Interview by Ali Williams
Generally speaking, bands spend years in rehearsal rooms crafting a “carefully curated sonic identity.” Others however, make an EP in a uni dorm room in a single day just to “see what happens”. Meet Tom, the founding member of Lismore’s Media Puzzle, who definately falls in the latter category.
In this week’s chat with HEAVY Mag's Ali Williams, Tom proves that sometimes the best things start as a joke and spiral wildly into something very real. What began as a one-man experiment with a drum machine and a “let’s just put it out and see” attitude quickly snowballed into a full five-piece outfit reverse-engineering lo-fi chaos into tight, high-energy live shows .
Tom describes Media Puzzle as falling somewhere under punk, synth punk and the wonderfully unserious label of “egg punk.” Yes, egg punk. It’s fast, scrappy, lo-fi, and occasionally powered by a drum machine that had to be dragged from bedroom obscurity into full band reality . The early worlds of Media Puzzle had no band at all, it was just Tom in his bedroom with a laptop, guitar ,drum machine he could use with synth samples. After showing his one day work of art to his friends, they loved it and wanted in. Tom found himself pulling apart his own recordings, rebuilding them piece by piece like some musical Rubik’s Cube. ranslating bedroom experiments into something a five-piece could detonate onstage .
There’s something beautifully chaotic about having to reverse engineer your own songs because you can’t quite remember how you made them in the first place. Most bands polish demos. Media Puzzle disassemble them like they’re defusing a bomb.
Their upcoming run supporting Regurgitator is a genuine full-circle moment for the band. Ten shows across Ulladulla, Canberra, Albury, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Bathurst are locked in , kicking off March 13 , marking their first proper tour invite and easily their biggest leap so far . For a few members, it’s poetic. Bassist Kelly once snuck into a Regurgitator show at 16 . Now she’s sharing the bill. That’s not just ironic nostalgia. That’s rock and roll karma doing its job.
The timing couldn’t be better. Media Puzzle are dropping a new album around the same time the tour kicks off . According to Tom, it’s a step in a “somewhat different direction” while still sounding like them, which in Media Puzzle terms probably means faster, weirder and somehow tighter all at once.
The interview drifts into everything from the widely recognised, now redundant Southern Cross University’s Bachelor of Contemporary Music that helped shape Tom and a generation of musicians drawn to the Northern Rivers, to the glamorous reality of balancing band life with a day job at Bunnings. Rock and roll might be chaotic, but sausage sizzles keep the lights on.
What makes Media Puzzle compelling isn’t just the genre-blending, DIY approach or the scrappy origins. It’s the freedom. Tom describes the project as something without rules, a space to try anything and learn in public . In an industry obsessed with strategy, that kind of creative recklessness feels refreshing.
From dorm-room experiment to national tour support for one of Australia’s most iconic alternative acts, Media Puzzle are no longer just “seeing what happens.” They’re making it happen. And come March 13, they’ll be doing it loud, fast and proudly egg-shaped.
For more info and links to tickets for all of Regurgitators Jukeboxxin Tour head to https://www.regurgitator.net/blog Tell ‘em ya mum sent ya and they'll tell you she loves it.
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