The Ketamines is a wild ride from start to finish. What was the spark that inspired the song?

Our songs often involve flawed characters, and The Ketamines is no different: a young dumbass out on the town, out of his depth, messing with the wrong chemicals and unravelling. The song is a fun take on the misguided and absurd confidence associated with party drugs.

The track balances humour, chaos and catchy hooks. How do you know when you've found the right mix of comedy and great songwriting?

We work really hard on song structure and melody, but humour is always the starting point of a Phil and The Blanks song. If the idea doesn't make us crack up, we tend not to bother with it.

We've always liked music that you might call "good dumb" (The Ramones, early Beastie Boys, LMFAO, etc.). We reckon music can still make a point without being too serious.

Your bio takes plenty of shots at yourselves. Is self-deprecation part of the band's DNA?

We created Phil and The Blanks as a fun side project from our other music projects. From day one, we promised ourselves that we would aim to do all the things that the music industry seems to dislike: shit names, shit outfits, shit dance moves, pathetic jokes, and a confusing mix of styles.

It was intended as a low-rent party to celebrate the death of the music industry, but, much to our surprise, our efforts clocked up a few wins in our first year. That being said, we constantly have to remind ourselves that Phil and The Blanks is a fucked band in a fucked industry (and we love that).

Phil and The Blanks pull influences from everywhere, from Smash Mouth and Weezer through to OutKast. Who are the biggest musical influences behind The Ketamines?

Our biggest song (so far), GOOD BOY, is a real homage to early 2000s pop rock/punk, but we all have a big love of pure pop, mainly due to the fact that we grew up on a diet of So Fresh compilation CDs.

The Ketamines is our highly ignorant attempt at a techno/rock hybrid. It probably sounds fucking ridiculous and will probably cause a few purist beatheads to choke on their Red Bull, but it's a fun song and it really goes off live.

Since launching in 2025, you've already clocked up some impressive streaming numbers. Has anything surprised you about the response so far?

Phil and The Blanks was principally designed for fun, and we have to constantly remind ourselves not to get carried away by things like streaming numbers.

GOOD BOY is at 2.5 million streams without any editorial playlist support, and that spins us out. Our most enthusiastic fans tend to be from overseas too (USA, Canada and the UK), probably because (unlike us Aussies) they're not as embarrassed to support a band wearing Lowes fishing shirts and Dunlop Volleys.

If listeners take away one thing after hearing The Ketamines, what do you hope it is?

All we really want is for people to hear the song and say: "Who the fuck are these guys, and where can I get some of those wonky-looking sunnies?"