A Quick Chat With Streetlights

A Quick Chat with Streetlights

Streetlights capture the dizzy thrill of love at first sight with What’s Your Name Again?, their infectious new indie rock single out now. The Boorloo/Perth five-piece blend wiry guitars, shimmering synths, and buttery harmonies into a nostalgic rush that hits like locking eyes with a stranger on the morning bus — electric, fleeting, unforgettable. Following their debut EP Bad Actors and a standout cover of Everybody Wants to Rule the World, the track marks a confident next step for the band’s kinetic, heart-on-sleeve sound. We caught up with Streetlights to talk about the song, the spark that inspired it, and what’s next.

Can you tell us what this track means to you and what you want people to take away from it?

“What’s Your Name Again?” is really about killing your boredom on your daily commute; mainly by romanticising a relationship with someone you randomly lock eyes with on your train or bus, only for them to get off at the next stop. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s done it on the way to work or uni! A lot of our lyrical narratives try to make the everyday mundane chores of life seem eventful, so we’ve hopefully turned unrequited love on a train into a bit of a bop.

I don’t know if there’s a certain reaction I’m looking for from the audience. It’s one of our more upbeat tracks, so if you get up and have a dance I’ll be happy!

Who are some of your influences, and why?

We’re a broad church here at Streetlights — we all have our own distinct tastes and favourites.

Pearse and I being brothers have a fairly similar taste. We love a bit of Simon and Garfunkel, The Cranberries, U2 and Crowded House. Long road trips with Mum, Dad and our sister really shaped our taste. Brad gets a bit more lo-fi. Ethan’s the theatre kid of the band, so we’ve endured and enjoyed some musical soundtracks with him. Tony probably has the most broad taste of all of us I reckon, and probably the best record collection. He’s got anything from Miles Davis to Metallica.

What's the creative process for you, from writing through to recording?

Most of the time one of us will come in with something. It could be a riff, a little chord progression or a full song, and then we’d flesh it out together as a band in a rehearsal. More recently though, we’ve been writing a lot more together as a band which has been a great experience. “What’s Your Name Again?” was one of those songs that we wrote together, and it came together pretty quickly!

We have a great time recording, but we don’t really like to waste our studio time. We tend to have the songs ready to record well before we get into the studio, so I find we get a lot done in the limited time we have. Having the songs 80–90% of the way there helps us to know what we’re doing and to just do it, but we also make sure that we’re open to changes where they’re needed. In our last studio session I think we’d recorded three songs in two and a bit days, which was a bit chockers but great fun too!

What do you think makes a great song?

I don’t think there’s a formula to it really, but I think the ability to remember a song is a key factor in a song being great. If you can whistle a guitar solo, hum the main melody, drum the fills with your hands on your steering wheel while you’re driving, or remember a couple of words, I think that makes a song great.

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

I’ve always thought that working with Johnny Marr would be very cool. He’s a big inspiration to me as a guitarist and anything he’s touched has turned to gold. As a Man Utd fan, I’d have to forgive him for being a big Man City supporter which might be a hurdle!

When not working on music, what other creative outlet/s do you have?

As part of a uni class I did a couple of years ago, I had to create a piece of literature about the theme of place and home. So I chose to write some poetry about Perth, and I’ve been writing poems ever since that basically tack onto the back of that assessment. The poems mainly focus on how the city has changed over the years.

I don’t know if it gets a bit naff, because I find myself getting nostalgic about lamp-posts that have been removed and fading neon lights in front of kebab shops and stuff like that. But if I’m going through a period where I’m not writing songs, or I need a break from writing music, I tend to add a couple of lines to that project.

Who are some local bands we should check out?

Ughhhhhh there’s so many! How could you make me choose like this??? I think Perth and WA are doing an unbelievable amount of the heavy lifting in the Aus music scene right now. We’ve got bands like Dice, Old Mervs and South Summit that are just tearing it up, and there’s hundreds more who are working the underground who are just as good!

CNTR are a dance/electronic band out of Perth that are unbelievably cool. We’ve played with them a few times, and they’ve played with us at a single launch show earlier this year — it won’t be long until they blow up.

Anna Schneider is definitely an artist you should check out if you’re into your thoughtful indie-folk. Meaningful lyrics, delicate melodies, an all-round great time. She’s just released a new EP earlier this month!

Koi Pond has been a favourite for a while too! We’ve been lucky to gig with them a couple of times and they just don’t miss! Well worth a listen if you get the chance.

Winter or summer and why?

Winter. Because when you’re cold you can just keep adding layers. When you’re too hot, there’s only so many layers you can take off before you’re given a date in front of the magistrate.

What do you have planned for the rest of 2025?

We’ve got a couple more singles ready to go that we’re looking to release later this year or early next, and hopefully we’ll go back into the studio to record some more material for release next year. We’ve got a few cool support gigs in the pipeline also, so it should be a decent end to the year!

Thanks for the chat guys! It’s been great talking xx

Interviewsaustralianmusicscene10 October 2025