Shady Nasty

'SCREWDRIVA' shifts TREK into its most intense gear. Emboldened by a wild chorus sample, the lyrics invoke the lore of Australia’s franchise Mad Max, “Got chrome on my lips / Got chrome on the whip / Got blood on my wrist / Brah I swear the screwdriva musta slipped”. 

In this world, chrome is a precious and spiritually significant alloy representing a paradise beyond the living world. Here, it’s recontextualised to paint flying down Sydney’s motorways in chrome-adorned cars as a form of modern-day transcendence, particularly after downing a 600ml can of Monster Energy.

Bursting with post-punk vitality and muscular walls of sound, ‘SCREWDRIVA’ is the culmination of the grit and attitude of earlier releases ‘CAREDBRAH’, ‘G-SHOCK’ and ‘HARDSTYLE’. 

“I accidentally slashed my wrist at work fitting roof racks with a screwdriver. I saw what was clearly gonna be a scar, shrugged it off, and kept going.” shares vocalist/guitarist Kevin. 

Sparking notoriety since 2017, Shady Nasty craft music, lyrics and images from the banality of our everyday routines, and aphorisms from slang. Harnessing the digital age and branded totems of culture, their work speaks of masculinity amidst the growing blur of our on and offline identities, with a distinctive harbour-city twang.

On TREK, their debut album, the cult band loosens the shackles of its outsider status to embrace a broader ambition, whilst still bleeding authenticity.

Produced by Kim Moyes of The Presets, TREK speaks unashamedly about the band’s changing familial and social expectations as their individual lives evolve. A departure from the impatient optimism of their adolescent selves, the album grapples with the less-than-glamorous hard graft of keeping afloat whilst remaining creatively uncompromised amidst Sydney’s cost-of-living and housing crises.

TREK is lean and potent 8 tracks, enhancing the impressive world-building of their EPs: Bad Posture and CLUBSMOKE.

TREK will be out on Feb 21. Ahead of the album's release, the band also announce their upcoming TREK tour with an all-new live show across Eora, Sydney, Naarm, Melbourne, and Meanjin, Brisbane in late April-May, with special guests to be announced.