screensaver

Dominated by the formidable vocals and keyboards of Krystal Maynard, Melbourne’s Screensaver play dense, synth-driven post-punk with more than a hint of goth gloom. With a lineup featuring members from Australian post-punk forces like Rat Columns and EXEK, Screensaver introduced their dark, driving style with 2021′s Expressions of Interest.
Guitarist/keyboardist Christopher Stephenson and vocalist/keyboardist Maynard first met in 2014, when their respective bands Spray Paint and Bad Vision both played a show in Berlin. The pair hit it off and began working on music together in 2016, at first online — at the time, Stephenson was based in Austin, Texas, while Maynard was in Melbourne, Australia — and then in person after Stephenson moved to Australia. The project grew from four-track recordings of a vintage Casio that Maynard supplemented with vocals to a full-fledged band with the addition of bassist Giles Fielke (formerly of Low Tide) and drummer James Beck (also of Personal Touch and formerly of Rat Columns). Using 1977 punk and the gloomier likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division as a jumping-off point, Screensaver started playing local gigs and a handful of U.S. dates in 2019; that year, they also released demos of their full-band recordings.
The group issued their debut single, “Strange Anxiety,” in October 2020 and that year also contributed songs to A Complication for Edgar, a collection benefitting the animal shelter Edgar’s Mission Sanctuary, and A Long Time Alone 2, a compilation of songs by Australian acts made during the lockdowns due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Screensaver recorded much of their debut album with each member in quarantine, allowing them to take a more considered and experimental approach than they would have recording together in a studio. Preceded by the January 2021 single “Living in an Instant” (which was mastered by synth punk wizard Mikey Young), the band’s debut album, Expressions of Interest, appeared that October on Upset the Rhythm. ~ Heather Phares