Skewering Society From Australia to America: An Interview with Arborists
By Maya Bishop | February 24, 2026
Photo Credit Lucielle Howell @luciellepokedyou
Right now most people in my circle would say that society is in a downward spiral. Our leadership is insane, criminal, or some disturbing amalgamation of both. The planet is in shambles, our neighbors are hiding, AI is everywhere, and it just feels like collectively we are losing our minds. Then, The Arborists show up and lead us in a cathartic, chaotic, screaming session. With their latest album, An Absolute Skewering of Modern Society, having released back in June of last year, I took the time to talk about the band’s history, their community, and the inspiration behind this cacophony of musical rage.
So you told me you've all been friends since childhood, but how long have you been making music together? Is this the first band or the nth iteration?
Sudi: This is the first band we've been in all together, but me & Avatar were actually in a "band" back in year 3 like almost 20 years ago called babble, and me & tom were in a band called bikini sunrise a couple years back together, with tom on bass & me on the drums. We've all been working with each other on music for the longest time, but this is the first time we're all dialed in on one project all three of us together.
So what led to you all deciding now was the time to become a band together?
Sudi: basically, me & Tom were in a band together previously called bikini sunrise, we had just put out our first single and had done some shows when tensions sort of tore it all apart - differences in style, personality clashes. soon after that we had finally convinced avatar to move down to Melbourne from the gold coast, around late 2023/ early 2024, and inevitably once he's down here we figure no better time than the present to finally play live. we'd been in arborists together technically since 2019, but never really with all of us living in close proximity, it was a lot of messaging riffs back & forth & programmed electronic drums back then.
Avatar: Just speaking for myself here, I'd say there's no reason specifically beyond a genuine interest in music wanting to create something with the time and effort I've put into it.
How did you choose the name Arborists?
Sudi: Originally, it was to entice a previous member to come to practice more, then we stuck with it. Arborists sort of carve order out of chaos, they're there at that intersection between beautiful nature, supporting the health of the trees but with that petrol & machinery and smoke flair from the chainsaw. I like that, and i think we embody a bit of that with the music, sometimes very machine, sometimes very nature, and I like to think Av's bass tone sounds a bit like a chainsaw. [editor’s note, it does!]
Avatar: A previous band member was an arborist. I think we just kept the name because we liked the sound of it.
Photo Credit Lucielle Howell @luciellepokedyou
How would you describe the music scene over in Byron Bay, where you're from, and Melbourne? Are there specific challenges musicians are facing there currently?
Sudi: from what i remember of the scene back home, there's pretty much fuck all for bands. A couple good punk bands, Raygun Mortlock, dimmer indiana, but mostly AC/DC cover bands or white duds with dreads in drum circles doing Bob Marley covers. The big thing back there is Psytrance, lots of bush doofs - like DIY raves out in the forest, I used to DH a lil bit with my mate kez, he performs as 3Form. They get pretty wild sometimes, parties can go for days on end, but if you like rock & roll melbourne is the place to be in Australia. Waaaay bigger scene down here, gigs basically every single night, tons of good punk bands, shout out to the plot twist, clit split, mishto, CRIIMES, godfire, keyo rose's flying circus, rattleback, tongue dissolver, mesa cosa, so many sick bands. Feels like a bit of a change in the scene recently as well, used to be a lot more of the washy Triple J style Surf Rock sound, in Melbourne. Seems like the scene's going more heavy and dance oriented recently. Lots of electro-punk & thrash & stuff like that. There's also a pretty sweet scene for DIY gigs in like abandoned warehouses and under overpasses and stuff down here too. In terms of challenges, here in Australia there's a pretty huge class divide between cover bands and originals. somehow cover bands get to charge like 2-3k per performance, when in an original band you're lucky to get a free beer. Some venues are alright, most give no guarantees in terms of money at all, but some have just egregious requirements. minimum five bands on the bill, no rider, no sound tech, no minimum pay, not allowed to play anywhere else in the city for two weeks before or after, it's fucked. Shout out to cafe gummo though they're the best, I think they've put us on 9 times in the last year. Getting your name out there as an unknown artist is pretty hard as well, there's stuff like triple j unearthed but if you're not a surfer band singing about smoking bongs and smashing beers it's pretty hard to get known. We like to just put up big illegal posters with our face on ‘em personally but hopefully that kind of thing gets easier as we grow.
It seems like you've built a really close-knit community, was that there before the move to Melbourne or did that come later?
Sudi: for me there was a bit of a community down here before the move, my brother's been down here for about 15 years now, so i was sort of adopted into his scene, but as we've put down some roots around here we've definitely built a pretty good little community of friends and freaks and artistes.
Your shows and music both have a deeply chaotic energy, what would you say has been your wildest performance so far?
