Premiere: Sputnik Sweetheart debut their Growing Pains EP with an EP Walkthrough

A couple of weeks back, we had the pleasure of introducing Sputnik Sweetheart to the world, with the Canberra-based four-piece at the time premiering the clip for Us Girls. "The song Us Girls is inspired by women’s struggle for gender equality - it’s an issue that means a lot to all of us," they said on the song, and that passion shined through, with jangly indie-pop-punk meeting vocals fierce with nuance and wit, telling the story of a group simply fed up with gender inequality and in search of something more inclusive.

Now, skip forward to the beginning of December, and we're returning back to the Canberra group to premiere their dizzying debut EP Growing Pains, a collection of five tracks that doesn't just introduce us to the band and their beginnings, but also how the band may shift and sway in the future. It's a package of tracks that further solidify the band's status as ones-to-watch from a quickly-growing Canberra rock scene, tracking their evolution through tongue-in-cheek lyricism and hearty storytelling that consistently put the band in front; elevated by guitar rhythms and harmonies that bring it all together in an easily digestible manner.

We've spoken about Us Girls already, which unites these hazy guitar rhythms with a percussive crunch and a fierce, motivated vocal that keeps everyone in line, but elsewhere, the EP morphs between different textures and energies, highlighting other sounds yet to be explored by the band and paving potential paths for their incredibly bright future ahead. The EP-closing title track, for example, swirls with nostalgia for 90s dream-pop, while other moments on the record sees that fierceness elevated; Home Again, for instance, discusses the refugee crisis in a way you often don't find in Australian indie music.

"Growing Pains as an EP is a collection of songs that we wrote to reflect upon our coming of age as both people and musicians," the group say on the EP, which arrives as they head towards the tail-end of shows that have taken the band through to the end of the year. "It’s an umbrella phrase for the troubles and doubts that we all experience while growing up, coupled with some of the bigger social and political issues that our generation is facing."

Dive into the EP below, with a track-by-track walkthrough that discusses the EP's inner themes and creation one track at a time.

Home Again

This was the first single we released earlier this year. It has such a fun melody and structure, however, also has strong lyrical content relating to the current refugee crisis. We wrote this song inspired by experiences of one of our friends who was documenting life in a refugee camp in Palestine. People are often surprised when they find out what the song is really about – most people tend to think it’s a love song!

FOMO

How much does it suck when you’re at an event and everyone around you is glued to their phones? We’re over it and decided to write a song about it! FOMO is inspired by our frustrations around the way our culture is completely dependent on technology. We start the track off by reflecting on what it was like while our parents were growing up and dating. Lyrically, this song tries to show that juxtaposition – from how it used to be to how it is now

Love You Best

This was the first song we ever wrote! It is one of the only “love/breakup” songs we have ever written but we thought it was a vital part of the overall picture for the Growing Pains EP. This track is basically an angsty love song that depicts the difficulties of a relationship gone bad. The dual vocals in the chorus of this song are something we are really proud of, and kind of set the tone for trying to incorporate more dual vocals throughout the rest of the EP.

Us Girls

The second single we released this year was Us Girls. This song is our favourite off the EP and is the song that really got the ball rolling for us. It is based around women’s struggle for gender equality, and while it starts off slow and groovy it turns into this all-out chorus of heavy guitar tones and heavy lyricism with that hectic chromatic run. This song says a lot about us as a band and is the musical response of us all standing up for what we believe is right.

Growing Pains

The title track of the EP, Growing Pains is an umbrella term for the difficulties that face young people as they grow up. The song itself is written about Canberra, and some of the experiences we’ve all had growing up in the Nation’s Capital. From partying too hard, making mistakes and then finally coming to the realisation that these things are a natural part of growing up. This song is nostalgic and familiar, and something we hope a lot of people will be able to relate to.

Tour Dates: 

5th December – UOW Uni Bar supporting Maddy Jane
21st December – Grace Darling Turning Heads End of Year Party

Follow Sputnik Sweetheart: FACEBOOK