Speeding through his iced chocolate, Thom, lead vocals and rhythm guitar, explained that he and Pat, drums, had met ten years ago through fencing. The sport is an odd throughline that ties the band together, with Bodywire being a fencing term. Thom explained the name “leaves a lot of imagery for a person to come up with” in an era “where there are so many bad band names.” After reconnecting at the Trocadero Room, where Thom “hadn’t slept for 70 hours”, Pat and Thom met up for a ‘jam session’ which soon became a “regular thing” by the end of 2022. Oscar, lead guitar, told me over Zoom, that he soon met Thom in early January through mutual friends, and when he began to “jam” with them where he “couldn’t really look at any of them in the eye” and felt “like an imposter. I never thought I would be in a band, I only started to play guitar again in Bodywire, after like a four-year break.” Sidonie, the bassist, later joined following a message from Thom, and “within a couple of weeks we were getting band photos done together.”
Bodywire’s dynamic exists as a dichotomy between extraversion and introversion in their distinct stage presences centres and elevates the show. In a moment of self-reflection, Thom revealed “I have like no stage fright at all”, because of his childhood move “across the world [from Chile at 14] and not knowing anyone, I always was a bit extraverted, but only because I had to be.” This ‘need’ comes alive on stage, creating an interactive performance. Pat echoed that the relaxed energy they bring is purely unique to the stage, “I feel like we take ourselves really seriously in rehearsal, and then alarmingly less seriously when there are a hundred people in front of us.” Sidonie’s performance style is also rooted in intuition. She explained that “being as nonchalant as possible” just “works for me”. This grounds and guides the performance to a place where the central chaos and anarchy do not overwhelm the music. Oscar follows in a similar vein of subtly confessing that “I have moments of confidence, but I’m honestly quite shy, I find it hard to look people in the eye.” The audience feels this desire as he occasionally steps outside his self-designated boundary to join the chaos.
Bodywire’s release is a cacophony of exciting invention and compelling choices that define the new age of Sydney music. ‘Alive’ is not their best, with lyrics providing a surface-level examination of modern boredom and insecurity that soon jarringly converges into a bizarre Wild-West outro where Thom shouts “and we’re the Sydney type.” The track, however, has a united sound and does become an earworm over time with Oscar’s running riffs and Pat’s drumming indeed keeping the song ‘alive’.
Pat shared that their second single, ‘Mallcop’ is linked to ‘Alive’ because they play them back-to-back as a conceptual segue. However, Thom, rather pragmatically, explained that they both are in G major. Even with the band refusing to be “defined by that sound”, ‘Mallcop’ masters the hard job of maintaining a tight grip between an overzealous attempt to be funny, and neglecting a captivating melody. The humorous lyrical narrative perfectly matches the gritty bass, the exaggerated and rough Australian accent, and the teetering lead guitar, all creating a moreish listen.
Their latest single, ‘Cocaine, Red Wine’, began with Oscar imitating a Pixies bassline, “most of the songs I like by them are driven by their hypnotic baselines, and they almost take centre stage.” Thom then “helped flush out the rest” in their “one-on-ones”, and their musical partnership is particularly apparent during the second half of the chorus as his voice seamlessly shifts from abrasive to mellow, and Oscar uses a ”tremor-like” picking, influenced by Link Ray, to fulfil their desired “indie sleaze” sound. Sidonie also sings on this single, with Oscar wanting “that kind of deadpan, almost spoken word style which I don’t really write for in my own songs, so it’s fun being able to take that on.” Her Stereolab-esque voice exudes a fresh sound in a scene that can sometimes feel stale.
As I had reached the end of my tea, Thom and Pat began discussing the state of recovery that the Sydney music scene is experiencing. Pat described the scene as “like three weeks after being hit by a car, it’s getting better, but it doesn’t look great.” The car in question is COVID-19. The industry often feels desolate; prices of gigs are rising and festivals are often cancelled. Thom lamented the industry was “sort of a do-or-die.” At that moment I understood why Bodywire had developed as a band so quickly; their bold intensity and drive are ingrained within the very foundations of the band, catalysed by Thom’s ‘take a chance’ attitude.
While I met with the others in person, my interview highlight was receiving Sidonie’s nuanced and eloquent perspective as a woman in the music scene over a Google Doc. Sidonie emphasised; “I just wanted to make the music I wanted and for my womanhood not to be factored in.” It is a rather paradoxical dilemma we exist in, which Sidonie expressed, “an almost over-simplification of your place in the industry like the music doesn’t factor into it and you’re just getting booked cause there are girls in the band” or women remain unbooked and uninvolved. Sidonie suggests embracing the ambiguity, “ “I wish I knew what the solution was or that there was a definite way I could feel about my place in music but there isn’t one.” Concluding her thoughts, Sidonie stated, “I’m just trying to be as authentic as I can be, trying to unlearn that shame and not underestimating myself ’cause when I do that I might as well be doing that to other women too.”
As each of my conversations came to a close — Thom and Pat debating with Siri over whether smoking a cigarette before singing improves the voice, Oscar shooting off to work, Sidonie finishing her final sentence — I realised Bodywire epitomise what it means to be a musician in an industry that incentivises the derivative, and what it means to sculpt your path in both the art itself and on the stage. There is something so special and addictive about Bodywire that you just can’t look away from it, even if you tried.
