A Quick Chat With Tickets To Space

Tickets to Space look to the future with wide-eyed optimism on True, a rough-edged indie surf-rock track about finding happiness in the simple things. The Meanjin/Brisbane band pair wiry guitars and roaring vocals with a punk-leaning chorus, turning thoughts of love, friendship, family and growing up into something raucous and carefree.

Following their debut single Uncovered and a sold-out launch for You Know Where I’ll Be Tonight, True marks another exciting step for the young band, capturing the kind of youthful energy that makes the future feel full of possibility.

We caught up with Tickets to Space frontman Fraser Stott to talk about True, the story behind 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?

I wrote True when I realised how much I want the people who are around me now, to be around me in the future. Friends and relationships change but we all hope we’ll have certain people around us forever. I wrote it really quickly before work one day with a gentle, mellow indie start leading into a harsh punk chorus because our drummer Luca is also in a punk band with his brother, so I was just trying to put my own spin on that and write in the style of indie pop punk. It’s so much fun to sing True live because of the contrast between verses one and two because it starts out so slow, then breaks into a massive bouncy post-chorus and then a huge burst of energy that carries through to the end of the song. The second the big punk chorus breaks in it gets everyone on their feet, we love it and the crowd loves it.

Who are some of your influences, and why?

So we all love Spacey Jane, Ocean Alley, the Terrys, Old Mervs, DICE, we do a mind-blowing Backseat Lovers cover of Kilby Girl “I overhead that she was 19” always goes off, but we also really are getting into our Brisbane scene because all our locals are awesome. Bottlebug at Felon’s in June was the best gig I’ve been to all year, although to be fair we are seeing Spacey Jane at the Opera House in December soooo… that might change, haha. We also love Dallow in Brisbane, Chamber Lane, Sierra, Ruby Flowers, Cherry Lane, Elysium, Colleen Ave, Rodney Starfish, Laurel Hill, Clay Pigeons, Loose Goose, Vlads of course, I met him at the Bottlebug gig, and sooo many others. We have a really healthy scene in Brisbane. The Gold Coast scene is really good too, venues like Mo’s, Eddies and we’ve played the Cooly Hotel a few times for Riffs for a Reason and had a great time with the bands down there.

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

I just like turning my thoughts into songs, just how aspects of what I think about become a melody in my head, and then I play around with riffs on the guitar and it starts to rhyme or work somehow.

I mostly write about the everyday stuff of life and whatever is in my head. I’ve written a new song for uni this week about wishing your neighbours were away so you could play loud music with your mates, I wrote a new song last month called Slow Down that has been going absolutely off at our gigs, and I’ve got a few new indie pop songs in the pipeline too. I need more time to pour into music but like everyone I have work, uni and gigs so there’s not much free time. I’ve also been laying the tracks for our 4th single coming out this year, called Destination Undefined, which I wrote about just the joy of driving the highway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast, with no real plan other than to go to the beach.

What do you think makes a great song?

For me the most important part of the process is getting the structure right. It has to flow and make sense, and have a proper bridge. I love all songs, but it frustrates me when a song doesn’t flow or I can see a better structure in my head. I feel like songwriting is the part of music that I love the best. Singing is incredible too, being on stage is awesome and big crowds are a huge rush, but none of it means anything without the songs. Writing songs is the best, I just write what I think and what I feel. I’ve been writing sings since I was maybe 12? I have around 30 songs on Spotify and I get new ideas every day.

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

Locally I’d say Bottlebug and Suubi from Vlads. We all write similar stuff in similar ways, a guitar on the couch, and I think they’d be great to work with. Also the Terrys, I had major fomo from their regional tour. And No Cigar whose track we named our band after, and of course Spacey Jane and also DICE. A lot of our tracks that are coming out are in those sorts of styles, but really we would bloody work with anyone. We are a year old and this weekend we are playing our 25th gig out of 52 weekends so call us and we’ll be there. We’re young and enthusiastic and we’re good like that.

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

I’ve got a piano musical called Old in the background, but haven’t had much time for that for ages. But if you locked me in a room with Tim Minchin and Lin Manuel Miranda it would be sensational. My non-musical outlet is my two part time jobs and exercise. I swam competitively for 15 years but had to give it up because 4am starts do not go well with midnight gigs.

Who are some local bands we should check out?

All of the ones above. Plus Buttermello from the sunny coast, we just supported them at Felon’s a couple of weeks ago and we were so grateful for that gig, it was incredibly fun. Any Riffs for a Reason gig that you can get to – go – because lots of the bands at those gigs are starting out and sounding great. There is a lot of talent in south east qld with not much publicity behind it.

Winter or summer and why?

Summer every time. Not even a question. We are Queenslanders.

What do you have planned for the rest of 2026?

Now that our third single is out, we are uploading our fourth one next week then having a month off to focus on uni assignments because everyone has put so much time into the band. In November we’re planning a mini-tour, we hope, because we’re desperate to play the Airlie Beach Festival of Music from 6-8 Nov so if we get that chance, we’ll drive home and play anywhere we can all the way down the coast. We have singles stacked up one after the other, so much music coming out, so the 5th one might be out for Christmas. And we’ll focus a bit more on bigger gigs and maybe jag a festival. We do play a good live gig so just want to do more and more of that really.

Interviewsaustralianmusicscene11 September 2026