different to Useless Splendour we think!

Useless Splendour came out in April this year. What kind of feedback have you received about the album and what’s most resonated with you?

 We have had a lot of awesome feedback about the album. One of the majors is just how much the songs themselves are enjoyed. And the excellent production. We had really top-notch people that we worked with on the album, including Troy Kelly (The Armoury), Chris Johnson (Deafheaven), and Alan Douches (West West Side Music). 

What would you say are the key thematic threads tying the songs together, and how have you expressed those themes sonically?

I don’t like to explicitly say what the lyrics are about, as I prefer to have listeners infer their own meaning, but there is a general theme about the state of the world that we live in, feelings of displacement and loss. And a bit of a ratbag party aspect to it all as well. I have a fairly dry sense of humour about most things. Sonically we wanted to build a wall of sound, which is at times quite abrasive or heavy, but at the same time beautiful and uplifting. A bit of a juxtaposition I guess.