PREMIERE: Catch Melbourne’s Disillusioned All Grown Up in New Single ‘Living For This’

Growing up is inevitable, we all know that. But that doesn’t mean life doesn’t get shit. There’s always going to be something to look forward, and that’s exactly what Melbourne pop punk four-piece Disillusioned have learnt with their brand new single, ‘Living For This’.

From completing creative projects to finally feeling happy in a job they no longer hate, the band penned together their newfound reflections into a catchy, punked up anthem in the hopes that it’ll help others get through the nine-to-five grind. Disillusioned have blended only the best elements from early 2000s icons Blink-182 and added their own fresh spin on keeping an old spirit alive.

We caught up with frontwoman Mim to get to know a little more about the band’s brand new single, how they’ve been through COVID and how Blink-182’s ‘Always’ acted as video inspo…

Who are Disillusioned and what’s your overall musical vision?

Disillusioned are just four pals that found the best way to hang out every week. Making and playing music is fun, especially with these guys. Hopefully that shows when we are playing or writing. This is purely an endeavour to hang out with the coolest people we know and that’s everyone who is hanging out at Melbourne gigs.

I guess what we’re looking for is something authentic, fun and inclusive. Its been a pretty long standard sentiment that we make music to drink beers and punch your friends too. It’s hopefully just a culmination of all of our favourite bits of music from the last twenty years we’ve been alive, with our little zest and hopefully it resonates with someone else on the other side.

‘Living for This’ sings about your average daily life and the mundane nine-to-five. What were you living for at the time of creating though?

‘Living for This’ came out of like a moment when we all kind of grew up a bit. This was after the romance of trash relationships and living conditions were truly worn out. Some of us had even found a job that we didn’t hate! It’s the moment when Josh finally put the finishing pieces on this kit he’d been building, and Liam just bought a new guitar. We were all kind of looking at these new toys, sleeping and eating every day and it kind of all clicked in the end. It’s like we had figured out our priorities on the matter, what we needed to be happy and there were paths we could take to try and reach that everyday.

I mean I’d still say this is a sad song, but it’s not a pity song. It’s about reflecting on how far you’ve got to go, but that doesn’t take away from the progress and how far you’ve gone already.

I love that concept and how it’s totally relatable! The film clip also gives me Blink-182 ‘Always’ vibes. Tell us about the concept and the vision here?

That’s a pretty great compliment in my opinion, that is a top 10 film clip! And for sure it was on our short list when we were planning LFT. The original idea started from the term “every day’s the same” and how we could personify a 9-5 grind. 

We originally wanted to follow each bandmate on a standard day, going to school, work and finally back home together. We quickly realised that was days and days of filming for something that also probably wasn’t that interesting. We spent a while looking at one room over and over again, following a different band member. We thought we could tell a story in say Liam’s take, which by the time you get to Zan’s version there was a different understanding. This also proved a little smarter than us.

It took meeting John Stokes to really lock in our concepts of following one person and moving the environment around instead of the people. He really just took that idea and ran with it, and we absolutely love the outcome. Just slowly going crazy as more of the guys exist in the room as it all resets was real fun.

We have always been fans of single room movies and single take film clips. When you strip away quick cuts you can lean into some fun zones there. Everyone had fun hiding behind couches and running behind camera to get to the new positions too!

That explains the Blink similarities …teaming up with Stokesy. Love that guy! This is your first release since 2018. Is this a once off, or is there more to come?

Yeah its been a while hey?

We were having a great time up until we weren’t last time. We quickly realised we all had to go and learn some things about ourselves. Some of us travelled or studied. It took a lot of time for us to figure out what it was we wanted to do, and maybe also learn to be pals and not workmates. 

But with where we are now, and how we are. There is a lot more coming, and if you like ‘Living For This’ hopefully you’ll love all of this!

So what are you living for now?

Coffee and mint slices. Now is a weird time isn’t it? COVID has slowed down a lot of things I think people are traditionally working towards or gunning for. I’m living for everything re-opening in time. And the first big breakfast with the crew afterwards. As a whole we’re looking forward to not being stuck in separate houses sending songs in files and having Zoom beers.

I’d have to say Zoom hangs were probably the highlight of iso this year! What has COVID taught you this year?

I would like to think we were getting there ourselves, but COVID taught me to be kinder to yourself. Like holy shit, you do not have to get everything done by tonight. A pandemic is a reasonable excuse to not work at your 100% all the time.

I think we were also all able to enjoy some little things. Gardening, making hot sauce, watching all The Fast and The Furious movies. We have done quite the fair few puzzles in this house. I don’t wanna do all this again though, I’m pretty satisfied with how all of us are leaving this lockdown.  

When music comes back in 2021, who are you sharing the stage with?

Everyone and anyone that wants to play. That’s another great thing about iso! I think a lot of bands (us included) had kinda forgot to release stuff. Or waiting to finish one more track to make it an EP. After a couple of months, the scene collectively said fuck it and started throwing amazing content at us. So there’s fifty bands I wanna hang out with and we’ve been chatting with lots of them over the last few weeks and months.

The first gig we get out though, if I have any say in it will be the triple threat Blink-182 cover bands of us, Drastic Park and Snark.

That sounds like one epic reunion, or Unify pre-party! Do you guys have any last words?

Thanks for having us, and we hope to see you come along on this ride with us. It’ll only be better with you there.

Interview By Tamara May (@citylightstam)

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