Sudi: for me there's been a couple really wild ones - one time at old bar I was singing jumped into the mosh and knocked the mic into my teeth, chipped a good hunk out. I managed to catch the tooth chip somehow, handed it to my brother muddy for safekeeping after the song ended, and he just chucked it in his mouth and ate it. The real wildest one was probably our “Death to Australia Day” party last year. "Australia Day" (aka invasion day) is the anniversary of when Captain Cook landed on Botany Bay & claimed all of Australia as the property of the English empire using this fucked legal principle “terra nullius” - basically that no one lived there, but there were millions of indigenous people, but the English basically said the indigenous were essentially animals so they could steal the land - fucked, fuck captain cook, fuck Australia Day. I was working at a company that illegally puts up gig posters on abandoned buildings at the time, and I was chatting with my coworkers about my idea to make like a Captain Cook pinata for everyone to tear up at this gig we were putting on at Cafe Gummo with this band Heterophobes. My mate Chris, singer from private function hears me talking about this, tells me about this bando [for my Americans this is somewhat an abandoned house/trap house situation] that apparently has a life size paper mache statue in it, says he can show me after our shift that night. So that night, we meet up, jump the fence into this block of like five abandoned houses and go looking around. There's like roofs collapsing, Graffiti everywhere, all sorts of cool abandoned shit, looks like there'd been a generator rave held there at some point, and then finally we go into this garage, and there's a full life size papier mache bronze statue, and it's of fucking Captain Cook. We manage to get it out of there, and then on the night of the gig, we've got it on the side of the stage, big sheet over it, like halfway through our set we throw it into the mosh and I yell "A FREE PINT TO WHOEVER BRINGS ME CAPTAIN COOKS HEAD AFTER THE SHOW" and the crowd just goes fucking feral. The statue is turned to like powdered newspaper and a mound of chicken wire after like one more song. By the end of it it was just dissolved, nothing left to see, no one claims the pint because the hatred for Cook was too strong they shredded his head. Excellent night.
"An Absolute Skewering of Modern Society" is described as your "list of grievances so far" have you found more complaints since dropping it?
Sudi: Rent, the cost of living, supermarkets price gouging us to death, black mould, our landlord nestor iannou, he's a cunt, the labor party, useless fuckers, AI, AI, AI, TRUMP, having to hear about trump all the time, our politicians trying to copy his tactics in a way that no one likes or finds good, FUCK ICE, FUCK THE COPS, FUCK THE CONCEPT OF BORDERS, FUCK AUSTRALIAN CONCENTRATION CAMPS ON NAURU AND CHRISTMAS ISLAND - ICE LEARNT FROM US, FUCK ISRAEL FREE PALESTINE - Like yesterday the war criminal president of Israel, Isaac Herzog visited sydney, and i guess to welcome him the cops decided to brutalize and bash everyone protesting or waving the Palestinian flag. Fucking shameful, by all rights & by international law they should have arrested him for trial at the hague but our government is complicit and cowardly. Also our neighours that just love to angle grind shit at 7am on a Sunday for whatever reason
Tom: Of course, modern society is the gift that keeps on giving. AI death technology has come a long way since then. So has the breakdown of international order helmed by the US and meekly allowed, even endorsed by our Australian government. We’re at the point where there’s a direct link between the most powerful government in the world and an elite ring of pedophiles, and yet it feels like nothing will be done about it, unsurprising. Shit is effed up!
Was this a cathartic album for you all? Just being able to rage against everything at large?
Sudi: definitely cathartic. our previous albums were never performed live, even during the writing process - it was all produced like a techno track or a breakbeat track. we've got drums now, we can record live, it feels excellent to make this with pretty much no studio trickery - everything on the record was performed as a whole song, all of us together. getting to make fun of dickheads in massive trucks and wish death to fascists is just the cherry on top.
Tom: yes, I think you can probably hear it in some of the screams.
What was the process of completing the album? Was it a lot of discussion or were you all on the same page?
Sudi: We self-produced this record, all in our living room, and I did all the mix/master myself. We started performing properly as Arborists live late 2024, and it was definitely a learning process. growing into our sound, and especially learning the confidence to go fully balls to the wall from playing live. the crowd responds better to extremism in my experience. Tempos got faster and faster and distortion got more overwhelming. We were writing tracks and recording them as we went, and playing them live to refine them as well. When it came to production, I wanted to just capture the energy of the songs in the room, so most of the album is played completely live with little to no overdubbing or rerecording. there was definitely a good bit of discussion on what tracks to include, We've got a good few softer tracks, like the closer, no way home. In the end we decided to keep mostly to the heavy stuff, with just a couple lighter moments. The mix was definitely the most contentious, really dialing in that tone on the bass, & getting the tracks as a whole to really thump. The boys originally wanted to incorporate a lot more electric guitar but I was arguing for the minimalism of drums, bass, yelling. The title was set pretty early on, tom suggested it, but I definitely wrote lyrics towards the title a good bit. We're working on two new projects, a majority folk album, and a psychedelic punk odyssey, working titles Moonlight Powder Burn & EAT GOD, which will be more collaborative with our mates, maybe produced a bit nicer too, incorporate some features and all that.
