VOIID Are Bringing Back Planking

Live shows that radiate loose fun, an obsession with ‘90s music and fashion, and a curiosity for genre movements that made history: that’s Brisbane four-piece VOIID for you. The band have classified their sound as “hellish girl-shriek”, and after listening to their most recent EP, Drool, they’ve hit the nail on the head. 

A cheery Antonia Hickey picks up the phone. The VOIID bassist is in Sydney to study an Ableton course at Surry Hill’s Liveschool. She’s spending her uni break – Hickey is completing a music degree – learning as much as she can about digital production. After just a few minutes listening to her pour over her favourite genres, it’s clear Hickey is naturally curious about sound.

Deathcrush by Mayhem was the first Norwegian black-metal record she ever picked up, and it was love at first listen. “There’s so much history in [black metal]; I think that’s why I love it so much. And if you look into their recording techniques, they did some really interesting things that you just wouldn’t find in any other genre,” she explains, excitement building in her voice. 

Hickey joined VOIID just a month after she’d started learning bass. Original members Anji Greenwood (vocals) and Kate McGuire (guitarist) formed the band in 2015 in Rockhampton. When they relocated to Brisbane, drummer Jasmine Cannon and Hickey joined the ranks. “All four of us are just best friends, so we end up doing the stupidest stuff we’re on the road,” says Hickey of her bandmates. “Whenever we’re driving to NSW, we’ll always just plank on things at the rest stops.” 

Hickey’s rollicking, jolty, and heavy bass lines pay homage to desert-rock and influences like Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age (she even recently found herself picking the brain of both band’s former bassist, Nick Oliveri, after playing a festival together in Lennox Head). “That genre also has a really interesting history because it sort of started in Palm Springs in the ‘80s,” she says. She goes on to detail how Palms Springs was a tourist town where kids would take generators out into the desert, and how the scene grew out youth boredom. 

“I’m trying to succinct this down a bit, because I could talk about this for hours,” Hickey says, breaking into laughter. “I just love those genres because they all invented something or did something so different, and they were out there – it’s what made them great bands.”

In mid-June, VOIID released Drool, the seven-track follow up to 2017’s Pussy Orientated. They’ve stuck to singing about drinking, sexism and social dynamics, only now they’re sounding bigger, louder and more self-assured.

Asked what Not For You means to Hickey personally, she shares, “I think it’s just such an empowering line, because so much of the time, historically, women are always so objectified, and not taken seriously, especially in things like the music industry. I think it’s just so empowering to say, you know, ‘Not for you!’” she explains.

Tracks like Drunk are reminiscent of Splendora’s You’re Standing On My Neck, the Daria theme tune. But the thrashy garage-punk stems from a myriad of '90s influences, from Nirvana to Sonic Youth. “I think it’s just something that definitely comes out in our music because it’s something that all of us listen to all the time. I don’t know. There’s just something about it, music from the ‘90s – it’s just so good,” says Hickey.

Drool was produced by Alistair Richardson (The Cairos, Zefereli) out on his farm near Boonah, about an hour drive out of Brisbane. “He has a little shed, but it’s like, a nice shed,” Hickey says. “It’s his recording studio. It was so nice to get out of the city and just work on music for a few days.” 

VOIID will tour the EP in July. Putting on a wild show is important to the band. “As an audience member, those are the most memorable shows,” Hickey reflects. “People are paying to come and see you live. They could just listen to your music at home. You pay for a show, so we want to put on that show.”