Up-And-Coming Australian Artists: Thirst Trap

That approach has already taken them onto stages alongside British India, Birds of Tokyo, The Delta Riggs, The Beefs, and Beddy Rays, while their debut six-track EP, Your Eyes Only, captures the band stretching their sound even further.

The Mentos Fresh Sounds Class of ’26, curated by Rolling Stone AU/NZ, has officially been unveiled — and now we’re turning the spotlight to even more artists making serious noise. As part of our Up-And-Coming Australian Artists series, we caught up with Thirst Trap about Your Eyes Only, their eclectic influences, and why the Australian music industry needs to take more chances on emerging talent.

Rolling Stone AU/NZ: Where are you from?

Thirst Trap: We’re a Northern Rivers/Gold Coast band at heart. Three of us grew up in Murwillumbah, and these days Thirst Trap’s HQ is in Pottsville. It’s where we rehearse, write, demos and generally make most of our questionable band decisions.

Describe your ‘Fresh Sound’ in three words.

Love Music?

Get your daily dose of metal, rock, indie, pop, and everything else in between.

Unpredictable, powerful and infectious.

Name three of your biggest musical influences.

Sublime, Gorillaz and Pink Floyd. We’ve always been drawn to artists who aren’t afraid to blur genres and create their own world.

Tell us about your latest release.

Your Eyes Only is our debut six-track EP and feels like the start of a new chapter for Thirst Trap. We really wanted to push our sound and explore different angles without losing the thread that makes everything feel like us. There’s a lot of variety across the six tracks, but they all belong in the same technicolour world.

We recorded it with Jack Nigro at Sonora Studios on the Central Coast and had it mastered by Leon Zervos at Studios 301. The opening track, “Kiss the Rain”, is a favourite of ours it’s got this undeniable energy and power that really sets the tone for the EP.

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be?

Probably someone like Damon Albarn. He’s one of those artists who seems to treat genres like ingredients instead of rules, that’s something we really connect with as a band. Every project he’s involved in feels like it explores somewhere completely new. We’ve really got no idea what a song with him could sound like, but I guess that’s exactly why it’d be epic to make one with him.

What’s your dream venue to play?

Red Rocks Amphitheatre. It’s just one of those venues that almost doesn’t look real. Playing our music there with those massive rocks, and a huge crowd screaming back at us would be pretty damn special.

What one thing do you think the Australian music industry needs right now and why?

We’d love to see the industry take more chances on emerging artists before they’ve already been validated by numbers, algorithms or a viral moment. It can sometimes feel like everyone is waiting for someone else to take the first risk on an artist these days, and that seems to be pushing Australian music towards whatever is already working.

There are so many incredible artists coming up here who sound completely different from one another. We’d love to see the gatekeepers back that diversity earlier and give artists the time and space to build something that has staying power.

What’s coming up for you in 2026 and beyond?

We’re about to take Your Eyes Only on the road, heading from the Gold Coast down to Melbourne between August 29th and October 24th. Between shows, we’re already writing our next body of work with our sights set on early 2027, with a few singles hopefully finding their way out before then.

Beyond that, we want to keep pushing into bigger rooms, bigger festivals and hopefully get out on the road supporting some artists we really admire. We’ve also been talking about putting together a very special show where we reimagine some of our songs with a much bigger live arrangement, but that’s all we’ll say on that one for now.

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