Photo Credit Lucielle Howell @luciellepokedyou
A lot of the album deals in speaking against capitalism, fascism, and the environmental crisis, I'm from the states (historically, not by choice) so would you be willing to say a little about how all of this is affecting Australia?
Sudi: Australia is fully getting thrashed by late stage capitalism, cost of living crisis is out of control, a lot of my mates have to live in squats or cars, It's fucked. Cops love to brutalize minorities here too, especially Indigenous people, it's a huge problem. Recently most of our state was on fire, then flash flooded, and the bushfires have been just getting worse and worse as the world gets hotter. Our hometown has had large swathes of it washed away in floods recently, I remember when Tom moved down it was delayed like two-three days because all the roads south were washed out by the floods.
Tom: Well, Australia certainly has it owns shortcomings when it comes to the environment, and especially where big business is concerned. In the past mining companies have launched ad campaigns that have effectively wiped out politicians seeking to implement climate change policy (see the Rudd government). As for fascism, we’re not there yet. Our preferential voting system is good, but our strategy is to stay friends with the biggest bullies in the yard. Our politicians have refused to speak out against the government of Israel and have introduced new protest laws and police powers that are already leading to brutality. I think it’s possible that the capture of our politicians by certain lobbies and big players will slide us further towards fascism.
You also have a song, "Nuke the Moon" is this a reference to Project A119, the 1958 US government plan to nuke the moon, or do you have some specific moon-based issue?
Tom: haha, I wrote that song about accelerationism in the context of superpowers. So like, they’re all competing to do the biggest, dumbest thing for a show of pure state power, and they decide to Nuke the Moon. It does not surprise me that the USA have already thought about doing that.
Sudi: If the moon is made of cheese, then nuking it should melt it nicely, would be good on crackers.
I noticed that the last track on bandcamp is just the entire album, was there a logic behind doing this like accessibility price-wise or just a whim?
Sudi: The continuous mix thing is something I like to do - I grew up with my dad having a massive vinyl collection & I've always loved when an album flows seamlessly track to track - a good example would be like “Nonagon Infinity” by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard back in 2016, and also my background as a DJ. I love a seamless mix with no annoying stutters or breaks between tracks, where it all just flows as one big piece, so I always add a continuous mix at the end of an album.
What kind of impact do you think your music has on your fans? Is that something you think about when working?
Sudi: I'd like to think that it can get some hearts pumping faster, get people energized, get them dancing, maybe even let them have a bit of a laugh, while also talking about some real issues. I think hitting a political issue with a comedic angle can really be effective, like with the track big car for example - that's a real issue, the popularization of these huge idiotic SUV's has made roads much less safe, it's set back fuel efficiency a ton, it tears up the roadways, and if i start just talking about that all dry i'm going to sound like the most boring man alive. But if i make it an innuendo, like hey big boy, crush me under those big stupid fucking wheels, maybe that'll get someone giggling, then thinking. If I can prevent the sale of just one ford F-150, my work is effective. [As a non driver, F-150s are terrifying and I hate them, continue the good work]
When do you think we can expect Moonlight Powder Burn & EAT GOD?
Sudi: we're deep in the process for recording moonlight powder burn, can't give too much away but I'm hoping that ones coming quite soon, and we're a couple tracks deep into figuring out how to eat a god. No promises, but they're both coming soon. [I can’t wait.]
What kinds of goals do you all have as a band? Is it big stages, just creating art for the love of the game?
Sudi: Ideally being able to travel and tour would be amazing, big stages would be fun but a small room crammed to the gills moshing is excellent. We're not in it for the money, I just love it when people like the music. Never gonna stop creating art for the love of the game, I don’t care if no one listens, I'm still making it.
Tom: world domination. [honestly, same.]
Also, I've decided this will be a thing for me. What is everyone's ideal birthday cake?
Sudi: Orange & poppyseed cake, still hot from the oven it's the best
Tom: Cadbury Freddo Party Cake.
Avatar: Tiramisu
Anyone you all want to thank/shout out?
Sudi: I want to shout out my beautiful partner lucy, she helps out a lot with the photography & design stuff for the band, my family for coming down & moshing at shows, being supportive, Ian from Mesa Cosa for giving us our first octaver pedal as well as our melbourne mates, Mishto, CRIIMES, Private Function (RIP), Ronan, Matt, goblin beach, Cafe Gummo, and also Dyllon Foley - fuckin come down and play some tunes with us dyllon.
Tom: Shout out to our benefactor Ronan and our favourite venue owners on High Street, Sarah and Chris.
Avatar: I'd like to shout out Gummo, Mishto, CRIIMES The Plot Twist, Ribjaw, Seven Pound Halo, The Strays, Zkeletonz, blondehouse, my sister jaya, my mum, & my nan, as well as Jack for putting us on Nimbin FM
Band links
Bandcamp: https://arborists.bandcamp.com/music
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arborists.band/